Kenya moves 50 elephants to a larger park, says it's a sign poaching is low

MWEA, Kenya (AP) — As a helicopter hovers close to an elephant, trying to be as steady as possible, an experienced veterinarian cautiously takes aim.

A tranquilizer dart whooshes in the air, and within minutes the giant mammal surrenders to a deep slumber as teams of wildlife experts rush to measure its vitals and ensure it's doing OK.

Kenya is suffering from a problem, albeit a good one: The elephant population in the 42-square-kilometer (16-square-mile) Mwea National Reserve, east of the capital Nairobi, has flourished from its capacity of 50 to a whopping 156, overwhelming the ecosystem and requiring the relocation of about 100 of the largest land animals. It hosted 49 elephants in 1979.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Erustus Kanga, the overpopulation in Mwea highlighted the success of conservation effort s over the last three decades.

“This shows that poaching has been low and the elephants have been able to thrive,” Kanga said.

Experts started relocating 50 elephants last week to the expansive 780-square-kilometer (301-square-mile) Aberdare National Park in central Kenya. As of Monday, 44 elephants had been moved from Mwea to Aberdare, with six others scheduled for Tuesday.

Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano oversaw the move of five of the elephants on Monday, saying: “This will go down in history as a record, as it is the biggest exercise of its kind. It is the first time we are witnessing the translocation of 50 elephants at a go.”

The process started at dawn and involved a team of more than 100 wildlife specialists, with equipment ranging from specially fitted trucks to aircraft and cruisers. A fixed-wing aircraft conducted aerial surveillance to track down herds of elephants, which naturally move in small families of about five. The craft was in constant communication with two helicopters used to herd and separate the elephants to ensure they were relocated with their family units.

Aboard one of the helicopters is a spotter, on the lookout for elephants, and a veterinarian with a tranquilizer gun.

Once an elephant is sedated, a ground team of veterinary specialists and rangers rushes to find it and clear thickets to make way for transport crews. Its vitals are monitored as another group of rangers works on lifting the massive animal, weighing hundreds of kilograms, onto specialized trucks, to be driven 120 kilometers (74 miles) to their new home.

Kanga, the wildlife service director, said the relocation also aimed at curbing human-wildlife conflict.

Boniface Mbau, a resident of the area, said: “We are very happy that the government has decided to reduce the number of elephants from the area. Due to their high numbers, they did not have enough food in the reserve, and they ended up invading our farms."

A second phase to relocate 50 other elephants is planned, but the date has not been disclosed.

The project has cost at least 12 million Kenyan shillings ($93,000), the wildlife agency said.

Kenya’s national parks and reserves are home to a variety of wildlife species and attract millions of visitors annually, making the country a tourism hotspot.

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Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team relocate an elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service vet with a thermometer prepares to take a temperature of an elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service vet takes a temperature of an elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Elephants captured by Kenya Wildlife Service rangers loaded on a truck at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team weigh an elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team load an elephant into a truck at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team take records of an elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Members of the public watch as Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team release five elephants at Aberdare National Park, located in central Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team hold a briefing at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team cool down a sedated elephant at Mwea National Park, east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.

It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 people captive inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel for the past year. Israel escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.

Rumors circulated for weeks over head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status after an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

Here's the latest:

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.

A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.

In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.

Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.

“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.

Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.

Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.

Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.

Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.

The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.

“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.

Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight