Trophy Hunting of the Amboseli Males

by Cynthia Moss

Nine months have passed since the Amboseli male, Gilgil, was killed by trophy hunters in the West Kilimanjaro area of Tanzania. His carcass was burned in an effort to stop us from identifying him. Since then four more big males from the cross-border population have been killed. All were either burned or buried. 

The whole basis of choosing the Amboseli elephants for a long-term study was that it was a population which was still relatively natural. The elephants had never been heavily poached, and they were still able to move freely in the Amboseli ecosystem using migratory trails that had been in existence for centuries. Our goal was to get baseline information on the ecology, demography, social organization, and social behavior of this natural population with the aim that the knowledge would aid in the conservation of all elephant populations. 

X004, recently named Adonis, one of the most likely targets of

the trophy hunters in Tanzania

Fifty-one years later, much of what we now know about African elephants has resulted from the Amboseli study. We are still learning. We are still collecting data on a natural population. Fortunately, the elephants continue to range across much of the original ecosystem. Part of that ecosystem has been and continues to be in northern Tanzania. 

Singling out male elephants with large tusks takes away the natural elements of competition and survivorship, allowing younger, less tested, perhaps less vigorous males to reproduce. A population that is hunted becomes unnatural because humans are choosing who should pass on his genes and who should not, who should live and who should die. 

We contend that no elephants from this important, invaluable study population should be killed. A new hunting quota for elephants will be issued by Tanzania next month and we believe it will be at least five more for the cross-border area. My team and I, plus our colleagues at ElephantVoices and Big Life Foundation continue to fight for Amboseli’s magnificent males. We won’t give up until they’re safe.

Like Us, Elephants Have Names Too!

by Joyce Poole, Petter Granli and Selengei Poole-Granli

Our groundbreaking new collaborative study has shown that African savanna elephants address one another by name, rather like we do. During the fieldwork, our team recorded vocalizations from individually known wild African elephants from two different populations in Kenya. ElephantVoices recorded in Amboseli National Park, where the Amboseli Trust for Elephants has studied elephants for five decades, and the Colorado State University team recorded in the Samburu National Reserve, where Save the Elephants has its main research base. The ultimate dataset comprised 469 distinct calls from which 101 unique callers and 117 unique receivers were identified. Using machine learning we uncovered that elephants address each other with unique calls, termed ‘vocal labels.’ Our study offers unprecedented insights into animal cognition and the evolution of language and was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution earlier this month. 

Over the years, we often observed a particular elephant’s contact call answered excitedly by one family member, yet a second contact call was answered by a different elephant. Meanwhile, the rest of the family might disregard the calling individual altogether. Being intelligent, socially complex animals, I have long wondered whether elephants are able to address one another by name. This study, using machine learning, shows they can! 

Grace, on the left with mouth open, calling or possibly

answering someone who has called her name

Since elephants cannot be born knowing names of other family members, these must be learned or created. We know from our earlier work that elephants are capable of vocal learning - imitating the voices of other species and even machines - and they are also capable of producing novel sounds. We long wondered how they might use this ability in their daily lives. Now we know that they create names to refer to one another. Perhaps they also refer to places they want to go! The discovery has implications for elephant cognition since inventing or learning to address one another suggests that elephants have the capacity for some degree of symbolic thought.

Our discovery would not have been possible without the long-term study and monitoring of the Amboseli elephant population by Cynthia Moss and the ATE team, and the Samburu elephant population by Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the STE team. Years of dedication is required to follow, name, and know individual elephants and we are so grateful to these two incredible scientific teams. 

We hope these findings will pave the way for a deeper understanding of elephant communication, providing invaluable insights for their conservation and protection.

The History of the BB Family - Updated

There are currently 65 elephant families in the Amboseli population. The number keeps growing because parts of families break off to form new families. It is a healthy sign for the population. I have been posting histories of the families for the last 14 years. I decided that the early histories needed updating. In the last issue of the news I updated the AA family. In this issue, the BB family is featured.

I first met the BB family on October 20, 1973.  My colleague Harvey Croze and I were struck by the family immediately because it was led by a huge, tuskless female who had the biggest ears I have ever seen on an elephant.  The family was very distinctive. Not only was there this magnificent, big tuskless, but there was also a second tuskless female, a one-tusked female, and a tuskless calf.  It looked like this was going to be very easy family to get know and start collecting data on.  

As it turned out there was a certain amount of confusion about this “double tuskless” family. To read the full history Click Here.

Barnaby, now 40 years old and the son of Belinda, inherited the

huge head and ears of the BB family.

Ecoscope Workshop & HECx Meeting 

Dr Lydia Tiller attended a three-day workshop in Amboseli, along with the EarthRanger Development team and ecologists and conservation practitioners from around Kenya, to discuss an exciting new data analytics tool called Ecoscope.

Ecoscope is a set of holistic data analysis tools being developed to enhance capacity to interact with conservation data. The Ecoscope platform will radically improve the ability of researchers and protected area management to quickly engage with their data and to generate meaningful outputs.

This workshop was a key step in the advancement of Ecoscope, as there were in-depth discussions on: (1) the different data analytics and reporting needs of wildlife practitioners; (2) data analytics currently being used, stumbling points in reporting, data inefficiencies and challenges; (3) the latest advancements in wildlife analytics and how these could be used in Ecoscope; (4) key development steps for the advancement of Ecoscope.

ATE is proud to be one of the initial partners identified for implementation of Ecoscope.

Career Symposium at Karatina University

On April 30th, Dr Lydia Tiller and Tal Manor from the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) team participated in a symposium organized by Save the Elephants at Karatina University.

The event was an excellent opportunity to engage with over 200 students, providing them with insights from our Conservation Career Development Workshops.

During the symposium, we offered valuable guidance on producing professional CVs and cover letters, and equipping students with essential skills for entering the job market. Additionally, we shared details about our work at ATE, alongside presentations from other wildlife organizations from different parts of Kenya.

The event featured contributions from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Mpala Research Centre, Grevy's Zebra Trust, Space for Giants, East Africa Wildlife Society, Born Free Foundation, and Ewaso Lions, all of which are dedicated to wildlife conservation and education.

We extend our gratitude to Save the Elephants for organizing this significant event and to Karatina University for their warm welcome and hospitality.

We greatly appreciate our top donors who contributed during the second quarter of 2024. Your support is very important to us. With it we can continue to follow the Amboseli elephant families and the independent males, learning more about them every year.

Doug Aja

Harvey Anderson

Eileen Broomall

Diane Cutler

Garland Family Foundation

Greta Hillin

Brian and Cynthia LeFevre

David Middleton

Washburn Charitable Foundation

Nick Wild