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Detusking Fence-Breaker Elephants as an Approach in Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Human-elephant conflict (HEC) is a recurring problem that appears wherever the range of elephants and humans overlap. Different methods including the use of electric fences are used worldwide to mitigate this conflict. Nonetheless, elephants learn quickly that their tusks do not conduct electricity and use them to break down fences (fence-breakers). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya, destructive elephants (Loxodonta africana) were monitored between 2010 and 2013. The fence-breaking rate reached four incidents (fence-breaking) per elephant per 100 days. Ten bull males and 57 females were identified as fence-breakers. The bulls were involved in 85.07% and the females in 14.93% of incidents. The Kenya Wildlife Service approved detusking (partial cutting of tusks) in four of the 10 fence-breakers as a way of preventing them from breaking down fences, thereby mitigating HEC in the Conservancy. The result of the detusking was a drastic six-fold reduction in damage to fences (range: 1.67 to 14.5 times less fence-breaking) by the four worst fence-breaker elephants, because with trimmed tusks elephants lack the tools to break down fences. Detusking could not totally eliminate fence destruction because, despite lacking their tools, elephants can still destroy fences using their heads, bodies and trunks, albeit less effectively. On the other hand, apart from inherent aesthetic considerations, the detusking of elephants may have certain negative effects on factors such as elephants' social hierarchies, breeding, mate selection and their access to essential minerals and food. CONCLUSIONS: Elephant detusking seems to be effective in drastically reducing fence-breaking incidents, nonetheless its negative effects on behaviour, access to food and its aesthetical consequences still need to be further studied and investigated.
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“some elephants learn to use their tusks, which do not conduct electricity, as a way to manipulate and break electric fences (Mutinda et al., 2014)”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Mutinda et al., 2014
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“elephants have been observed overcoming barriers to access and forage on crop fields (Fernando et al., 2008; Kioko et al., 2008; Mutinda et al., 2014)”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Mutinda et al., 2014
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“To access crops, elephants have learned to overcome barriers, such as electric fences, that are meant to deter them from entering crop fields (Kioko et al., 2008; Mutinda et al., 2014).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Mutinda et al., 2014
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“In the wild, elephants have demonstrated their ability to find solutions to novel problems when they determine how to overcome barriers, such as electric fences, to enter crop fields to forage (Fernando et al., 2008; Kioko et al., 2008; Mutinda et al., 2014).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Mutinda et al., 2014
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Elephant barrier behaviors in response to conflict mitigation fences
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Metadata
- Authors
- Mutinda, M., Chenge, G., Gakuya, F., Otiende, M., Omondi, P., Kasiki, S., Soriguer, R. C., & Alasaad, S.
- Affiliations
- Kenya Wildlife Service (KE)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Alasaad, Samer
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-03-10
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e91749
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3948880
- OpenAlex
- W2054351282
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Greater South Information System
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
- Keywords
- human-elephant conflict, elephant tusks, electric fences, Loxodonta africana, social hierarchy
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Structures, Conflict, Psychological, Conservation of Natural Resources, Elephants, Female, Humans, Kenya, Male, Time Factors
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