Two elephant calves, one dry season, and a corridor that works

In late September, camera trap 14 on the northern boundary recorded something we had hoped for since 2022: a family of elephants moving through the farm corridor, including two calves under a year old.

The corridor is only 400 metres wide. It took three seasons to fence the cropland edge, plant thorny acacia as a living barrier, and agree grazing rules with neighbouring households. None of it would work without those households.

What does one sighting prove? Alone, very little. But paired with dung transects and the ranger logbook, it suggests the herd has adopted our route during the dry season, when water is scarce elsewhere.

Next season we will add two more camera traps, share the footage with WWF, and run a community evening where neighbours can see the images and tell us what they have noticed.