Previous Page
Next Page

Individual Range

Using GPS Collars to Track Individual Elephants

An elephant's home range is the area that they regularly travel to find food, water, and mates, and can span more than 32,062 km2 . Save the Elephants (STE), a nonprofit organization based in Kenya, has been studying the daily movements of elephants across Africa using Global Positioning System (GPS) collars. One of their study sites is Samburu Reserve in Kenya, shown on the map. These collars provide real-time data on elephant movements, which can be used to map the home ranges of elephants. These data can also provide information on resource use, group interactions, and conflict with humans. Female elephants form stable social groups with other females and their young, so collaring one mature female can provide data on a much larger group. Male elephants are generally solitary or form short-term, variable groups, and so collaring a male elephant may only provide data on one individual.

Next Page