When GPS-triggered alerts show an elephant herd heading toward villages near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Capon Sibanda springs into action. He posts warnings in WhatsApp groups before speeding off on his bicycle to inform nearby residents without phones or network access.
The new system of tracking elephants wearing GPS collars was launched last year by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). It aims to prevent dangerous encounters between people and elephants, which are more frequent as climate change worsens competition for food and water.
“When we started it was more of a challenge, but it is becoming phenomenal,” said Sibanda, 29, one of the local volunteers trained to be community guardians.
Photo: AFP
For generations, villagers banged pots, shouted or burned dung to drive away elephants. However, worsening droughts and shrinking resources have pushed the animals to raid villages more often, destroying crops and infrastructure, and sometimes injuring or killing people.
Zimbabwe’s elephant population is estimated at about 100,000, nearly double the land’s capacity.
However, the country has not culled elephants in close to four decades due to pressure from wildlife conservation activists, and because the process is expensive, parks spokesman Tinashe Farawo said.
From January to last month, conflicts between humans and wildlife such as elephants, lions and hyenas killed 18 people across Zimbabwe, forcing park authorities to kill 158 “trouble” animals during that period.
“Droughts are getting worse. The elephants devour the little that we harvest,” said Senzeni Sibanda, a local councilor and farmer.
Technology now supports the traditional tactics. Through the EarthRanger platform introduced by IFAW, authorities track collared elephants in real time. Maps show their proximity to the buffer zone — delineated on digital maps, not by fences — that separate the park and hunting concessions from community land.
At a park restaurant one morning, IFAW field operations manager Arnold Tshipa monitored moving icons on his laptop as he waited for breakfast. When an icon crossed a red line, signaling a breach, an alert pinged.
“We’re going to be able to see the interactions between wildlife and people,” Tshipa said. “This allows us to give more resources to particular areas.”
The system also logs incidents such as crop damage or attacks on people and livestock by predators such as lions or hyenas, and retaliatory attacks on wildlife by humans. It tracks the location of community guardians such as Capon Sibanda as well.
“Every time I wake up, I take my bike, I take my gadget and hit the road,” Sibanda said. He collects and stores data on his phone, usually with photos.
“Within a blink,” alerts go to rangers and villagers, he said.
His commitment has earned admiration from locals, who sometimes gift him crops or meat. He also receives a monthly food allotment worth about US$80 along with Internet data.
Villagers such as Senzeni Sibanda said the system is making a difference: “We still bang pans, but now we get warnings in time and rangers react more quickly.”
Still, frustration lingers. Senzeni Sibanda said she has lost crops and water infrastructure to elephant raids and wants stronger action.
“Why are you not culling them so that we benefit?” she asked. “We have too many elephants anyway.”
Her community, home to several hundred people, receives only a small share of annual trophy hunting revenues, roughly the value of one elephant or between US$10,000 and US$80,000, which goes toward water repairs or fencing.
She wants an increase in Zimbabwe’s hunting quota, which stands at 500 elephants per year, and her community’s share increased.
“A WAY FORWARD”
Zimbabwe’s collaring project may offer a way forward. Sixteen elephants, mostly matriarchs, have been fitted with GPS collars, allowing rangers to track entire herds by following their leaders.
In a recent collaring mission, a team of ecologists, vets, trackers and rangers identified a herd. A marksman darted the matriarch from a distance. Team members fitted the collar on the elephant, while some collected blood samples. Rangers with rifles kept watch.
Once the collar was secured, an antidote was administered and the matriarch staggered off into the wild, flapping its ears.
“Every second counts,” parks agency veterinarian Kudzai Mapurisa said.
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