Kenya's Ark II
It’s good to see Kenya’s moving right along.
Telegraph – How to dope, rope and move 400 five-ton elephants. By Mike Pflanz in the Shimba Hills
It will be the world’s biggest operation to move large mammals and conservationists have dubbed it Noah’s Ark II.
The operation is crucial because elephant numbers have shot up on the misty, lightly forested slopes of the Shimba Hills, just inland from Kenya’s coast and 320 miles south-east of Nairobi.
Ten years ago there were 200; now there are 700.
Poor farmers eking a living from their smallholdings have long complained that they face ruin because their crops are trampled almost daily.
It is a nationwide problem in this country famed for its wildlife but with a mushrooming human population which has doubled in the past 15 years to 33 million.
You know, here we usually have to deal with mice. Much easier to carry, are mice.
It does not look a painless operation, however. Ropes are tightened around the animal’s legs and tusks and a sweating, chanting knot of men inches it forward in uncomfortable lurches.
August 26th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Export your mice to Kenya. It’s win, win!
August 26th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
Haha
But maybe I want an elephant!
And actually I should mention we’re varmint free, here in Seattle. Philly, though, was another story. Except for spiders. We have spiders.
August 28th, 2005 at 7:11 am
What, did all the rats leave when Seattle sunk down to the second floor?
August 28th, 2005 at 8:19 am
Wha-?
No we have roof rats. Nice big ‘uns, I think. Pretty sure they run all up and down the coast, really. But though they got in the crawl space a little bit last year they’ve never made it in the apartment. Unlike in Philly where our building had random holes in the walls where the radiator pipes were shoved in. Critters loved ‘em pipe holes. Although to be fair it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Baby mice infestations are so cute! Even if they’re too light, as a general rule, to set off the humane traps.