Drought forces suspension of massive Kenyan elephant relocation

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

NAIROBI (AFP) — Drought has forced Kenyan wildlife authorities to indefinitely put off the resumption of a massive elephant transfer billed as "the single largest translocation of animals ever undertaken since Noah's Ark," officials said.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) had planned this month to resume the relocation of 400 jumbos from an overcrowded coastal reserve to a more spacious inland national park after it suspended the operation in September, expecting that rains would hamper the move.

But the November and December short rains never came, putting millions of humans, livestock and wildlife at risk around the country and forcing the KWS to cancel the restart of the operation, officials said.

"Due to the current drought, we cannot resume the...