San Diego Zoo Global has joined forces with several conservation groups to help maintain an orphaned elephant sanctuary in northern Kenya.
Last month, The Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy opened the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya’s Samburu County. The sanctuary rests in the Mathews Range which is home to the country’s second largest elephant population.
The Reteti preserve, which is the first community owned and managed elephant orphanage in Africa, facilitates reconnection between orphaned elephants and adult herds in efforts to avoid hand raising young elephants into adulthood. The orphanage only takes elephants into care as a last resort.
"San Diego Zoo Global is delighted to be part of a new approach to caring for the orphaned elephant youngsters that come into the Reteti preserve," said Douglas G. Myers, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Global. "This facility will work to ensure that elephants will maintain bonds to other elephants, rather than humans— an approach that we expect will allow earlier reintroduction back into the herd."
According to San Diego Zoo Global, community-driven elephant conservation is an expanding grassroots movement in Kenya that is encouraging economic growth and the conservation of other natural resources.
San Diego Zoo Global has partnered with the Namunyak Conservancy and other groups to help guide the orphanage’s operational procedures, and to help train keepers and mobile rescue teams. Other conservation groups involved include the Samburu County Government, Kenya Wildlife Service, Northern Rangelands Trust, Conservation International, Tusk Trust, The Nature Conservancy and Save the Elephants
Keepers Mary Lengees and Naomi Lechongoro, both hired from within the Namunyak Conservancy, have together returned five abandoned elephants to their family herds and have yet to resort to hand raising any elephants.
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Other conservation groups involved include the Samburu County Government, Kenya Wildlife Service, Northern Rangelands Trust, Conservation International, Tusk Trust, The Nature Conservancy and Save the Elephants.
According to the Great Elephant Census, illegal elephant killings in northern Kenya’s community conservancies have fallen 53 percent since 2012.
