much-needed boost. The SWT is also aware of 35 elephant calves born to orphaned elephants they have reintegrated, showing the impact rescuing a single orphaned elephant can have for the creation of future generations.
“In other areas where the SWT maintains its Saving Habitats project and regular De-Snaring Patrols – such as the Kibwezi Forest – the Trust has recorded zero incidences of poaching,” Amie highlights.
In 2019 alone, the Trust attended to 651 sick or injured wild animals across Kenya and, since the inception of its mobile veterinary teams, the SWT has treated more than 2,500 injured elephants in Kenya – that’s 7% of its estimated elephant population. Many of these injuries have been inflicted by humans including snares, spears and arrow and gun-shot wounds incurred during poaching attempts or human-wildlife conflict incidents.
Lastly, through its Aerial and ground teams, the SWT is working hard to prevent humanwildlife conflict and, every year, responds to calls from communities to guide wild elephants off community land and back into protected areas. These operations help prevent crop-raiding by elephants and retaliatory killings by communities, whose livelihoods can be lost in a single night of crop-raiding.
The SWT has also played a pivotal role in reducing bushmeat poaching, especially in the Tsavo Conservation Area, seizing/ removing 159,239
2020 In 2020, the SWT is expanding its Saving Habitats through a partnership with Kari Ranch (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute). This is a 64,000 acre of land spread across the foothills of the Chyulu Hills and we are fencing in one side of the Ranch to protect both communities that live on its border and the healthy populations of elephants and black rhinos that live within. “In 2020, the SWT will continue to identify opportunities to better protect wildlife, working with local partners to enhance our footprint,” Aimie concludes. COMPANY ADDRESS: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Copyright The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
EMAIL: info@sheldrickwildlifetrust.org snares and traps. Considering each snare can be re-laid to trap animals hundreds of times, the life-saving potential of confiscating just a single snare is huge. The impact of these De-Snaring patrols can be seen most clearly in the Northern Sector of Tsavo East National Park where poaching once decimated small animal populations and caused elephants to flee the area. Now, however, it’s not unknown for herds of 100+ of elephants to congregate around the Trust’s Ithumba Reintegration Unit!
WEBSITE: https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/
Copyright The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust _ Mia Collis
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