Support Elephants
Protect Elephants from Exploitation
- Support a Global Ban on the Ivory Trade
- Do Not — buy products made from Ivory
- Do Not — buy products made from elephant skins or tail hair (shoes, briefcase, belts, or bracelets)
- Do Not — ride elephants or attend a circus
Support Field Research
Dr. Barbara McKnight has conducted non-interference research on the behavior of Tsavo elephants at the population and known individual levels since 1989. Many of the known bulls and families have been monitored for more than a decade. She works full time in Tsavo studying elephant behavior. Her research focuses on the short and long term influences of environmental conditions and human activities on Tsavo elephants: age structure, social organization, reproductive patterns, habitat use, and core-home range. She has also studied elephant behavior on private land adjacent to the park: elephant numbers, group structure, temporal-spatial distribution, and movements between the National park and private land. Her current research is focused specifically on known bull social dynamics and long-term bonds in Tsavo East National Park.
She is affiliated with the Kenya Wildlife Service, a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and on the Scientific Advisory Board for Wildize Foundation.
Before starting elephant behavior field work Barbara studied marine mammals (whales and dolphins) for three years off the coast of California. She worked for two years in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps as a teacher and nutritionist at the Dessie drought relief camp. She received her Ph.D. and M.Sc. from the University of Oxford, UK and a BA from the University of Northern Colorado, US.
Donations
Funds are needed to continue this long-term study on elephant behavior: continue the study on known bull social dynamics and hire a team of Kenyan field assistants, who will focus on the behavior of known families.
Please send your donation to Wildize Foundation, www.wildize.org with a notation directing the funds to Tsavo Elephant Research. Wildize Foundation, is a long-term supporter of this research project, a US registered nonprofit organization (donations are tax deductible).
To make donations directly to the project contact Barbara for instructions. Email: bmcknight@tsavoelephants.org