In Cameroon, wild elephants may number only a few thousand today, but Mike Loomis is determined to give them every chance to survive and thrive.
"I am passionate about elephant conservation," says Loomis, chief veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoological Park.
For two months each year during the past 15 years, Loomis and a team of experts have tracked Cameroon's wild elephants to collar them with signaling devices that monitor the animals' movements for at least a year. So far, he has collared about 40 elephants. (According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, there are roughly 5,000 elephants in Cameroon.)
"By understanding the movement patterns of the elephants, we are getting an idea of when they leave protected areas and where they go," Loomis says. This information helps establish nonlethal ways to keep elephants out of agricultural areas and to inform anti-poaching patrols as to where to concentrate their protection efforts.
African elephants were added to the endangered species list by the World Wildlife Fund and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1978. This places restrictions on the importation into the United States of either the animal or its parts. About 600 foreign species are listed, compared to about 1,400 species native to the United States.
