Conservation and Management Strategy for the Elephant in Kenya

xi CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ELEPHANT IN KENYA
GLOSSARY
Actions: The activities which need to be implemented to achieve the strategy’s objectives and, ultimately, its goals
and vision.
Actors: Those individuals responsible for actions.
Adult: A mature individual elephant.
Aggregation: Gathering, which can be as large as 200–500 elephants. This may include dozens of family units and a number
of mature males; larger aggregations form mainly during the rainy season in areas where food is plentiful and are usually
associated with peak mating activity. Aggregations are also sometimes seen in populations that have been heavily decimated
by poaching or other disturbances.
Calf: A young elephant, dependant on the mother (until 3–5 years of age).
CITES: Acronym for ‘Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’, a treaty
signed in 1975 by many countries to regulate the international trade in wild animals and plants that are included in
its Appendices, and in products and derivatives made thereof, including elephants and elephant products.
Compression Hypothesis: High density of elephants, owing to restriction of their range by human settlement.
Cow: An adult female elephant over 15 years old.
Culling: The killing of animals that may be regarded as excess in a population; a strategic game-management
tool used by some wildlife officials. With elephants, the aim is for entire family units to be removed at once.
Constraint: Factors which contribute to or compound the threats. For example, lack of political will and resources
might contribute to diminished or reduced law enforcement, leading in turn to over-exploitation.
Ecosystem: A complete community of living organisms and the non-living materials of their surroundings.
Its components include plants, animals, micro-organisms, soil, rocks and minerals, as well as surrounding
water sources and the local atmosphere.
Elephas maximus: Asian elephant usually divided into 4 subspecies: E.m. borneensis (Borneo elephant),
E. m. indicus (Indian elephant), E. m. maximus (Sri Lankan elephant), E. m. sumatranus (Sumatran elephant).
Goal: A rephrasing of the Vision in operational terms to capture in greater detail what needs to be done, and where (to save
the species). Goals have the same long-term time frame and wide spatial scale as the Vision. Goals use the same criteria for
what it means to save a species as those agreed when developing the Vision (for example, striving to achieve ecologically
functioning populations).
Goal Target: Goal targets provide a medium-term (typically 5–10 years) subset of the goals. Thus they represent those goals
that can realistically be achieved over the lifetime of the strategy (and/or those steps towards achieving the goals that can
realistically be achieved over the lifetime of the strategy). Like all targets, goal targets should be SMART.
Group: General term for a number of elephants showing coordinated movement and behaviour.
Growth Rate: The natural increase in the size of a population, otherwise referred to as yearly growth rate.