Elephant Protection
Rangers patrol 24/7 protecting elephants and other wildlife and
mitigating human/elephant conflict
Elephant Aware employs Masai Rangers who patrol the vast and often challenging terrain to protect elephants and other wildlife. Teams of Rangers monitor herds of moving elephants while examining the landscape for signs of ivory poachers. Working 24/7, they remove traps and snares and prevent human-elephant-conflict by maintaining positive relationships with their community. The economic consequences of COVID 19 has severely impacted this area of Africa. As Gini Cowell states in the following article, there would be no hope without wildlife and there would be no wildlife without rangers. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8939909aae2c4d43bf29d1fe8d4b84d1
Community Outreach
An important focus of the work of Elephant Aware is mitigation of human-elephant conflict. A mutual form of respect has existed between the Maasai and the Elephant for centuries. In the past the Maasai people were nomadic, moving their herds every few weeks. Today, nomadism has been replaced by land ownership which has subdivided the land into permanent settlements. Lack of habitat connectivity squeezes elephants into smaller areas, inevitably leading to confrontations with people as the animals try to move from one island of settlements to another. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2016/06/06/elephants-and-the-maasai-culture-todays-problems-tomorrows-solutions/
Wildlife Security: A Key Initiative of Elephant Aware
Snares are indiscriminate killers of all animals, large and small. When an animal inadvertently walks into a wire trap, the mechanism tightens around their leg or trunk causing a slow, painful death . The rangers locate and remove snares and coordinate with veterinarian teams to treat severely injured animals. https://africageographic.com/stories/the-horror-of-snares/