Can We See Some ID?

©Sanjay Gubbi

Scientists in India are using a new survey method to create a virtual “Who’s Who” of male Asian elephants. The researchers, from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and India’s Nature Conservation Foundation, are recording the unique shapes and sizes of the animals’ tusks, ears, and other distinguishing features in a photographic archive. In African elephants, both sexes have tusks, but only male Asian elephants have the valuable ivory. The ability to identify individual males—which are sought by poachers—will be a powerful conservation tool.

Over an 80-day period, the scientists took more than 2,400 photographs of elephants on roads and at waterholes. For the males, the scientists recorded tusk length, thickness, angle, and arrangement, as well as ear shape, shoulder height, tail length, and scars. The results identified 134 males in a population of 991 elephants—approximately one-quarter of the adults. This new research method can help conservationists monitor poaching rates, and will aid law enforcers in identifying elephant carcasses.

In addition to poaching, male elephants are killed by human farmers defending their fields from crop-raiders. Currently, it is difficult to know how many male elephants raid crops. Recognizing individual males that are prone to trespassing on farms can improve management efforts.

“The rigor of this technique can help us achieve real conservation success with the Asian elephants, which are threatened across their 13-country range,” said WCS conservationist Dr. Ullas Karanth. Karanth pioneered the use of the photographic survey method while studying tigers, and he co-authored the elephant study with WCS researcher Varun Goswami. Their findings were published in the August issue of the journal Animal Conservation.

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