The matriarch was euthanized on Monday by teams from the Kenya Wildlife Service, after she collapsed multiple times, a press release said.
It is believed her death was brought on from old age, made worse by the drought.
The elephant was the leader of a herd known as the Storms family, which roams the Samburu National Reserve and regularly observed by Save the Elephants—a nonprofit conservation charity . She birthed seven calves in her lifetime and was known to researchers for being particularly resilient.
Her death followed nearly a month of rescue efforts. Save the Elephants and the Kenyan Wildlife Service North Kenya Veterinary Unit first found her lying down on August 31. She was given assistance to get back to her feet and vitamins. But just a few days later, she was found collapsed again.
Kenya is experiencing its worst drought in decades and the lack of rainfall is putting pressure on resources, for wildlife and humans. According to Save the Elephants, the drought is so severe that elephants are desperate for food, which is scarce in the parched landscape of northern Kenya.
One of the main problems is a lack of grass, which has all been eaten by starving livestock. Elephants are tearing down acacia trees and wandering into human areas in search of food, the charity said in a press release.
“The drought is making life much harder for wildlife and people. And everyone’s praying for the rain and waiting for the rain and hoping that the grass will return once again,” Save the Elephants CEO, Frank Pope, told Newsweek. “You need rain for plants to grow and animals need plants to eat and there’s not been enough rain.”
Despite Monsoon surviving much adversity during her lifetime, Save the Elephants said it is often vulnerable, older elephants such as her that succumb to the pressures of drought.
Monsoon was estimated to be around 60 years old. She survived being shot five times by poachers and lost two of her calves but in 2018 she gave birth for the first time in nine years. This surprised experts at Save the Elephants as elephants rarely give birth under stressful conditions. Therefore the calf was seen as a sign that the elephants were recovering following a poaching crisis.
“She’s a survivor. [She’d] gone through everything that elephants have gone through in the north of Kenya [and it’s] a testament to her strength…The combination of the drought of 2009 and the subsequent poaching. Up until 2014, we lost a quarter of all the matriarchs in this ecosystem,” Pope said.
“Monsoon survived all of these things to be euthanized in the end, just to end her suffering…because of the combination of her old age and the drought.”
Monsoon’s story paints a wider picture on the impact the drought is having on both humans and wildlife.
“When the rain does come, unfortunately, this is a really fragile ecosystem and there is now so much pressure, because of a bigger human population and the bigger livestock population. Every time the rain comes, the grass comes back a bit less than it did before,” Pope said.
“We can be categorical about the impact of overgrazing on this ecosystem. And it’s a ticking time bomb for all the people that depend on the grasslands of northern Kenya, and for the wildlife.”
Correction 10/1/22 ET 4:22 a.m: This article has been corrected to say Monsoon was euthanized by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
