160701 1 1 Spears Fly in Amboseli

Another week, another huge bull elephant with a spear in it.

This time his name was Ulysses, an elephant well known to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE). After receiving the call from ATE Big Life got a plane in the air and was able to first locate Ulysses, and then guide the ATE ground team to him.

The Kenya Wildlife Service vet, working with the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust team, was able to dart Ulysses the next morning and clean the wound, and all signs are that the treatment was successful.

Two weeks ago the famous tusker Tim was in the same situation, and a similar aerial effort helped to locate him for treatment. This underscores the huge importance of having eyes in the sky, and most of the fuel necessary to keep Big Life up there is supported by Save the Elephants and Wildlife Conservation Network. 

For these and all our other partnerships we are hugely grateful. Human-wildlife conflict is one of the major challenges facing Amboseli at the moment, but everyone is working together to deal with the fallout and plan for the future. If you are interested in helping please see our website for more information on a funding appeal to construct an electric fence to separate elephants from farmers and their crops.