While we're on the subject of elephants...

As I mentioned in my last post, the elephants in the Okavango Delta of Botswana have a hope of protecting their new little pink addition because there is ample shade and plenty of mud. However, in the dry season between April and October, water becomes scarcer as the area dries up, and the elephants have to migrate to permenant water sources, such as the Moremi Games Reserve. This will be a trying time for the albino baby elephant, as for the rest of the herd. If you have seen the documentary Earth, I'm sure you can't forget the heart-wrenching story of the elephants that became separated from the rest of the migrating herd in the arid dustbowl of the Sub-Sahara, and ended up trekking back in the opposite direction, headed towards certain death. These were also elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta.

I have just been informed by a reader who came across my last post that further to the northwest, in Mali, the elephants face an annual migration route that covers an area of 24,000 square kilometers called the Gourma region. The herds follow a route of approximately 450 to 600 staggering kilometers (280 - 375 miles) in their trek from one water source to the next- the longest of migration of any elephant herd on earth. You can see a fascinating map here of the migration trail of three separate herds, tracked by tagging a member of the herd and tracking the elephant via satellite by the Save the Elephants Foundation.

Compounding the already difficult migration is the fact that several formerly nomadic tribes of Mali have been encouraged by government subsidies to settle permenantly and begin raising crops. Obviously the best places for this would be around the available water sources in the area. Furthermore, to raise crops you need water, which also has to be sourced from these same lakes and marshes. So the demand of these precious resources is now much greater, leaving less to go around for the migrating elephant herds, as well as more obstacles (ie, human settlements) in their path to their dwindling water supply.

And that's not all: because of this great migration, tourism to view the elephants is on the rise, yet there is no eco-tourism policy as yet initiated.

It's a classic case of human versus wildlife conflict. This issue is broad and complex, and sounds like a dire situation, but luckily several organisations have copped on and have begun a massive effort to solve the problem before it gets any worse. The WILD Foundation has joined up with the Save the Elephants Foundation, the Environment and Development Group (UK), the Africa Parks Foundation (Netherlands) and Mali’s Direction Nationale de la Conservation de la Nature with funding from the US State Department and Agency for International Development to help protect and sustain this amazing herd.

Phase I (research, field data, tracking the elephants' routes as well as seeing how human settlements have affected the herds) was completed in 2006, and in 2007 they started Phase II: using the information of the herd composition and migration routes to avoid human/wildlife conflict and to form a strategy for herd conservation. Another important part of Phase II, which should be completed by the end of this year, is outreach to local communities- always a crucial factor if any animal rights campaign is to succeed.

Normally conservation campaigns are a matter of looking back at what has gone wrong in human/wildlife conflicts and then trying to make the best of a bad situation. The amazing thing about this project is that someone had the foresight to see a potential problem on the horizon, and began the steps necessary to solve the issue before the issue really became a problem. This project must be lauded as The Right Way to handle a situation with positive outcomes for both animals and people. If only more disasters were averted this way.

You can donate to the WILD Foundation's Mali Elephant Project here.

And read more (and see more photos) about the Mali Elephants here:
Africa Geographic article about the Mali elephants
Diary of Conservation Photographer Carlton Ward while on Mali elephant project in Phase I (2004)