Pictures: Great Kenyan elephant count
- Published
The Kenya Wildlife Service scientists prepare their plane for the aerial count of the elephants in the Tsavo West national park, Kenya.
Counting the elephants isn't easy though as they roam an area almost five times the size of Wales. It will take them around 4 days to count from the air.
The results of the count help park management make decisions on how the elephants should be protected.
35,000 elephants roamed the Tsavo West national park in the late 1960s, but by 1988 numbers had dropped to approximately 5,400.
The 2011 count revealed the elephant population in the area had increased to 12,572 which was 1,299 more than three years earlier.
The distribution and condition of elephants in Kenya is a good indicator of the overall status of wildlife in the national park.
Tsavo is the largest protected area in Kenya and hosts a third of all of Kenya's estimated 30,000 elephants.
Conservationists are hopeful that the number of elephants in the area continue to rise.
