In a spectacular conservation effort, Kenya is addressing the challenge of an overpopulated elephant community in the Mwea National Reserve by relocating 50 elephants to the more expansive Aberdare National Park.

Thanks to concerted conservation efforts, the 42-square-kilometer Mwea has seen its elephant numbers surge from 49 in 1979 to 156 today, surpassing the reserve's capacity. Meanwhile, the sprawling 760-square-kilometer Aberdare offers a more spacious habitat for the thriving herd.

Rebecca Miano, Kenya's cabinet secretary for tourism and wildlife, said on Monday that the exercise reflects the government's commitment to improving human-wildlife coexistence and mitigating environmental degradation in Mwea.

"The reason we are translocating the elephants is to manage overpopulation. Mwea National Reserve should ideally hold 47 elephants, but our conservation efforts have seen the elephants reproduce and the park had 156 elephants," Miano said.

"We are using technology in the relocation process where the transferred elephants have been tagged so that their settlement and movement can be monitored closely."

The elephants are being moved in family groups, with one individual from each group fitted with a tracking device to be monitored for the next two years. In an update released on Tuesday, the Kenya Wildlife Service said 44 elephants have been successfully relocated so far, with the remaining six scheduled for transfer by the end of the week.

Erustus Kanga, director-general of Kenya Wildlife Service, emphasized the importance of elephants as a keystone species in maintaining healthy ecosystems. However, unchecked population growth in confined spaces can lead to environmental degradation and escalate human-wildlife conflicts.

"At Aberdare, there is plenty of room for the elephants to roam, unlike here in Mwea, where the growing numbers led to human-wildlife conflict, with villagers complaining the elephants were raiding their farms," Kanga said.

The overpopulation in Mwea highlighted the success of the government's conservation efforts over the past three decades, he said, noting that low poaching rates have allowed the elephants to thrive. An additional 50 elephants from Mwea are expected to be relocated in the future, but no specific date has been set.

Combating poaching

Between 1979 and 1989, Kenya's elephant population plummeted from an estimated 170,000 to just 16,000 because of rampant poaching for ivory. In response, the Kenya Wildlife Service was established in 1989 to combat poaching.

The conservation efforts eventually paid off and Kenya's elephant population rebounded, with the national wildlife census of 2021 recording 36,280 elephants.

In March 2021, the African forest elephant was listed as critically endangered and the African savanna elephant as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The assessment revealed that African forest elephant numbers had declined by more than 86 percent over 31 years, while the African savanna elephant population had dropped by at least 60 percent over the past 50 years.