July 2013. South Sudan has launched an effort to save its remaining elephants, probably numbering just 5,000 now compared with more than 10 times that number 30 years ago.
With expert assistance from the Wildlife Conservation Society and funding from USAID, South Sudan's Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism (MWCT) has ramped up efforts to protect its last elephants by fitting individual animals with GPS collars for remote tracking, a critical practice in the fight against ivory poachers.
Tracking collared elephants
In late May and early June, participants from WCS and MWCT succeeded in collaring elephants to track and monitor the majority of South Sudan's remaining populations, which collectively are estimated to total fewer than 5,000 elephants, down from the 80,000 thought to inhabit the region in the 1960s-70s. Elephant herds in South Sudan were decimated during years of civil war and the survivors are under increasing threat due to insecurity and an increase in ivory poaching. The situation has been made worse by the presence of rebel groups in the sub-region, including the Lord's Resistance Army, which have poached elephants and trafficked ivory as means of sustaining their operations, according to confirmed reports.
The GPS/satellite tracking effort is part of a USAID/WCS funded elephant monitoring and protection program launched in 2009, an initiative that also includes aerial surveillance from planes, land-based anti-poaching patrols, and intelligence-led enforcement.
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