Two of these cases appeared to be bull elephants who had sustained fighting injuries. The first was a 40-year-old bull found outside Tsavo East National Park to the East with terrible injuries to its rear. He was darted with helicopter assistance and then treated by the KWS/SWT Tsavo Mobile Vet. The treatment was a success, but due to the severity of his injuries, he was given a guarded prognosis. The second bull was found during a routine fixed-wing aerial patrol near the Tsavo River in Tsavo West National Park. He was repeatedly spotted lying down, also bearing extensive fighting injuries. Also darted from a helicopter and treated by the Tsavo Vet Unit, this bull’s injuries were not actually as severe as initially predicted, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

Another elephant was sighted during a routine fixed-wing patrol in the southern sector of Tsavo East with an injury to his trunk. He was also treated by the Tsavo Vet Unit. In the northern sector of Tsavo East, a bull was reported with a suspected arrow wound to his flank. He was located by a fixed-wing plane, then the helicopter and vet were mobilised for the treatment. Unfortunately, the bull vanished before the helicopter could arrive. Despite great effort, he was not found again. A similar story unfolded near the TW park HQ at Kamboyo, although with a better outcome.

This bull elephant had first been sighted on the ground. When the Tsavo Vet Unit arrived by road, the bull had moved into thick bush and they were unable to find him. SWT provided fixed-wing aerial assistance to locate him, but it was too late in the day for a full veterinary treatment. The following morning, SWT deployed a fixed-wing again to locate the bull — and this time, the pilot sighted two others with similar injuries. A second fixed-wing flew to Voi to collect the vet and his assistants, while the helicopter was mobilised for treatment. The team was able to treat two of the three bulls that had the worst injuries — one with a suspected bullet wound, another with multiple arrow wounds. Both were given a good prognosis.

Two other elephants were treated, one that had been struck by a moving train, and another that had been pierced by a large, round object, possibly a rebar spear. The train victim had tragically broken both of its back legs, and the vet made the difficult decision to euthanise him. The other elephant’s injury was quite severe, so he will need monitoring and a probable follow-up treatment in the future. In fact, at the time of writing, a second treatment has been conducted. While his prognosis remains guarded, he is expected to make it. His condition is still relatively good, and he is in a good area, to the east of the Park with ample food and water.

Finally, two non-elephant animals were treated with assistance from the Aerial Unit. The first was a speared giraffe on Kuku Ranch, West of Chyulu Hills National Park. This treatment was successful. The second was a snared buffalo calf in Shimba Hills National Park. Our fixed wing pilot searched for the calf on three separate occasions, finally finding him in an open flay in the middle of the forest. At first, this seemed an incredible stroke of luck. However, once the vet was on site with and able to inspect the wound, it became apparent that the calf would not survive. Another difficult decision was made to end his suffering.

Apart from veterinary assistance, the Aerial Unit and SWT/KWS Mobile Vet Unit were also involved in the translocation of a problem elephant out of the community and deep into the Park. The young bull was first located by fixed-wing aircraft. He was then darted from the helicopter, loaded onto a SWT crane truck, transported, and revived in the Park.

While fewer Human-Elephant Conflict cases were dealt with in June than previous months, a total of seven callouts were responded to. On three occasions, it was necessary to utilise two helicopters to push as many as 13 elephants out of settled areas and back into the Park. On three other occasions, a single helicopter was used to push bull elephants back into the Park. In addition to helicopter callouts, a fixed-wing was also requested by KWS to check on the distribution of elephants that had been reported near the highway town of Samburu, many miles from Tsavo East.

As usual, illegal livestock remained a persistent theme, with 17 livestock related patrols conducted, mostly with by fixed-wing. Helicopter deployments resulted in seven arrests of herders. On one occasion, our helicopter was instrumental in the deployment of KWS ranger reinforcements to bolster the strength of ground teams who were surrounded by angry community members from outside the Park.

Fixed wing aircraft spent a considerable amount of time in June marking new and old livestock bomas (enclosures). This information was fed to a new SWT-funded KWS team, which is focused on destroying bomas so they cannot be used again. 160 bomas were destroyed in June in Tsavo West by this team, using coordinates provided by our pilots.

Charcoal burning activity at an industrial level was observed throughout the month on Galana and Kulalu Ranches and on one occasion on KARI Ranch. One very old carcass of a sub-adult elephant with tusks intact was sighted in June, along with a solitary tusk. However, in positive news, no illegally killed elephant carcasses were seen.