Drought threatens Kenya's elephants

Thursday, Sep. 10, 2009

By Katharine Houreld - Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya — The drought in Kenya has gotten so bad that it is felling even the giants of the animal kingdom — the country's famed elephants, which are dying as rivers dry up and grasslands shrivel in parched game reserves.

The bones of the elephants bleaching under a relentless African sun underscore how bad the drought is. It has killed hundreds of cattle and many acres of crops, threatening the lives of people who depended on them for food. There are no tallies of human deaths attributed to the drought, but the U.N.'s World Food program said recently that 3.8 million Kenyans are at risk and need emergency food aid.

Zoologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who founded Save the Elephants, said the drought is the worst he has seen in 12 years and poses a serious threat to the large and majestic animals, whose striking silhouettes roaming Kenya's broad savannah help draw 1 million tourists a year.

"It may be related to climate change, and the effect is elephants, particularly the young and the old, have begun to die," he said Monday. "When they do not have enough food, they also seem to be vulnerable to disease, their immune system weakens and they catch all sorts of diseases."

Instead of majestic, many elephants are pitiable.

Elephants, which have no predators, must roam widely to fill their need for as much as 52 gallons of water and about 660 pounds of grass, leaves and twigs. But the water is disappearing and the grass is all but gone.

In the past two months, more than 40 elephants have died in the Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu districts, the Daily Nation newspaper reported. Laboratory tests failed to detect disease. The only probable reason the animals are dying is drought.

The species is hardly at the brink of extinction — there are 23,000 elephants in Kenya and fewer than 100 have died from the drought — but wildlife experts say they are concerned.

Making matters worse, herders are driving their livestock into the elephants' domain in search of fresh pasture and competing for forage.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga last month warned of a "catastrophe" if seasonal rains don't come in October and November.

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