July 2022: Elephant Studies in the Greater Kruger National Park

$600 donated by WWA via our main sponsor Rae Safaris and their clients to the Elephant Population Dynamics Project, Greater Kruger

Elephants Alive has developed an identification database consisting of over 2,000 elephants by documenting their unique features. They specialize in identifying individual elephants by their sex, ear patterns (tears, notches, holes) and the shape of their tusks.

This ongoing long-term study began 25 years ago and helps researchers and conservationists to understand the complexities of the social bonds between elephants and better estimate population size based on the proportion of known individuals recorded over time. These studies also play a most important role in the identification of elephants that cause problems to local communities by tearing down fences and raiding crops. The studies assist Rangers to organise specific individual management for these elephants to mitigate unnecessary broad scale responses against all elephants in those areas.

Our main sponsor, Rae Safaris, was delighted to take a group of clients from the USA to attend a day of amazingly informative lectures given by some of the Elephants Alive researchers, led by WWA Management Team member Dr Kelly George and associates from her company Kuzo. This helped to cement the special relationship between WWA and our American supporters and contributes to this most professional and worthy cause.