Anna and her family are safe but still in conflict prone areas. As in the previous monitoring period, Anna spent most of her time with Ginting and Cinta, with all three family groups often joining to form a large herd of over 60 elephants.
While the area that these three family groups live in provides heaps of fodder, the patchwork of fields and forest invites conflict. As in the previous period, our Elephant Conservation and Monitoring Unit (ECMU) teams were busy supporting farmers in their attempts to keep elephants away from their plantations, and had many sleepless nights when the elephants came close to settlements and habitations. The efforts have proven effective so far, with both elephants and farmers kept safe, although of course some unguarded fields and plantations were still raided.
Anna was due to have her collar replaced in September 2017. However, a team member was injured during the early stages of the collaring session so it had to be post-poned. Currently, Anna’s collar is set to an interval of eight hours to preserve the batteries until a follow up collaring session can be organized.
