Established in 1972 and since then the elephants in Amboseli National Park have been identified in their population and data regarding their births, deaths and behavior. Amboseli Elephant research Camp is a great site Kenya safari offering the visitors of the park with the most amazing opportunity to learn more about elephants. This made Amboseli Elephant Research Project, which produced the Elephant Research Camp, an essential source of the baseline data on the elephants.
Operating under the charity Amboseli Trust for the elephants, the long-term research initiative Elephant Research initiative investigates the social behavior, age structure, and population dynamics of African elephants. Having tracked life histories and association patterns for about 2000 individual elephants, it is the longest continuous study of wild elephant behavior.
Under the framework of human demands and pressures, the initiative was mostly developed to guarantee the long-term conservation and wellbeing of the elephants of Africa by means of scientific study, training, community outreach, public awareness and advocacy.
The research project was started in 1972 by Cynthia Moss and Harvey Croze in Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya she teamed up with Harvey Croze and in 1972 started the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, rather few poachers have been active in Amboseli Park’s approximately 390km2 area, this is especially due to the Maasai people and the constant presence of tourists and researchers. Amboseli is therefore one of rare areas in Africa where the elephant age structure has stayed undisturbed. Scientists and the wildlife wardens keep an eye on the region all year long. The programs on PBS and the animal planet have extensively detailed the subjects of the Amboseli Elephant Study Project, notably Echo, the elephant matriarch.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Cynthia Moss, whose books include The Amboseli Elephants and Elephant Memories, she was also behind the well-known documentary DVD Echo of the elephants; the research camp remains open in the middle of Amboseli National Park, under the direction of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Among the most studied animals worldwide are the elephants of Amboseli.
With advanced planning, it is feasible to schedule a one-hour lecture at the camp whereby the researchers describe their work and other connected concerns of the elephant conservation, with time for questions at the conclusion even though the camp is not open for the casual visits. Not cheap is the Kenya safari. But this is one of the mother lodes for elephant study in Africa; a safari here is a unique chance to learn more about these soulful animals.
Since poaching to support the illicit ivory trade has made a comeback across most of the continent, the Amboseli Elephant Research Camp is so unique and special since it hosts one of the few relatively undisturbed elephants made a comeback across must populations left in Africa.
