The people of Kenya hve come up with an innovative way to protect their crops: placing mobile phone cards on the collar of an elephant. Elephants in this part of the world have been known to destroy the crops of local residents, wiping out months and months and hard work and income. These phone cards allow rangers to be alerted through text when an elephant is coming into a residential area, and they promptly rush to the scene. Usually, simply flashing car headlights to an approaching elephant would be enough to scare the animal back into the wild. The most usual invader of these crop is an elephant named Kimani, which has been intercepted by authorities from destroying crops 15 times. This practice of installing phone cards began two years ago as an effort by a group called Save The Elephants who became concerned after about five elephants were shot (albeit reluctantly) by the Kenya WIldlife Service for raiding the crops of the local residents. The move seems to work, although it remains to be seen for how much longer rangers will be patient in responidng to these text messages.
ORIGINAL PHOTO and ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_re_af/af_kenya_texting_elephants;_ylt=AvBhWxCQyXUDx3rP3_UQ3SkjtBAF
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