Of
Elephants and Men
Radio Télévision Suisse | 11min
Postproduction script
Lower 3rds
0'34 Maina Sein Sumaiya, Elephant accident victim
1'32 Johnson Salash, Big Life ranger
3'01 Winigodi Munuo, farmer
4'04 Johnson Salash, Big Life ranger
5'06 Simon Ndaka, farmer
6'48 Jeremy Goss, Big Life scientific director
7'57 Ernest Lenkoina, Project manager, Big Life
9'14-9'24 Big Life footage
9'53 Samuel Ole Kaanki, President of ALOCA (Amboseli Landowners Conservation Association)
10'46 Daniel Ole Sambu, Programme Coordinator, Big Life
Credits: Magali Rochat, Kiama Kariuki, Laurent Jespersen, Benoît Mayer
VO: Elephants in their natural habitat, facing one of the symbols of Africa, Kilimanjaro...Some people cross oceans to admire this life-size postcard. But for the local population, who live with the wild animals, the cost can be immense. Maina paid the price a few months ago.
Maina Sein Sumaiya: I was on my way to fetch wood when I came face to face with an elephant. It charged me, pushed me against a tree and broke my leg in two. This accident changed my life. I can no longer work and it is my children who have to fetch water and wood. I can't do anything anymore, so I stay here.
[1’07 TITLE]
VO: Like every evening at nightfall, the rangers get ready for their nightly patrols... The night can be long, so we start by eating. Radios and phones are always on. At any moment, they must be ready to respond to a call for help within a radius of over 10,000 hectares.
Johnson Salash: Most of the time, at night, elephants are prevented from entering the fields to eat the crops.
VO: Like all the rangers here, Johnson is Maasai, a native of the area. He grew up surrounded by elephants, which are now his livelihood.
Johnson: Without us rangers, the life of the farmers would be even more complicated. There would also be more elephants attacked with arrows or poisoned. Which means they might even disappear.
VO: Their main weapons are their firecrackers, which are shared out before the tour.
Johnson: Two different sizes of firecrackers are used. These are for elephants who are known to be cowards. When you throw them, they go off immediately. For elephants that try to charge, a larger calibre is used.
VO: The patrol starts with routine visits.
Johnson: Have you been visited by elephants?
Farmer: Yes, yesterday there was one that stayed right there until 5am.
VO: Around the fields, no farmer sleeps. With torches, they stay up all night to watch their crops.
Winigodi Munuo: At night we don't sleep because we have to keep watch. And during the day we have to irrigate the fields, we are exhausted.
VO: Around the fire, the farmers prepare their ammunition: simple pieces of wood, wrapped in old clothes. They are ready to burn them and throw them at the elephants in case of an impromptu visit.
Farmer: We have no other choice because we don't have a firecracker. So we make do with what we have.
Farmer 2: Hey ranger, give us two firecrackers at least!
Johnson: We can't because the last time we gave them, the farmer lost three fingers.
VO: As the rangers get ready to leave...
Johnson: I got a call from a farmer, he is panicking, the elephant tried to charge him so we have to act very quickly.
[Elephant chase sequence]
VO: Once the elephant is far enough away, the rangers return to the farmer.
Simon Ndaka: As soon as I arrived, the elephant started to charge. I took my fire torches to threaten him but he didn't move. When he starts to move his ears like that and lift a leg, you know you are in danger. So you run. And because it's night, you can easily stumble and fall. And if it finds you on the ground it will certainly trample you. You always live in fear.
VO: The next day, it's time to take stock. In this two and a half hectare watermelon field, the elephant tracks are still clearly visible... and so is the damage.
Simon: Look, this plant for example, it would have given me 5 big watermelons. You see? That's the equivalent of $35, just for one plant. With all that the elephant trampled and ate, that's about $1500, gone up in smoke...
VO: To understand the extent of the phenomenon, we go to the headquarters of the wildlife protection organisation Big Life. In 8 years, this South African scientist has seen a marked increase in conflict.
Jeremy Goss: Here we have all the elephant incidents reported by our rangers. Usually there are 2 to 3 per night. At one point, the damage was estimated to be thousands, even millions of dollars in losses every year. What we see is that there are fields directly bordering the elephants' natural habitats. This is the natural habitat and this is the whole area that has been converted to farmland. So at night the elephants go 10 paces north into the fields. The problem is that as the elephants' natural habitat shrinks, the competition for resources becomes so great that they are forced to leave their ecosystem to find water or food in the fields and settlements.
VO: 300kg of food and 150 litres of water are the daily requirements for a single pachyderm. To mitigate the intrusion of elephants into the fields while allowing them to move freely between protected areas, Big Life has already installed 100 kilometres of solar powered electrified fences.
Ernest: We have two challenges with elephants. Firstly, they are very smart. Secondly, they're very strong. So if they find a structure to hold on to, they'll rip it down. But these fences are too low for them and these rods are flexible and electrified so every time they move forward they get a shock. That's how we keep them out of the fields.
VO: Here, these barriers have reduced conflicts between farmers and elephants by 90%. Under our feet, a proof.
Ernest: You can see this elephant footprint here....The elephant walked towards the fields, stopped there, looked at the crops, then turned and walked back towards the conservation area. So a huge conflict was avoided.
VO: Between the fields and the houses, Big Life was able to preserve a piece of land only 200 metres wide. A narrow corridor, but one that is essential for the migration of animals between national parks. In Kenya 65% of the wildlife lives outside the protected areas. At the junction with the road, a surveillance camera confirms the frequentation of the passage.
[Camera footage]
VO: But these infrastructures are expensive - $10,000 per kilometre of fence. Above all, they are no match for the huge farms, which are becoming increasingly numerous in the region. Here, for example, there are no less than 200 hectares of crops in the middle of strategic wildlife areas. The Maasai representative of the local communities could do nothing to stop the farm developers.
Samuel Ole Kaanki: This is a migration corridor. Before the land division, this was even the maternity area for elephants. The females often came here to give birth. By blocking this corridor, they disturb the elephants who then have to change their route every day. This makes them more aggressive. So if they see a person in their path, they can charge and kill them. Every month we lose at least one or two people because of this disturbance of the wildlife.
VO: With Kenya's population expected to double by 2050, there is a great deal of concern about how much space we want to keep for wildlife and its habitat.
Daniel Ole Sambu: That's the question we have to ask ourselves now: do we need these wild animals or do we not need them. I think we need them. It's our national heritage, our pride, to see these wild animals living freely on our land, it makes me happy.