The male elephants of the Makgadikgadi

Dear Conservation Enthusiasts,

We are pleased to share significant progress and exciting developments since our last update in July 2023. We have been busy tracking the 10 collared bull elephants in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (MPNP) in Botswana to understand their seasonal movements. During the dry season, our tracking data revealed a consistent and steady movement of collared male elephants in and around MPNP. This behaviour is likely driven by the elephants' need to seek out food and water sources, which become scarcer during this dry period. Our observations during the dry season have allowed us to establish a baseline for their typical movement behaviour during this time. As we approach the onset of the wet season, we are eager to gather data and compare it with our previous findings. Specifically, we intend to assess the movements of collared elephants during the first wet season after collaring and compare them with the patterns observed in the second wet season. This comparative analysis will provide us with valuable insights into how their movement behaviour may change during different phases of the year.

In addition, great progress has been made with the collection of feeding data and gathering valuable dung samples. Understanding the feeding habits of elephants is essential for wildlife conservation and effective habitat management, particularly with regard to the mineral resources available in MPNP. Elephants play a significant role in shaping their ecosystems by influencing vegetation through their feeding habits. This data is critical for identifying their vegetation preferences in both the dry and wet seasons and seeing if this drives their range expansion.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to all the donors from around the world who have supported Elephants for Africa's mission. Your generosity has been instrumental in making this research possible. Thank you from the whole EfA team!

We try to live our lives as sustainably as possible and our remote camp is not doing too bad, with solar powered fridge and freezers in the kitchen, all our lights are solar and hot water is heated by the sun. So when we started our feeding ecology work aimed at studying the drivers of elephant movement had a problem to solve; how to dry the elephant dung, vegetation and soil samples. To meet export and import requirements we needed to heat the samples to 63^oC for at least 30 minutes to kill any potential biohazards for export as well as ensure they were probably dried to avoid them going mouldy.

Intern Imani Wilson, from Bangor University, was set the task of building a solar oven, as drying dung samples in our gas oven in the kitchen certainly was not an option!! Internet research and a little patience waiting for supplies from builder suppliers in Maun town and Imani was able to test the solar oven, flying an egg and then making sure it met the requirements for biohazards. Hey presto the power of the sun was harnessed once more, and our sample are slowly accumulating from our research drives and drying efforts. 

Well done Imani.