In 2024 alone, our pilots flew 2,400 hours, covering 303,985 kilometres. To put that figure into perspective, that is the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe more than 7.5 times — in a single year! Every flight has a mission, be it a security patrol of the landscape or a response to a field emergency.

All these stories could fill several volumes, but in this edition of Field Notes, I will share just a few.

- Angela Sheldrick

Elephants may not know it, but they have guardians watching out for them from above. True to spirit, these guardians have wings — but there is nothing celestial about them. They are SWT pilots, stewards from the skies and protectors of all manner of wild animals, but especially elephants.

Launched in 2014, our Aerial Unit quickly emerged as the single biggest differentiator in our field-level impact. In a landscape the size and terrain of Tsavo, aerial capabilities are essential. This has always been the case: Nearly 80 years ago, when my father, David Sheldrick, was appointed the founding warden of Tsavo East National Park, he had a trusty sidekick — a reliable SuperCub, which he used to survey the uncharted landscape and tackle the threats that lurked within.

Spanning more than 42,000 square kilometres, or an area roughly the size of Switzerland, the greater Tsavo Conservation Area is a mosaic of dense woodlands in the north and open plains to the south. The acacia and commiphora that blanket the landscape can swallow even the biggest animals.

Even the most proficient bushperson would struggle to come to grips with these great landscapes from the ground. The bush is simply too dense, the locations too remote and too distant, to contend with on two feet or four wheels alone. So many dire elephant cases would simply go unnoticed: injured and trapped elephants left to their fates, orphaned calves lost forever.

But from the skies, our pilots have the unique vantage point to hone in on the smallest details — the dragging footprints that indicate a potential snare injury; the telltale bump that betrays a poison arrow wound — that save wild lives. In 2024 alone, our pilots spotted 76 injured elephants in Tsavo and were the architects of their subsequent treatments.

There are so many examples of lives saved through our Aerial Unit: orphans discovered and rescued in the nick of time; grievously injured elephants in thick bush that could only be darted from the air; mothers and calves trapped in water that would not have been sighted from the ground; wayward bulls marooned on community land; cases of human-wildlife conflict that require an aerial response to shepherd elephants out of harm’s way.

Every morning, as the sun peeks above the Yatta Plateau, our pilots take flight. Each day brings a different mission — sometimes it’s a targeted patrol based on intelligence, other times it’s following up on a previous sighting or ensuring coverage in a key area. We use cost-effective SuperCubs for routine patrols, while helicopters are employed for tactical operations.

It can be beautiful work, gliding above the most spectacular corners of the country without a person, car, or building in sight — but being a bush pilot is also a very challenging job. They must have a laser focus and extraordinary attention to detail, picking up the subtlest clues from 50-100 feet below. Nature guards its secrets closely and makes us work hard to decipher them.

A detection flight is essentially a mission to find and then follow a trail of breadcrumbs — except the breadcrumbs are scattered across 42,000 square kilometres of wilderness. Where most would just see a herd of elephants, our pilots look to scan each individual and hone in on the most minute details. For instance, the sinister poison arrow will often reveal itself only as a tiny bump or a pinprick of pus.

As mentioned before, our pilots spotted 76 injured elephants from the skies in 2024. That works out to 1.5 elephants a week — cases that would have gone undiscovered but for aerial detection. Pilots take photos of each sighting, which are promptly passed on to our operations room and then assessed for treatment.

The Aerial Unit’s role doesn’t end with detection. A high percentage of cases require aerial support to make the treatment possible. This can take many forms — ferrying teams to a remote location, darting the patient from the air, shepherding them to open ground, isolating them from their herd, or all of the above. The helicopter is indispensable in this regard, providing a rapid response to any location and honing in on a patient with forensic accuracy.

The fixed-wing plane and helicopters often fly in tandem during a treatment — an aerial changing of the guard, each with a vital role to play. The fixed-wing remains onsite to coordinate movements, while the helicopter provides the tactical precision needed to dart and ultimately treat the patient.

We are just a few weeks into the new year, but already there have been many cases that demonstrate the lifesaving powers of our Aerial Unit. I would like to highlight two:

The first came in early January, when received reports of a wounded bull near Lake Jipe. The Aerial Unit deployed to the scene, only for the elephant to swim into the lake — a savvy move to soothe his injured foot, but one that made treatment impossible. We were forced to give up the mission for the day.

The following morning, a fixed-wing pilot headed back to Lake Jipe to locate the bull. Rather than make things easy, however, he pulled a disappearing act. No matter — we are no strangers to a challenge! Our pilots continued conducting aerial sweeps of the area, and a week later, they finally had a breakthrough. The bull was spotted, again wading along the shores of Lake Jipe.

It was time for the SWT helicopter to take over. It carefully shepherded the bull towards shallow waters, until he reached solid ground. Dr Kariuki of the SWT/KWS Amboseli Mobile Vet Unit was onboard, poised and ready. As soon as the patient was in position, he darted him from the air. A few minutes later, the bull fell to the ground and treatment could commence.

It transpired that the bull had a deep, penetrating wound near his front ankle — likely caused by a spear or arrow in human-wildlife conflict. It had become badly infected and was at risk of compromising the ankle joint, which could have spelled a death sentence. Because of timely intervention, however, he is expected to make a complete recovery. (You can watch the treatment unfold here.)

The next (which you can watch here) was more odyssey than mere operation. It actually started back in December, when our SWT/KWS Peregrine Anti-Poaching Team flagged a tusker with what appeared to be a spear wound on his back-left rump. It was too late in the evening to mobilise a treatment, so we got ourselves prepared for the following morning.

But again, why make it easy? Our fixed-wing pilot took off at first light to find the bull, but he had melted into the Tsavo wilderness, which had become a jungle after all the recent rains. For the next two weeks, we meticulously combed the area, but he remained frustratingly elusive.

Imagine our surprise a month later, when a different team spotted the bull more than 95 kilometres (60 miles) south of where he had initially been sighted. Given his injury, we would not have expected him to travel so far.

This time, we left nothing to chance. The fixed-wing plane circled round the bull while the SWT/KWS Mobile Vet Unit mobilised to the scene. As they approached, our pilot landed on a nearby road — the benefits of a vast national park is that any empty road can become an airstrip — and liaised with the ground team.

They arrived not a moment too soon. The wound was a whopping 18 inches deep and seriously infected. Without intervention, it could have had lethal consequences for this magnificent animal bull. But fortunately, that was not his fate. Thanks to a thorough treatment and fast-acting medications, he is also expected to make a full and speedy recovery.

These are examples of lives saved through aerial detection and access. But what of the bigger picture? How are our teams contributing to a safer and more sustainable environment for elephants?

Earlier this month, we had our answer. In February, our Aerial Unit supported Kenya's Wildlife Research and Training Institute in its latest Wildlife Census. We provided two of our aircraft to help survey the Tsavo ecosystem, with each SWT pilot logging 50 hours in flight.

Over the course of eight days, they flew transects across the landscape, recording wildlife numbers. While official results are yet to be published, we can confirm a healthy increase in Tsavo’s elephant population. The previous census, published in 2021, reported 14,964 elephants in the landscape. The newest stats will show a robust recovery after populations plummeted during the poaching crisis. They will also reaffirm Tsavo as Kenya’s most important stronghold for elephants, a vital ecosystem that holds its largest elephant population by far.

The better part of a century ago, my father championed the powers of aviation for conservation. Today, our pilots enhance all areas of our conservation work. Aircraft are the vital link that allow us to better combat poaching, protect habitats, treat injured wildlife, rescue orphans, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, fight bushfires, save lives through search-and-rescue and medivacs — the list goes on and on.

The better part of a century ago, my father championed the powers of aviation for conservation. Today, so much remains unchanged. Aircraft are the vital link in nearly all our habitat protection and field operations. The challenges are many and great, but our guardians in the sky are dedicated to the task at hand. Working with the KWS and our trusted field partners, they put in the hours, every single day, to secure Kenya's largest national park and its wild denizens.