By Lusaka Times
The Elephant Connection Project with support from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zambia and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) have successfully collared seven elephants around Sioma Ngwezi National Park.
Tracking collars are devices used as a GPS unit as well as radio beacon to track animal movement for both research and sustainable wildlife management initiatives that allow for real-time monitoring as well as data analyses.
“This data informs general management plans for game management areas to influence land use plans that protect corridors and strategically place human settlements and other developments in designated locations, in a bid to avoid the conflict.
“As WWF-Zambia, we are aware that to be able to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, we need to know more about elephant migration routes,” observed Ms. Iris Van Der Meer, the WWF-Zambia Wildlife Programme Coordinator.
Meanwhile, the Elephant Connection Project Manager, Dr. Kerryn Carter, observed that the collaring exercise is crucial to understanding the movement of the animals within Zambia and the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA) at large. She also thanked WWF-Zambia and DNPW for their relentless efforts aimed at assuring the welfare of wildlife in general and elephants in particular.
