Four elephants joined Twitter this week, thanks to Space for Giants, an international conservation charity in the UK that helps develop and implement conservation strategies for the animals. As part of the charity’s projects, it has outfitted several elephants in Laikipia, Central Kenya, with GPS collars to monitor their movements.
While the project gives the team insight into the animals’ daily lives, it also offers them the opportunity to follow four of the tagged bull elephants on Twitter, according to the charity’s latest blog post. The animals will share their daily adventures, the distance they covered, trouble they run into, and who they like to spend time with. Followers can also see what mischief the giants get into.
The four tagged elephants are Kimani, Carlos, Tyson, and Evgeny. The Daily Dot notes that the purpose of the project is to drum up interest for the species, rather than a similar GPS campaign involving sharks, which was started to warn people when they are close.
Diane Vollmerhausen, a Space for Giants worker who writes the tweets, explained to the Dot, “The GPS collars are primarily being used by Space for Giants’ community scouts in Kenya, who can access the data via a mobile phone app.” She added of the Twitter campaign, “The tweets are factual in nature including their movement but also personal traits that we have picked up following them over time.”
Along with tweets from the elephants, the group’s Twitter account also talks about ivory sales and poaching the massive creatures.
https://youtu.be/4N_KAOTxcrE
[Image: Arno Meintjes Wildlife]
0 Comments