A teacher in Kenya captured the moment elephants joined her students during a lunchtime break
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Students of Kunchu Primary School in Amboseli, Kenya, had a surprise visit from a group of elephants during their lunchtime break. Alerting their teacher, Betty Silantoi, schoolkids were kept safe from the elephants through solar-powered fences – built by WWF – separating their habitat from the school grounds
‘I allowed the pupils to go for lunch, then two minutes later, they were back running, ‘Teacher, elephants are near the fence!’ Silantoi said. ‘Then I remembered I’d just left my phone in class. I picked it up and ran to where the elephants were. We had ten minutes of a [wildlife] park within the school. It was beautiful.’
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Although an exciting experience, coming face-to-face with wild elephants has clear risks. Elephants are the world’s largest land animal, with adult bull elephants standing up to three metres high and weighing a mighty 6,000 kilograms. If they are surprised or feel threatened, elephants can charge and risk hurting people.
In the neighbouring Tsavo landscape in Kenya, a project is underway to install solar-powered elephant deterrent fences around a school and clinic bordering Tsavo National Park. The southern border of the park is a vital corridor for elephants to travel into northern Tanzania.
However, in the dry season, elephants often venture into community lands and target water tanks in schools and homes, creating safety concerns for young children on their way to school and disrupting vital water supplies.
Barriers such as the solar-powered fences help to maintain optimal water supplies and reduce the risk of conflict between communities and wildlife.
