Monthly Archives: January 2015

The Elephant in Her Backyard, Part Two

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By Cheryl Merrill Subsistence farmers depend on hard work and luck. About 70% of rural households in Botswana derive their livelihoods from subsistence farming crops dependent upon seasonal rains. As a consequence of low and erratic rainfall and relatively poor soils, such farms have low productivity. Keikagile (Kee-ka-HEE-lay) owns such a farm, in the panhandle… Read more »

The Elephant in Her Backyard, Part One

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By Cheryl Merrill For several months of each year Keikagile (Kee-ka-HEE-lay) has elephants in her backyard. Entire herds of elephants. Lions, zebras, crocodiles, hippos, hyenas, and other wild denizens of Africa surround her home. But it’s the elephants she most fears, for they can destroy her entire farm in just one night. Keikagile lives in… Read more »

Amarula Trust supports new project to protect elephants

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Written by Amarula Trust The Amarula Trust is funding a new project to protect elephants. The latest initiative focuses on ways to manage the competition for scarce resources between elephants and people in Botswana. The Amarula Trust has made African elephants a major thrust of its conservation efforts because they have such a close association… Read more »

In Botswana, Texas A&M researchers are helping people and elephants coexist

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Written by Olga Kutchment In April, a helicopter carrying a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researcher and her collaborators hovered over an elephant herd in northern Botswana. A veterinarian tranquilized an elephant from the air. The team descended, checked that the animal was sleeping comfortably, and placed a collar the size of a hula-hoop… Read more »