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Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Africa Unscrambled: Elephants under attack

By Steve Bloomfield

While the International Fund for Animal Welfare warns that the slaughter of elephants is funding the killing of humans, there are more traditional fears for the survival of elephants in Kenya's Amboseli region. On Richard Leakey's authoritative blog, one of the world's most knowledgeable elephants experts, Cynthia Moss, reveals that 14 elephants have been speared in Amboseli since the start of the year.

This highlights a problem that Kenya has never really got to grips with. Elephants are one of the main tourist attractions in the Amboseli National Reserve - keeping them safe maintains high visitor numbers (post-election violence aside).

But some local Masai villagers aren't so keen on having large numbers of elephants. Their cattle need land and water - both of which are in short supply. In the 1980s tens of thousands of elephants were killed in Kenya for their ivory. Since then the Kenya Wildlife Service has done a fantastic job of protecting the country's elephants and growing the population.

Some Masai believe it has gone too far - elephants, they say, are being prioritised over humans.

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