title: Detusking fence-breaker elephants as an approach in human-elephant conflict mitigation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human-elephant conflict (HEC) is a recurring problem that appears wherever the range of elephants and humans overlap. Different methods including the use of electric fences are used worldwide to mitigate this conflict. Nonetheless, elephants learn quickly that their tusks do not conduct electricity and use them to break down fences (fence-breakers).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya, destructive elephants (Loxodonta africana) were monitored between 2010 and 2013. The fence-breaking rate reached four incidents (fence-breaking) per elephant per 100 days. Ten bull males and 57 females were identified as fence-breakers. The bulls were involved in 85.07% and the females in 14.93% of incidents. The Kenya Wildlife Service approved detusking (partial cutting of tusks) in four of the 10 fence-breakers as a way of preventing them from breaking down fences, thereby mitigating HEC in the Conservancy. The result of the detusking was a drastic six-fold reduction in damage to fences (range: 1.67 to 14.5 times less fence-breaking) by the four worst fence-breaker elephants, because with trimmed tusks elephants lack the tools to break down fences. Detusking could not totally eliminate fence destruction because, despite lacking their tools, elephants can still destroy fences using their heads, bodies and trunks, albeit less effectively. On the other hand, apart from inherent aesthetic considerations, the detusking of elephants may have certain negative effects on factors such as elephants' social hierarchies, breeding, mate selection and their access to essential minerals and food.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elephant detusking seems to be effective in drastically reducing fence-breaking incidents, nonetheless its negative effects on behaviour, access to food and its aesthetical consequences still need to be further studied and investigated.
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mutinda
authors.affiliation: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Private Bag Isiolo, Kenya.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chenge
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gakuya
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Moses
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otiende
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Omondi
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kasiki
authors.affiliation: Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Ramón C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Soriguer
authors.affiliation: Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain; Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies (IEU), University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Samer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alasaad
mesh_terms: D000825:Animal Structures / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000818:Animals; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004606:Elephants / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors