Saving Elephants in Kenya

Our Many Projects in Kenya

Pachyderm Power!’s pivotal work in Kenya, to save the African elephant, confronts all the issues threatening elephants’ survival, namely poaching, hunting, human/elephant conflict, drought, loss of habitat, poverty and famine. Our sustainability projects have included an anti-poaching patrol led by local tribesmen, multi-media presentations inspiring conservation, water saving methods combating drought, and working with subsistence farmers to increase their crop yield and eco-tourism benefiting both elephant and villager. Now, because many elephants are dying due to climate caused droughts, our main focus is on providing water sources for them.

School Presentations

Teaching the importance of saving elephants

Doing a classroom presentation about elephants to Kenya students (many have never seen an elephant in the wild!!) We want to teach them about the beauty and wonder of their own natural wildlife resource so that they fall in love with elephants and not become poachers!

Meeting with Farmers

Resolving human-elephant conflict issues.

A Pachyderm Power! employee held a discussion with this group of subsistence farmers on how our team of patrolmen could keep elephants from eating their crops. This saved elephants because farmers then didn’t have a reason to kill the elephants. In addition to protecting vulnerable crops at night by chasing elephants away, we also explored and developed other “tools”. Namely bee hives (elephants don’t like bees… imagine a bee going up their long nose) and chili peppers as deterrents and alternative crops that elephants don’t like to eat. We bought 620 tree seedlings that are were planted by the local farmers to create a barrier between the elephants and their crops. These trees, which the eles don’t like and won’t eat, provide shade for them.

Kenya Wildlife Service

Offering Pachyderm Power! programs, necessary support and collaboration.

The Kenya Wildlife Service is the government agency mandated with the protection of wildlife of Kenya. They are incredibly busy, understaffed and underfunded. We are very lucky to have their time, attention and support. We meet with them and work collaboratively to create harmony between the elephants, villagers and farmers. In a country with long periods of drought, waiting for and depending on rain only, can be a disaster. One of the projects that we introduced to them was Kick Start, simple irrigation pumps that can double the yield of their crops, bringing them out of poverty.