Ten years ago, the N.C. Zoo partnered with the World Wildlife Fund in
Cameroon to try to stop a war that had broken out between a herd of 250
elephants and their human neighbors. The battles raged during the rainy
season, when the herd left Waza National Park to feed on fresh grasses
inside a forest about 60 miles to the South. All was fine until that
grass was gone and the herd headed back toward Waza.
The elephants always took the long way home, wandering from one
farm to the next to feast on millet. Farmers and whole villages rallied
to stop the raids, which often left entire fields and families in ruins.
The clashes were deadly. By migration’s end, 20
elephants would be dead and 10 people would be dead or injured. Crop
losses would amount to tens-of-thousands of dollars—and angry people
would be clamoring for justice and for protection from the elephants.
With a few thousand dollars from donations to the N.C. Zoo Society, the
Zoo's cheif veterinarian worked with local biologists to find a solution to the problem.
Together, they affix
satellite tracking collars to a few of the herd's dominate females. The
collars tell us where the herd is moving, so we know when to send park
rangers out to divert it away from farmlands. The location information also shows us where to
concentrate local security forces to help them capture poachers. We
even know which places we need to protect for elephants in the future.
After 10 years, this Waza Project has reduce elephant deaths to only one a
year. Human deaths and injuries have all but disappeared. Crop
losses have fallen by 60 percent. We have regained the trust of local
people, and local communities have started to help us protect elephants
again.
The program worked in Waza, and we have replicated its successes around other Cameroon parks, too.
Your donation will help the Zoo continue the work it started 10 years
ago -- and expand the program to help more elephants and more
communities across Cameroon.
To get a more detailed understanding of this project, visit
Field Trip
Earth, a Web site the Society sponsors so that school children and
interested adults can shadow the work of field conservationists as they
work in the wild to save endangered.
If you can afford to give a donation of $500 or more, we will invite
you to a special luncheon and tour this spring. At the luncheon, you
can meet our Chief Veterinarian, Dr. Mike Loomis, and Dr. Martain
Tchamba, the head of the World Wildlife Fund in Cameroon, to hear more
details about the program. Dr. Loomis will also take you on a tour of
the Zoo's Veterinary Hospital.
Click here to support the Elephants of Cameroon.
Last modified
02/24/2008 01:58pm.
