An assessment of elephant-livestock interactions in Amboseli, Kenya: evidence of rare livestock killing by elephants

Abstract

People and elephants interact in many ways in different regions, ranging from damage to agriculture, to livelihood disruptions and threats to lives, both human and elephant. In the Amboseli region of Southern Kenya, elephants and Maasai pastoralists have a long history of  competitive interactions over water sources and grazing, as well as spearings during age-set transitions. Elephants are known to kill livestock during these interactions; behaviour which appears to be very rare elsewhere in Africa, or at least significantly under-reported. Here, we report on these incidents over a 28-year period, and ask whether this is a specific, cultural behaviour unique to elephants in Amboseli, to those areas with similar Maa-speaking pastoralists or more widespread.