60-year-old Resilient African Monsoon elephant dies in drought-stricken Kenya
Resilient African Monsoon elephant dies in drought-stricken Kenya after surviving several shots by poachers.
An “exceptional and resilient” African Monsoon elephant that survived being shot by poachers five times and yet managed to give birth has passed away in the north of drought-stricken Kenya, according to conservationists on Thursday.
In Samburu, a dry region that, like most of northern Kenya, is experiencing the driest conditions in 40 years, “Monsoon” was put to death by veterinarians after collapsing multiple times and showing signs of ill health.
The great matriarch was thought to be in her mid-60s, which is at the top of an elephant’s life span in the wild.
A statement from Save the Elephants, a Kenya-based wildlife conservation organization, stated that her terrible health was thought to have been caused by old age and made worse by the drought.
Monsoon, a mother of seven calves, was shot five times during a widespread poaching epidemic approximately ten years ago that caused the continent’s wild elephant populations to plummet.
Despite this, she managed to survive.
Monsoon lost two of her own calves to poachers during the enormous slaughter of elephants for ivory, and biologists thought that the trauma of being shot would prevent her from ever giving birth again.
But nine years after her tragedy, she gave birth to a calf in Samburu in 2018.
She had already disobeyed the authorities.
Shortly after Save the Elephants published research claiming that elephants preferred to avoid difficult terrain, she escorted her family to safety in 2006 up one of the greatest hills in Samburu.
Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, an unprecedented climatic event that has pushed millions across the Horn of Africa into extreme hunger.
Older elephants and young calves are the first to succumb to prolonged drought, experts say.
“Sadly the outlook for rain later this year is grim and there are fears the drought may stretch well into 2023, which is a major worry,” said Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton.
“We are working with our partners, local communities, and government in Kenya to address the long-term problems the drought will bring to wildlife and communities alike and doing our best to prevent more elephants like Monsoon from dying.”
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