GPS collars protect elephants and people on the outskirts of one of Africa’s largest parks

Elephant collaring is a challenging operation that requires extensive expertise and skill; there is no room for error. Here's a glimpse into how it is done.

1. Darting the animal with an anesthetic

Once a suitable animal has been located in the field, the person responsible for handling the immobilisation drugs prepares a dart with enough drugs to take down the animal. The amount depends on the animal's estimated weight. Ideally, a smaller group of people then carefully approaches the target animal to get within 30 metres of it.

The dart is usually administered on the backside of the animal to enable retrieval once the animal goes down. After the dart is administered, it takes about 10 minutes for the animal to go down. The easiest scenario is when the darted animal does not panic and remains in the same place.

'This is a critical stage of the collaring exercise, and we have to monitor the elephant's vitals closely throughout the sedation process to ensure the animal's safety,' says Dr. Mupondi. 'As we conduct the collaring operation, the safety of the animal is our top priority.'

2. Keeping the other elephants away

After successfully darting an elephant, the team then needs to encourage the other elephants in the target herd to move away so they don't interfere with the collaring. This can be a challenging task, especially when the matriarch is darted. Other elephants tend to stick together and won't move away easily. The team needs to make noises to scare them off. In certain circumstances, some elephants may not move away at all. This task is easier when dealing with bulls and solitary animals-bulls tend to easily move away from an immobilised colleague at the slightest provocation.

3. Fitting the collar

Once the other elephants have been scared away, the rest of the collaring team quickly moves in to install the collar as soon as possible to minimise the stress for the elephant.

Part of the team works on cooling down the immobilised animal using a knapsack spray, while others monitor breathing and pulse. If necessary, some team members take measurements like shoulder height, body length, and tusk sizes to profile the elephant. Meanwhile, the team responsible for fitting the collar takes a measurement of the neck size, fits the collar, and cuts excess belt length, properly positioning the collar for best transmission. The collar is not tightly fitted to leave room for the animal to grow.

When all these steps have been successfully completed, the team moves out to a safe distance before a reversal drug is administered. The collared elephant is revived and ready to move away and join the rest of the herd.

'Once the task is successfully executed, we then have also to consider post-collaring care,' says Dr. Mupondi. 'Monitoring the collared elephant is critical, and we are always there to attend to any discomfort or other issues that may arise.'

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