The Amarula Elephant Research Programme (AERP) under the leadership of Prof Rob Slotow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is recognised as a global authority on African elephant behaviour. It is funded by the not-for-profit Amarula Trust.
Amarula’s spokeswoman Siobhan Thompson says elephants are the focus of Amarula’s research programme because they are known to relish marula fruits that ripen in summer. The research programme, involving post-doctoral and other researchers, includes field studies and analysis of information derived from GPS devices fitted to elephants and that record their movements at 30-minute intervals.
Findings have helped to understand how elephants respond to barriers like fencing and what happens when these barriers are removed. Researchers have also discovered that elephants can be quite particular in choosing trees on which to browse and they know that male and female elephants feed differently.
“Everything learned can be applied to better elephant conservation management,” says Thompson.
Amarula has also developed an app, downloadable from Facebook that lets viewers track six collared elephants roaming in the Kruger National Park. Through images and video footage, observers can witness them in the wild and learn some very interesting facts about elephant behaviour.
Visit www.amarula.com or www.facebook.com/amarula for more.
