WWF says imperative elephant research has been lost in Kenya as flash floods recently wiped out a major scientific research centre used to study Africa’s wild elephants.

Flooding of the Ewaso Ng’iro River has destroyed the research facility and camp at the Samburu National Reserve, which has pioneered valuable elephant research including the discovery that fences made from beehives can deter elephants from raiding farms.

Although nobody was injured in the floods, vital research was lost and seven lodges in addition to the Save the Elephants (STE) research facility and Elephant Watch Safari Camp were completely destroyed.

STE officials say 200 people watched helplessly from a hill above the camps as waters washed beds, tents, computers and research documents out of the camp and up into the trees.

Although it is still too early to assess the damage, STE operations manager Lucy King says she expects it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the facility.

In addition to the beehive fence discovery, which has cut the number of farm raids by elephants in half, the facility introduced an animal tracking pilot that uses mobile phones technology to track the movements of African elephants.

The camp served as the base site for filming the BBC documentary The Secret Life of Elephants, which first aired last year.

The flash floods were likely caused by the start of Kenya’s rainy season.

By Taylor Turner