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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
When an Elephant is Your Neighbor
It’s an unfortunate thing to be a farmer and have elephant and hippo for neighbors. At some point, they will most likely invite themselves over to your place for a meal. That one meal could cost you a month’s supply of food for your family…or far more.
Virunga elephants periodically come out of the forests and raid farms nearby. The latest incident this week involved about 30 elephant invading the cultivated fields at the village of Kyatenga in the northern sector, about 20 km from the Ugandan border. These elephant came at night and destroyed a cassava field, and came the next night, and the next…for five nights. In the end, over 500 sq. meters were consumed or destroyed.
In the same area, hippos twice came out of the Semlikiki river at night and raided a beans and cabbage field.
Our rangers have been patrolling the area to try to stop these animals from their nightly raids. One method is to use fire to scare them off, or if necessary, shoot into the air if they get too close. It can be dangerous at night for the rangers, but it can also be dangerous for the animals if the locals get angry enough to take action on their own. In the past, this has involved poisoning the animals or setting elephant snares and traps.
Southern Sector warden, Innocent, shows an elephant trap – a piece of wood with spikes meant for an elephant’s foot.
Virunga officers believe these raids are a result of Ugandan ADF NALU militia who have occupied the forested area that is home to the elephants, and when an elephant feels threatened, it moves.
The possible short-term solution is to launch an operation to rid the forest of the militia group. The best long-term solution is to build a solar powered electric fence like the one currently in use further north along a 19 km stretch of forest.
A 19 km electric fence lines the forest in the Mutwanga area to keep the elephant from raiding the cultivated crops on the opposite side of the road.
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3 Responses to “When an Elephant is Your Neighbor”
I am so concerned about the poisoning of animals in Africa. There is a report on the Lion Guardians blog of the poisoning of Lions in Tanzania near the Kenyan border. Is poisoning of wildlife common in the Virunga Park? It greatly saddens me that wildlife have to die by such a horrific death.
Hi Brenton,
I can’t say how often poisoning of animals happens. It’s very serious for the locals when their food is destroyed. Many barely survive on what they grow, so you can imagine the hatred they would feel for an animal that would destroy their crops.
LuAnne
[...] we reported last week in a blog post, elephant and hippo continue to come out of the forest and river to raid the cultivated fields in [...]