Elephants Without Borders just completed flying a mammoth aerial survey, counting elephants and wildlife species throughout northern Botswana… The information on elephant and wildlife numbers, distribution, movements, and demographic characteristics from this study will be incorporated into population models to better understand a variety of research and management questions relating to wildlife ecology and conservation management

A few years is but a snapshot in an elephant’s life and we felt because of the uniqueness of her story, we had much to learn from Rainbow Spirit. So it was decided to redeploy a second satellite collar on her, enabling us to study her long-time movements.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari call it the Mongongo.. observations noted with pleasure, are areas where the diminishing Mongongo Tree has managed to survive, flourish and are in full, glorious bloom.

One cannot ignore the immediate urgency of the relentless anticipation of waiting for the rains… If it is quite intolerable for us people, it’s hard to imagine how it must be for the wildlife in some regions… recently flying and observing the herds and movements of the various species have given us opportunity to witness their response and reactions to the environmental conditions.

With a shake of her massive head, she quickly moved around the vehicle, leading another 30 elephants behind her. Dust filled our nostrils, ears and eyes, but we kept them wide-open, anxiously looking through the haze for more. We realized we weren’t on the edge of the corridor, we were right in the middle of it!

Taking pride in Botswana and our national parks, we decided to ensure that the banks were clean and no harm would come to wildlife due to the deposited debris.

The elephant range in Botswana has expanded by 65%, during the last 15 years. Using our aerial survey and telemetry data from 55 collared elephants we estimate the current elephant range in northern Botswana to be…

The Okavango panhandle is a unique area… a system where wildlife, in particular elephants, and people struggle to live within a confined area.The purpose of the survey is to answer pertinent questions as to the area’s population of elephants, their growth rate, their limited movements, an insight to human-elephant conflict in the region, and to potentially be able to put forward various management options to relieve elephant compression and their conflict with people.

We had decided to focus on large bulls, as they are becoming a rarity seen in the Chobe water front area. Young bulls and breeding herds are plentiful, but we would like to learn more about the random, larger bulls that occasionally come to the river.

Kachikau’s death is tragic and sadly unnecessary. The issues surrounding the incident are extremely complex, but they threaten African elephants throughout the continent.