Kenyan elephants have been sending text messages to local park rangers warning them that they are heading towards the crops of neighboring villages! Elephants at the Ol Pejeta conservancy have been fitted with mobile phone SIM cards in their collars that automatically send text messages if they head to local villages. Male elephants, which are nearly extinct, have previously raided villagers’ crops during harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at once.
As a result, the Kenya Wildlife Service has reluctantly had to shoot five animals that have been particularly persistent. But now a virtual fence has been installed using a global positioning system that reflects the boundaries of the conservatory.
Kimani is one of the male elephants with a SIM card. Every time he approaches the virtual fence, his collar sends a text message to the rangers, who can stop him by using spotlights to scare him off. Kimani has been intercepted 15 times since the project began. Once almost a night raider, the last time he was anywhere near a farmer’s field was four months ago.
The idea, dreamed up by the group Save the Elephants, is now a great relief for small farmers who depend on their crops for food and money to pay for school fees.
Basila Mwasu, a 31-year-old mother of two, lives near the conservation fence. Once, an elephant stuck her trunk through a window in a room where her little daughter was sleeping and the family had stored some corn. She was forced to hit him with a burning stick. On another occasion, one of the elephants killed a neighbor who was defending her farm. “We had to go into town to tell the rangers to chase the elephants away or we would kill them all.” Mwasu said.
The founder of the Save the Elephants project, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, said the project is still in its infancy and is not without its problems. The batteries in the collar wear out every few years and with Ol Pejeta having five full-time employees and a backup vehicle to respond when a message appears on a ranger’s screen, the project has been very expensive. However, it is a great success, as the villagers now feel safe.
“We can live together,” Mwasu said.
“Elephants have the right to live, and we also have the right to live,” he added.