The ranger teams stood ready.
The vet had arrived.
Everything was ready to go.

There was just one problem: the elephant had disappeared.

He had been spotted at the Ol Donyo Lodge waterhole earlier that day, but after drinking his fill, he walked off into the thick bush, and his tracks were quickly obscured by other animal traffic.

He had a wound on his hind leg, but with daylight fading, so too was the opportunity to find and treat him. We were at an impasse, but we had one more tool to deploy.

One of Big Life’s drones arrived, and we pinned our hopes on this little machine as it lifted into the sky. Up and down it buzzed, checking one elephant after the next. One battery drained, then another, and still no luck.

We found him on our last battery. The vet prepared the dart, and the drone pilot guided the vehicle in from above. The dart went in, and the ground teams took over to get the elephant into position for treatment.

The wound was at least 10 inches deep, almost certainly delivered by a spear. We don’t know why the spear was thrown, but it was likely part of a human-wildlife conflict incident. Thanks to the Kenya Wildlife Service vet unit, supported by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the wound was quickly treated, and the elephant was on his way.

This was a textbook use of technology. Our drone did the job that a helicopter normally would, for the tiniest fraction of the price. Without it, there is no way we would have treated this elephant.

Drones are proving themselves to be incredibly high-impact. In the battle to protect the wildlife and wild lands of Greater Amboseli, we need all the help we can get.

Thank you for making it possible.  

📹: Jeremy Goss