Mara Elephant Project ranger teams continued their efforts to support our government partners to protect critical habitats this quarter. Seventy-one suspects were arrested for habitat destruction activities, 522 bags of charcoal confiscated, 26 active charcoal kilns destroyed, and 853 pieces of timber and 14,923 fence posts were seized. In addition, rangers removed 379 snares and three suspects were arrested for bushmeat poaching.

MEP drone pilots logged 174.83 flight hours during the second quarter, supporting approximately 60% of all human-elephant conflict mitigation operations. With a response time consistently under 2 minutes per deployment, we continue to see that aerial technology plays a critical role in enabling rapid, safe, and effective responses across the Mara.

One operation where drones played a critical role took place in April when MEP rangers responded to reports of two bull elephants moving through community settlements near Olororok, where their presence posed a potential threat to both residents and the elephants themselves. With people, livestock, and homesteads nearby, the team used a coordinated combination of vehicle support and drone technology to carefully guide the bulls away from the settlement and back toward safer, more open land.

In May, MEP’s ‘Bravo’ ranger team responded swiftly after a GPS alert from Polaris’s collar revealed him and two other bull elephants heading towards a community settlement boundary. Polaris approached the fence and did what only the smartest animals know to do: he probed it with his tusks, not his trunk. Elephants have learned that their trunks are far too sensitive to risk an electric charge, so they use their tusks to test the fence first. A behavior that reveals just how intelligent and cautious these animals truly are.

This quarter also marked an important milestone for MEP’s Training of Trainers (ToT) program, supported by the Saruni Basecamp Explorer Foundation–Kenya (SBEF-K). After two years of training more than 220 rangers from 24 conservancies and partner organizations, the program entered its implementation and benchmarking phase. MEP rangers and data specialists conducted joint patrols alongside conservancy teams, mentoring participants in real field conditions and helping ensure that newly acquired skills in patrol operations, EarthRanger data management, and drone deployment are consistently applied across the Mara landscape.

In June after a safari guide in the Mara Triangle reported a nursing mother elephant with a suspected spear wound, MEP quickly responded to assess the situation. Despite her injury, the mother was determined to keep pace with her herd while caring for her calf, making swift intervention essential.

Working alongside Mara Conservancy Vet Dr. Ashif Hafiz affiliated with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), MEP deployed a drone to locate the elephant and safely keep the herd at a distance while treatment was carried out. The wound was cleaned, antibiotics were administered, and the mother was able to quickly rejoin her herd, giving both her and her calf the opportunity to continue thriving in the wild.

This quarter also demonstrated the importance of MEP’s support for wildlife beyond elephants. In June, MEP received an urgent call from our partners at KWS after a young male lion with a severe, infected leg wound was spotted in Ol Choro Conservancy. Believed to have been injured during an encounter with a warthog, the lion disappeared into dense vegetation for several days before being relocated, raising serious concern for his condition.

Working alongside Mara Conservancy Vet Dr. Ashif Hafiz affiliated with KWS, and Ol Choro Conservancy rangers, MEP assisted in the operation to safely immobilize the lion so he could receive life-saving treatment. After administering antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication, the team remained on site to monitor his recovery from anesthesia before he safely returned to the bush.