Mike Kock, senior field veterinarian for Wildlife Conservation Society, lies on his belly as he struggles to pull a tracking collar around the neck of a 40-year-old bull elephant with 80 lb. tusks. The elephant will be up on its feet a minute or two after the antidote is injected. He is assisted by Charles Laku, Lt. Colonel with Southern Sudan Wildlife Dept and deputy warden of Bandingolo Game Reserve, and Phil Matthews, Nairobi-based helicopter pilot.
This herd of elephants is suspected of migrating between Boma N.P in Sudan and Gambela N.P. in Ethiopia. The collar will transmit location data for two years to give researchers a better idea of their migration patterns so that conservation measures can be adopted to protect them. WCS program manager Paul Elkan hopes to re-collar these elephants before the batteries go dead to make a study of at least 8-10 years, to better understand their movements. Blood and tissue samples were also taken for later analysis.
- Filename
- STNMTZ_20100120_17404.tif
- Copyright
- ©2010 George Steinmetz
- Image Size
- 3888x2592 / 28.9MB
- Contained in galleries
- Sudan Wildlife
