Yirmed Demeke

Director, WSD 

A project entitled “Development of Management Plan, Community-based Wildlife Conservation and Ecotourism Development in Babille Elephant Sanctuary and Adjacent Localities, Ethiopia” has been carried out by the Wildlife for Sustainable Development (WSD) in collaboration with the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) as of March 2008. Most project activities have been carried out as per the initial plan. The project is financially supported by the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Center through the Forum for Environment as fund holding institution.

Sand bathing of bachelor bulls in Upper Gobele Valley, Babille ES.

Major activities that the project has undertaken are:

1. Re-defining the boundaries of the Sanctuary,

2. Producing a comprehensive Sanctuary Management Plan,

3. Developing ecotourism through community participation,

4. Developing capacity of the Sanctuary, local communities, and the WSD,

5. Providing the detail accounts of elephants’ home range through GPS satellite telemetry, and

6. Reducing the rate of loss of wildlife habitats and minimizing the illegal killing of elephants.

The development of ecotourism particularly on elephants of Babille ES supported by the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite telemetry has started its service. The project deployed satellite collars on three bulls and satellite data have began received from collared elephants since August 2008.

Latest made collars manufactured by the DATA SCOUT in South Africa were used. So far, the collars have provided indispensable data. Such satellite-based elephant tracking is the first successful project in Ethiopia.

"Goliath", the 1^st "Satellite Elephant" on 18 August 2008.

"Big Daddy" wore this GPS collar on 1 September 2008.

This ongoing project will be essential in monitoring GPS-collared elephants both from the air and from the ground. Collared elephants have been tracked from the ground using a VHF radio transmitter and a handheld GPS. Using these latter approaches we can work on population demography and some behavioral studies by approaching to the elephants.

Right-tusked, height at shoulder 3.67 m, 1 September 2008.

Why tracking elephants using GPS satellite telemetry?

This part of the project is among the major components of our initiatives in the national elephant conservation and management in Ethiopia. Satellite tracking of elephants has many advantages, including for management intervention:

To promote wildlife tourism - Efforts have been made to initiate wildlife-based ecotourism particularly on elephants since the inception of this project. In Ethiopia, most people wish to see elephants but making this possible was very difficult because of the lack of information on the location of elephants. Now, it has come to the reality that Babille has become the only conservation area in Ethiopia where elephant tourism can be initiated. Such satellite-based tracking of elephants will be starting in December 2008.

 Bachelor bulls under fig trees.

Networking of data receving and processing. 

To understand the movement/ranging patterns of elephants - the data will help the management authorities in reconsidering the existing land-use system in the surrounding area.

 Movement data for all bulls from 18 Aug. - 07 Nov. 2008: Red - Right-tusked, Blue - Goliath, Green - Big Daddy.

 To understand the spatial use of habitats and associated disturbances to elephants - The spatial use of elephants over such areas can also be characterized.
 
To prepare Sanctuary Management Plan - A well organized management plan will be prepared for the sanctuary based on the knowledge of the seasonal home range of elephants and with clear understanding about the present land use system.

To alleviate human-elephant conflict - Once we know the daily and seasonal movement of elephants, it is possible to reduce the impact of elephant raids on crops and villages adjacent to the Sanctuary. Based on the location received from the collared animals, it is also possible to pass satellite-based early warning messages to the sanctuary neighboring agriculturalists, whose crops are subjected to raiding by elephants.

At present the position of collared elephants has been recorded every hour but we will change this at 4 hours reading per day (six positions per 24 hours) and these will continue for a minimum of two years.

 Daily location of bulls in yellow on Google Earth.