Successful Training Session for Maasai Elephant Scouts

A four-day training session was held at ERC (Elephant Research Camp) in Amboseli for thirteen of our Maasai Elephant Scouts between 9 and 13 June 2008.

The Scouts extend ATE's presence in the ecosystem, beyond the boundaries of the relatively tiny Amboseli National Park. While recording signs of elephant's presence, they also provide early warning of community concerns. And, by the very fact of their employment (thanks to donor money leveraged by ATE), they serve as goodwill ambassadors for elephants and wildlife in general.

The sessions were guided by the agile interactions of Soila Sayialel (AERP Project Manager), Norah Njiraini (ATE Training Coordinator), Katito Sayialel (Field Research Assistant), Robert Ntauwasa (ATE IT Expert-in-Training), Patrick Papatiti (CBOSS Scout Consultant), Harvey Croze (ATE Trustee), with a special presentation by KWS Community Warden, Adan Kala.

The training focussed on improving the Scouts' skills requirements for collecting information in the context of our new so-called 'Cell-Based Observational Sampling System, CBOSS. Specifically, we gave them introductions and refreshers to maps, mobile phones and GPS (global positioning satellite) units:

• Map basics, including topography of familiar local landmarks, scale, mappable information. We want to get the Scouts used to looking at a map expression of the ecosystem. The session finished with the Scouts pin-pointing their home bases that will be the centres of their information-gathering 'cells'.
• Mobile phones for information transmission and early warning. Although most of the Scouts already have their own personal phones, we presented each with Nokia 1100i with a pre-paid Safaricom line to serve as a direct conduit to Soila. They were shown some tricks of Service Requests to reduce airtime and costs.
• Garmin eTrex GPS units (the yellow things in the images) were issued to each Scout and much of the rest of the training homed in on showing them the mysteries of tracking and setting waypoints of elephant observations. The waypoints along with the information collected -- elephants seen, dung piles, footprints or broken vegegation -- are then transferred to standard datasheets. The tracking features of the GPS units will help us quantify sampling effort.

Map showing Scouts' home bases

Harvey introduced the session and led the module on mapping. He also tried valiantly to define 'ecosystem' in Kiswahili (eco- from the Greek 'oikos' meaning 'house' or 'nyumba' or 'nkang' in Maa; -system, as in a machine with many interconnected parts, like a 'tinga-tinga', diesel generator... and so on and so forth... Thankfully Patrick Papatiti was on hand to re-run the explanation in Maa. Robert Ntauwasa covered the functions and use of the mobile phones and the eTrex GPSs, with Norah, Soila and Katito actively looking over shoulders and coaching in the field.

Scouts working with GPS tracking in field

GPS use required repeat sessions and intensive field trials. Most of the Scouts learned quickly (a few of them had already been using GPS), but there were a couple who lagged behind, largely due to weakness in literacy skills. We have decided to invest a modest portion of the CBOSS budget for adult literacy classes for the few slower fellows.

Over the next few weeks, Patrick will visit the Scouts in their home bases to see how they are getting on. When they come to ERH (Elephant Research Headquarters) at Ol Tukai in the middle of the Park once a month for their remunerations, Robert will collect the datasheets and download the waypoints and tracks into his computer for cross-checking, quality control and analysis.

Cynthia & Soila give certificate to Nkatoile

The Scouts were presented with ID cards to define their status when meeting people in the field as well a illuminated certificate of achievement at the end of the course.

The training will augment ATE's data collection in the ecosystem, and provision of part-time employment to the Scouts will foster goodwill in the community towards the programme and, by association, to the Amboseli elephants.

(This portion of the ATE programme is supported by several generous donors: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the National Geographic Society, and the Born Free Foundation.)

Joseph Sankala's new ID card

ID card reverse side