Liqueur brand aids elephant tracking initiative
Amarula lent its support to a team of specialists who monitor and assess the impact of elephants on the environment with a collaring exercise that took place at the end of October 2008.
The initiative is just one component of the work undertaken by the Amarula Elephant Research Programme (AERP) in partnership with South African National Parks (SANParks), and allows for the tracking of elephant movement rates and ranging behaviour.
Established in July 2002, the AERP at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, enables research by a team of local and international academics, working in close partnership with government conservation agencies and private game reserves, to develop best practice for conservation management of elephants in a responsible and sustainable manner. This Amarula sponsored programme is only a part of the brand's Corporate Social Investment initiative.
This particular collaring was tied in with the well-received Amarula promotional consumer drive in the UK where winners were given the opportunity to witness the procedure and name the elephant. The successfully deployed collar is now recording the location of an adult female elephant and her family every 30 minutes as she wanders through the Lower-Sabie area of the park. Each collaring costs in the region of R30,000, and an ongoing programme hopes to collar up to 20 elephants over the next 12 months to ensure long-term continuous data.
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