The herds of Cinta, Mutiara and Indah continued to roam - occasionally as one big herd of over 70 elephants - south of the WKS corridor road in the vicinity of Semambu, Sekalo and Suo-Suo village. Conflict was abundant, and the continuous presence of our rangers was imperative to keep the elephants safe.
Our rangers continued to monitor the elephant herds directly in the field and inspected their surroundings closely in order to detect threats such as poison and chemicals either set out on purpose or accidently left behind and poaching.
In July, the team undertook a strenuous field operation that took almost the entire month. Three monitored Sumatran elephants had their old GPS collars replaced and Anna had her collar removed.
Key personnel included IEP Veterinarian Dr. Christopher Stremme, senior Mahout Nazaruddin, and forest police officers of BKSDA Jambi. As all the female elephants were joining into a huge group at the time of the field operation, it was a challenge for sniper Nazaruddin to get close to target elephants, and then to differentiate between them. Cinta was sedated and had her collar replaced at midday on 15 July. She recovered well from the procedure and quickly rejoined her herd.
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