‘Intelligent’ African Elephants Using Google Earth and Cellphone Text to Report Own Truancy

‘Intelligent’ elephants in Africa are getting tech-savvy and are using cellphone text messages to report their own encroachment on farms in a novel experiment local conservationists believe will help avoid human-wildlife conflict.

Rangers at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya are getting accustomed to blips on their phones each time an elephant attempts to cross a virtual ‘fence’ that triggers an automatic text signal using Google Earth software.

AP reports that SIM cards on elephants’ global positioning system (GPS) collars beam messages to rangers on duty whenever they approach the “geo-fence” that mirrors the 90,000 acre Ol Pejeta Conservatory’s boundaries. The rangers then use spotlights to frighten the elephants back inside the protected area.

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A jumbo’s measured proximity to the virtual fence sets off the texts which are received at base prompting the rangers to spring into action. An African savanna elephant can weigh up to 7 tons ((15,400 lb) and walk at a ‘normal’ speed of about 6 km/h (about 4 mph) and can charge at up to 40 km/h (25 mph).

Males, or bulls, may reach 4m (13ft) in height. Females, or cows, are shorter, averaging 2.8m (9 ft) in height, but weigh considerably less, about 3,600 kg (7,900 lb).

Conservationists reckon this is the first time texting is being used in conservation in a way that protects both a human population and endangered wildlife. Elephants are very menacing crop raiders and could destroy anything on their path on such outings including trample on humans.

Elephant conservation in Kenya is a costly affair and the state-funded Kenya Wildlife Service has grappled with difficulties in managing the threatened jumbo populations. Elephants remain on the endangered list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Local farmers are now spared the hassles of lighting bonfires and banging plates and cooking pots trying to scare the animals that occasionally invade their farms or wander out of the conservancy in search of water.

But wildlife rangers have been forced to shoot and kill menacing elephants while trying to avoid marauding raids by jumbos on homes and farmlands that neighbor wildlife protection areas.

Wildlife officials have admitted one notorious jumbo has been intercepted more than 15 times since inauguration of the Google-collaborated project that is run by the Save the Elephants charity.

The project, however, is proving even more important in terms of conservation and security. The GPS tracking has also considerably helped to prevent poaching, and now rangers know where to deploy resources at the shortest distance within the quickest time.

Image credit: Alex Coles at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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