It’s hard not to be moved by the stunning scenery of Lolldaiga; its beautiful rolling hills, open plains full of animals and outcrops of ancient, cedar forest. But it is only when you spend more than a night or two with us that you really begin to know and understand the landscape. You see how each element works together in harmony and how man-made elements have changed the ecosystem - both for good and bad.

For example, did you know that Lolldaiga Hills has over 100 man-made watering holes (dams) within its 49,000 acres? They were built by the previous owners of the ranch in the mid-1900’s to water the livestock that inhabited the land then. Cattle, sheep and pigs were all extensively farmed on Lolldaiga, while the wildlife and people who had called the land home prior were moved forcefully off. Now the watering holes provide thirsty wildlife and livestock with water to drink, in tandem.

Another example of how man-created changes to the landscape have provided a positive impact to the area as a whole is the fencing of the conservancy, in north and south, to protect both wildlife and farming communities of the unwanted effects of humans-wildlife conflict (HWC). The fence, which spans the whole conservancy (with passages as wildlife corridors to connect neighbours conservancies) provides a vital barrier between hungry and naughty elephants and farmer’s fields. The fence is constantly in need of fixing and checking and it is a major part of the work of the rangers.

However, over time, any act of goodwill can come back to bite. In the case of both of the above, human expansion and population growth has meant that wildlife such as elephants have an even smaller area of land to roam freely. A landscape like Lolldaiga (in terms of size, vegetation, other animals like predators) can comfortably maintain ~450 elephants yet in Q4 2022 it was estimated that Lolldaiga’s population of elephants was well over 1000, due to drought creating lack of water and vegetation in northern Kenya.

Good for sundowners, but where are all the trees? This open plain near Dam Samaki has a number of broken stumps which used to be trees. And see the tree line at the bottom of the hill? That is behind the elephant fence (therefore with a massive reduction of elephant activity to protect them) and the location of our camp.

You might be surprised by the biggest loser of this massive amount of elephants (certainly not our guests who were loving all the elephant watching on game drives!) but the area’s beautiful trees and forests. Elephants love to eat, itch and play with trees… the bigger the better. Massive acacias used as rubbing posts, yellowfever trees stripped of bark to chew and even cedars as playgrounds for the nursery herd. This may sound adorable, but the loss of these trees is devastating to the environment - you will all know how important trees and their root systems are to healthy soil, nutrient-rich grass and varied populations of invertebrate, insects and small mammals.

With this kind of tree destruction happening across Kenya, TSS Head Guide, James, told us about how in his homeland of Samburu, community members were wrapping chicken wire around the trucks of large, standing trees. He said that he had seen the success of the project and knew that elephants hated the feel of metal on their trunks and tusks (sort of like a piece of metal on your own teeth!). We had heard of using bee hives to protect trees (read more: https://africageographic.com/stories/bees-protect-large-trees-elephant-impact/) but never chicken wire so decided to give it a try, under the instruction of James.

Since then, we have earmarked around 100 large trees within the 5,000 acres nearest to our camp. Wrapping a tree is fairly easy (although fiddly) and when you get going you can do one tree in about 20 minutes. Once wrapped the tree is geo-tagged and dated to when it was completed - we will use this data to see how well the project works - and with this in mind we invited conservation-interested guests to join the experience and try for themselves. Since the pandemic, we have seen a marked increase in interest from our guests in participating in conservation activities while they are on holiday and are delighted to be able to share this interesting and important project with them.

The Ashton family from the UK were one such group who were game for car-climbing, tree-hugging day on holiday! Over the course of about two hours they wrapped three trees in the vicinity of the camp and collecting the data in the map. We hope to be able to share the data on how successful their efforts have been over the coming years. All three trees that they wrapped are large, healthy and old indigenous trees whose survival many species rely upon.

This interesting study of tree wrapping in South Africa had fair-to-good results over the 12 month test period, especially when it came to protecting trees from bark stripping. We look forward to wrapping more trees over the next year, with the help of our guests, and reporting back on the success of the project and whether it can be called a success.