Thailand’s wildlife authorities have efficiently tracked and tagged a 3rd of the wild elephant in the Phu Luang wildlife sanctuary in the north-eastern province of Loei (near the Laos border) attaching a GPS collar which is able to follow the elephant’s activities after many had left their regular grazing grounds for food.
The GPS collars are being connected to five elephants and 3 have already been fitted, according to the director of the training centre for wildlife conservation, of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Supagit Vinitpornsawan.
Each GPS collar weighs roughly 10 kilograms or less than zero.2% of an elephant’s body weight. He agreed that some elephants may be ‘annoyed’ once the collars have been connected and will try to remove it, however that they ultimately adapt and never even notice the GPS collars.
Straightforward that depart their pure environment to hunt for food usually tend to damage crops grown by villagers close to the wildlife sanctuaries or nationwide parks.
“This will result in battle between villagers and wild animals.”
The aim is to tag sixty seven elephants, but since 2018 only 11 elephants had a GPS tracker connected..