Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments ver the nearly 40 years of the Amboseli Ele- Financial support for AERP has come from many phant Research Project (AERP), there are obvi- sources. So many people and organizations have been gen- O ously many, many individuals, organizations, and erous over all these years, and their backing has been cru- bodies that deserve acknowledgment. The institutional and cial. Some have given private money, others, through their monetary support of these many entities made it possible to own or family foundations. Many stand out for support- start the research and, most importantly, to keep it going ing AERP almost from the beginning and year after year over a very long period. Without them there would have thereafter. We would like to thank the following major do- been no project, and we would know far less about ele- nors (in alphabetical order): the African Wildlife Founda- phants than we do today. tion, Bob Barker, Beginning with Children, the Born Free We would like to start by thanking those who have sup- Foundation, the Leonard X. Bosack and Bette M. Kruger ported the overall project. The individual authors’ acknowl- Charitable Foundation, the Lynne Chase Wildlife Founda- edgments will follow. tion, Angela and Graham Chidgey, Dr. Charles Colao, the First and foremost, we thank the Kenya government Cedar Hill Foundation, Laura and Jack Dangermond, the for their hospitality and their permission to study the ele- Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Donner Founda- phants, which are their precious natural resource. In par- tion, the Detroit Zoological Society, the East Bay Zoologi- ticular we thank the Government of Kenya Offi ce of the cal Society, ESRI, the Fair Play Foundation, the Howard President and the National Council of Science and Tech- Gilman Foundation, Steven Gold (through the Wildlife nology for research clearance; the former Kenya National Conservation Network), Deanna Gursky, the International Parks and former Wildlife Conservation and Management Fund for Animal Welfare, the National Geographic Society, Department, and the present- day Kenya Wildlife Service for Jan and Vic Overman, the Pumpkin Foundation, the Rogers permission to work and reside in Amboseli National Park. Family Foundation, Willard and Susannah Rouse, Jane and The Kenyan Wildlife Service, DRSRS (formerly KREMU), Paul Schosberg, the Shifting Foundation, the Synchronicity and the National Museums of Kenya provided local spon- Foundation, the Tapeats Fund, the African Elephant Con- sorship. We are grateful to all these institutions for permis- servation Fund of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the sions and support. Wallis Foundation, and Wildlife Conservation International We would also like to thank our hosts in the greater (formerly the New York Zoological Society). We thank Ste- Amboseli ecosystem—the Ilkisongo Maasai, and particu- phen Woo, who in addition to being a consistent donor, cre- larly the leaders of the seven group ranches surrounding the ated and hosted the Elephant Trust Web site. Park. They have been consistently hospitable and always Special thanks go to the organizations that helped us at willing to work hard to try to fi nd ways to accommodate the very beginning back in 1972 when we were trying to elephants on their land. get started. The African Wildlife Foundation helped to raise xii Acknowledgments funds, administratively housed the project, and then contin- back in 1981, with the help of Duncan MacKinder, allowed ued to so for the next 28 years. Their support was crucial us to use their mainframe computer for storing and ana- and much appreciated. Cash and in- kind support in those lyzing the data up to November of that year. Almost an- early days were also provided by the University of Nairobi other 20 years went by before we were able to enter the new Biology of Conservation program within the Zoology De- data. Paul Krystall designed a database and a user- friendly partment, the Ford Foundation, and the East African Wild data entry system for the long- term sightings; all the data Life Society. were entered by the end of 2000. Two years later when we Many individuals have been loyal supporters and enthu- wanted to amalgamate the Cambridge database with the siasts of the project over the years and have shown their new one, we ran into serious problems. Truly a knight in concern in many ways, including simply writing or sending shining armor came along in the form of Hans- George a small gift to boost our morale in hard times. There are Michna, a computer wizard and friend of AERP. He worked too many to acknowledge individually but we thank you his magic and by 2003 we fi nally had a working database. for your caring and your steadfastness to the project and Hans continues to sort out problems with the database as the elephants. well as hosting our website and e- mail. He does all of this The Amboseli Elephant Research Project became a part on a volunteer basis and we cannot thank him enough. We of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants when ATE was created also thank Justine Cordingley for extracting behavioral data in 2000. The ATE exists as a not- for- profi t trust both in the from the fi eld notes. United States and in Kenya. The writing of this book has oc- Many of the analyses and ideas on differences in spa- curred under its auspices. We would like to thank the Board tial distributions originated from the ideas and insights of of Trustees for their support, help, and encouragement John Calkins of ESRI, the Environmental Systems Research throughout: (in alphabetical order) David Breskin, Nan Bu- Institute, who, together with Liz Sarrow, set up our GIS, zard, Lynn Chase, Wilton W. Cogswell IV, Catherine Grel- programmed the analysis tools, and produced the originals let, Neill Heath, Kathryn Heminway, Richard Leakey, Bruce of many of the fi gures and maps used in this volume. ESRI Ludwig, Lia Reed, Isabella Rossellini, Susannah Rouse, and generously supported the GIS research. Don Young. (The ATE- Kenya trustees—Cynthia Moss, A number of other individuals on behalf of their organi- Harvey Croze, Joyce Poole, and Soila Sayialel—are all con- zations have provided data or data acquisition support, and tributors to this volume.) The ATE’s Executive Director in particular thanks are due to: Jenifer Austin and Tanya Keen the United States, Betsy Swart, deserves a huge thanks for for an on- going license for GoogleEarth-Pro; Russ Kruska all that she did to create and develop ATE- US, all that she and Fred Atieno of ILRI for GIS advice and data; Paul does to keep the organization running, and for the special Manson of the Trimble Corporation for support to early at- help she gives all of us in big and small ways. tempts at automated data- capture; David Murray for free A number of donors and organizations helped with the access to Propel Accelerator software; Peter Ndunda (a for- writing of this book. We particularly want to thank Robert mer ATE- supported postgrad) of the Greenbelt Movement and Joan Donner and Joseph and Carol Reich, who sup- for being a 24 / 7 GIS helpdesk; Willy Simons and the tal- ported writing workshops and stipends through their foun- ented staff of ESRI- East Africa for ArcGIS updates and sup- dations: the Donner Foundation and the Jewish Communal port; Asbindu Singh, Paul Akiwumi, and Michael Mwangi Fund. The Barbara Delano Foundation paid for the creation of UNEP, Mark Ernste of the USGS EROS Data Center, and of the Access data base needed to carry out the analysis of Rose Mayienda of AWF for providing satellite and GIS Am- the long- term data. Other organizations and individuals boseli data. provided critical sponsorship in the form of workshops and All research was carried out under the guidelines of the writing retreats. We especially thank the White Oak Con- Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) for servation Center (with particular thanks to John Lucas and the treatment of wild animals during fi eld work, and ethical Becky Thompson), where the editors and sub- editors held clearance for research was obtained from all relevant insti- two important workshops; the National Center for Ecologi- tutions and departments. cal Analysis and Synthesis (with particular thanks to Sandy Each of the authors in this book would like to thank the Andelman, Jim Reichman, and Kirsten Parris), where on all-important fi eld staff—Soila Sayialel, Norah Wamaitha three different occasions the authors and editors worked Njiraini, and Catherine Katito Sayialel—for their participa- in a very stimulating atmosphere analyzing data; and Su- tion in every element of the project. Without their dedica- sannah Rouse, who hosted our group at the Lewa Conser- tion and hard work, this research would not be half as suc- vancy, where we held a very productive three- week writing cessful or productive. They have collected fecal and tissue retreat. samples, measured footprints, did focal samples, recorded Some individuals were instrumental in helping with the sightings, carried out censuses, maintained the AERP long- 30- plus years of data analysis. First Cambridge University, term records, and rescued elephants and many people. In Acknowledgments xiii addition, they have contributed to the writing of a number further supported by the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, the of papers and chapters in this volume. Their commitment Amboseli Elephant Research Project, and Duke University. to the elephants is unparalleled and unwavering. We also Christine Browne- Nuñez thanks Cynthia Moss, Susan want to thank Robert Ntuawasa Sayialel for his work on Jacobson, and Jerry Vaske for advice; and for funding, the the sightings, long- term records, and tracking data, as well U.S. Fulbright Program, the Disney Wildlife Conservation as general IT support in the fi eld.