The only way to save the fast-disappearing elephant population in DRC’s Virunga National Park is for rangers to be with them around the clock, says park director Emmanuel de Merode in an MSN video.
The park has lost 95 percent of its elephants. With just 195 elephants left, rangers are turning to a solution they say may be the easiest: satellite collars on the elephants.
The livelihoods of thousands of people depend on the health of the park and its wildlife, de Merode told MSN.
“Sadly elephants have become an incredibly valuable commodity in certain circles,” de Merode said. “The price of ivory has rocketed. There’s huge demand for the killing of elephants.”
GPS collars will help rangers know where the elephants are 24/7 are.
Unfortunately, the technology hurts humans too.
Poachers in DRC killed three park rangers and an army officer in October, firing on a patrol that had tracked an elephant’s transmitter collar to a poachers’ camp in Northern Congo’s Garamba National Park.
Here’s how collaring an elephant works in Virunga. First crews must locate the lead elephant, tranquilize it, find it where it falls and fit it with a collar. Medical staff on are on hand to stabilize the elephant, push it over and fit it with a GPS collar.
Crews are in the air watching the elephants almost every day.
The park’s digital photographer Adam Kiefer said he uses something akin to Google Earth but with a much higher resolution to shoot aerial photos of the park. He makes a digital map that can show people coming onto the land. His photo technology can capture anything from 10 centimeters up, he told MSN.
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