Initial findings of an ongoing study cast a light on how Ol Pejeta's elephants use the specially designed wildlife corridors along our fence line.
 
Ol Pejeta has extensive wildlife corridors - which allow free movement of elephants through safe passageways
 
Ol Pejeta's Ecological Monitoring Unit (EMU) have teamed up with the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) to launch an in-depth study on the use of the Conservancy's wildlife corridors by elephants. These corridors are strategically placed to allow elephants free movement between Ol Pejeta, and the greater Laikipia ecosystem. This is important for several reasons, not least because elephants are migratory animals that cover vast distances as the seasons change.
 

The gaps in the wooden posts allow every animal - except for rhinos - to pass over or through. The stone wall presents an optical illusion for rhinos, who see it as impassable.  

The study, headed by Dr. Jens Jung, analyses images from camera traps set up at the fence gaps. Dr. Jens and a team of students from SLU have released preliminary results how the elephants are using these gaps at different times of the day.
Images from gap 2 and 3 in two time periods amounted to 78 days between the years 2014 & 2015. Results show that there were as many as 139 individual elephants, 62 family groups and 43 adult groups that used that gaps during this time. Findings revealed that peak usage was at dusk, around 7pm, and midnight.

 
Previous studies have shown that elephants are mainly active at night in the dry season. "It will be interesting to see how these results  compare with the wet season results as the study continues" says Benard Gituku, Research Officer with the EMU. 
 

 
This study initially assumed that elephants would prefer to stay within Ol Pejeta, where they feel protected. Contrary to this expectation there was almost equal inward and outward movement.