Watchtowers to spot elephants

Rivers at Risk: Dams and the future of freshwater ecosystems

You can't escape by climbing a tree, but you can see them coming

It's quite a sight: one or more men, in bright red garb, shining bright torches and hooping and hollering like they had seen a ghost... or an elephant in this case.

Early Warning System

The key to this strategy of watchtowers is as an early warning system. Using a communal guarding rota, where farmers take turns overnight in a watchtower perched some 15m up a tree, the method, in trials, has so far proved 100% effective.

Intoxicated by sweet maize

The logic - simple as it may seem in hindsight - is this: if an elephant or elephants are in your maize field, they are, to mix metaphors, pigs in clover.

They get that taste of maize and, as Noah describes, "It is so, so sweet, so nutritious compared to their normal diet, they just do not want to leave".

In fact, Noah adds, they will become more aggressive if you "ask them to leave" once they are in the field. So the trick is to stop them getting in there in the first place. which is where the early warning system of the watchowers comes into play.

Elephants as neighbours

TransMara is noted as an area were elephants have become quite used to living next to humans, perhaps becoming what can best be described as daring - see "cat like elephants" box below.

For these reasons Noah see 3 key factors that are vital to the success of the early warning system - one is that the torches must be bright enough. Small, weak lights, he says, may just aggravate the elephants rather than scare them away.

The second is that the watchtower must be in a position that gives sufficient warning for the farmers to stop the elephants before they enter the fields.

And the third: the sounds and noises made by the Maasais should be rotated... it is well documented that elephants quickly become used to the "same old things", and it's important to rotate your tactics.

Is using powerful torches sustainable?

The one key problem for almost any and every development project is 'what happens when the project finishes.

This is especially relevant in terms of the bright-torch solution, as the number and cost of batteries needed is prohibitively expensive for some families and villages.

Noah recognizes this, but is positive that the collective saving of maize fields versus the potential and often realised damage and danger far outweighs any investment made over a season in batteries.

In the 3rd project phase it will be seen if the farmer's agree with Noah.

Effective?

These figures speak for themselves... in Tsavao, another area in Kenya where a large degree of human elephant conflict occurs,10 people have been killed guarding crops in the last 2 years. In that same time period while Noah has been doing trials of his early warning system, only one person has been injured.

Elephants send scouting parties

What Noah has found astounding during his trails is how the elephants seem to know when a field of maze is ripening. 

Of course, it's probably down to smell - but to smell it from so far away - often as much as 10 kilometres, is something which surprises even a seasoned veteran of elephant issues such as Dr Sitati.

He also noted how elephants may send what he calls "scouting parties" to check out new smells before the rest of the herd is beckoned to join in any possible feast.

This is why some communities elsewhere in Africa are testing such deterrents as burning rubber and chili during the night, in order to hide the smells of a ripening, juicy crop.