An elephant that was being tracked as part of a multinational conservation program has tragically been shot dead San Diago zoo officials have confirmed.

Kachikau

The elephant, named Kachikau was one of three elephants that was part of San diago zoo’s fund raising Elephant Footprint project. A programme that was designed to elephant herd movements between the southern African countries of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Monitored

Kachikau, a 30 year old matriarch with a two year old calf, was responsible for an 8-member herd and had had  her movements monitored using a GPS collar. It was when the GPS was shown not to be moving for four days that her body was found by Dr Michael Chase, the zoo scientist, just outside of Botwana, home to 30% of Africa’s elephants. Neither the herd of the calf have been seen since.

Man-Made Problems

Elephant herds face constant danger as they move across country boundaries and between national parks due to damage caused to crops and property. As human populations increase so do human-elephant interactions unfortunately many of these negative; and the manmade borders used to separate nations mean nothing to the elephants. The zoo and the charity Elephants without borders, founded by Dr Chase, are working with farmers to improve the security of their crops and so reduce elephant deaths, and have started Elephant Conservation and Community Outreach Farming programme to help support this.