Aerial Report May 2019

AERIAL SURVEILLANCE UNIT MONTHLY REPORT

MAY 2019

AERIAL STATISTICS

HOURS FLOWN

KMS COVERED

AREAS PATROLLED

MAY 2019

113

13,552

Tsavo East, Tsavo West, Chyulus, KARI Ranch, Mbulia Ranch, Kishushe Ranch, Amu Ranch

MAY 2019

MONTHLY AERIAL PATROL MAP

MONTHLY AERIAL SUMMARY Throughout May, the Aerial Unit was occupied primarily with cases of human-wildlife conflict in the communities surrounding the Tsavo Conservation Area. The helicopter attended to a total of 11 separate HWC callouts; some of these instances involved the fixed wing aircrafts scouting ahead to first locate the problem herds of elephant. Typically, the biggest number of these cases are in January as the November-December rains come to an end; however, this year the main rains largely failed and what rain was received came late with only localised storms, which is likely what is responsible for this change in behaviour.

Moving elephants back into protected areas is challenging work. The helicopter is often flying very low and in addition to keeping track of the elephants, must avoid obstacles. To make matters worse, elephants must be carefully guided through populated areas, without endangering their lives or those of people on the ground.

Fortunately, there was very little illegal activity sighted during the month of May. 9 charcoal kilns were observed from the air; only 2 of these were inside the Parks, whilst the others were all on ranches bordering the Park.

A fixed wing aircraft was called out to respond to a possible gunshot that was heard in Tsavo West, near the Tanzania border, but after a thorough search of the area, nothing was found. There were also livestock and livestock enclosures discovered in the process and coordinates of these were supplied to KWS for further action.

Only one elephant carcass was discovered in May and it was an old carcass with ivory still intact, believed to have died from natural causes. Two elephants were also treated during the month with help from the Aerial Unit. On one occasion, an ex-orphan returned to the Ithumba stockade with an arrow wound. The vet was immediately collected from Voi by one of the fixed wings and the elephant was later treated with assistance from the helicopter. One other wild elephant was discovered with a cable snare and several arrow-wounds and darted from the helicopter and treated successfully.

The veterinarian gave both elephants a good prognosis. Despite regular patrols, including helicopter-deployed foot patrols by our K9 unit, no fresh poaching activity was found. This is an encouraging sign and a trend that we hope continues even as things start to dry off.

Another success story during the month was the rescue of the two little buffalo calves. One calf was picked up from Gazi by the SWT helciopter pilot and the other one came from Mtito by vehicle; both are now in good hands at Kaluku.

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Photographs copyright © 2019 The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust