A Kenyan national park is going through an elephant baby boom and the keepers couldn’t be happier. Amboseli National Park has reported more than 170 elephant births this year and even two sets of twins were born this year.
The national park which can be found at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro had a great year in terms of a baby boom, comparing it to 2018 when only 113 calves were born.
Scientists discovered that weather conditions and the environment can largely influence the procreation of elephants and this was a year with a lot of heavy rains and brought favorable conditions. Since more rains mean more vegetation, thus more food, the elephant population of the national park grew bigger and bigger over the year and more calves survived the critical period.
The elephant population is still facing serious threats, posed by climate change, loss of habitat, and poachers, but the Kenyan elephant community kept increasing over the years reaching 34,900 by the end of 2019.
This was also the year when the Kenyan government introduced more severe punishments for poachers, that range from high fines to even prison time.
Even though the African elephants are still considered to be facing lots of threats, this baby boom gives a hopeful perspective of its future.
In celebrating the #WorldElephantDay, I took part in an Elephant Collaring Exercise, at Amboseli. We collared the young bull, so that we can understand and monitor the movement patterns of the herd, for Elephant conservation and management. #wildlifeKE pic.twitter.com/f7mzlcsp9p
— Hon. Najib Balala (@tunajibu) August 12, 2020
source: NPR.org
