An adult elephant arrives at Mpala carrying a spear wound — likely the result of a human-wildlife conflict incident in surrounding pastoralist land. Veterinarians from the Kenya Wildlife Service treat the wound on site, working alongside Mpala rangers to monitor recovery.
Spear wounds on elephants are a recurring symptom of friction between large herbivores and the people whose crops or livestock they cross. Treating individual animals is one half of the answer; the other is the longer work of community engagement and compensation that reduces conflict at its source.