At Ol Pejeta Conservancy, finding ways for people and wildlife to share the same landscape is one of the most important challenges facing conservation.
Elephants are a vital part of Kenya’s natural heritage, but their movements can also bring them into conflict with neighbouring communities, particularly where wildlife habitat meets agricultural land. When elephants break through fences, the consequences can extend well beyond damage to infrastructure. Crop losses can affect household incomes and food security, while repeated incidents can undermine local support for wildlife conservation.
Ol Pejeta is therefore taking a closer look at one of the most familiar tools used to manage these interactions: the fence.
With support from the Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF) and in collaboration with Save the Elephants, Ol Pejeta is undertaking a research project to test how different fence designs influence elephant behaviour, fence durability, maintenance requirements and the wider costs of preventing human-elephant conflict.
The aim is straightforward: develop fencing that is effective at deterring elephants, but is also practical, affordable and appropriate for the wider landscape.
A changing elephant landscape
Ol Pejeta’s elephant population has changed considerably over the past 15 years. Numbers increased from approximately 209 elephants in 2010 to around 551 in 2022, an increase driven in large part by seasonal movements into the Conservancy. These movements are influenced by conditions across the wider landscape, including drought and the availability of food and water.
More recently, elephant numbers have fluctuated as improved rainfall and vegetation conditions across Laikipia have encouraged elephants to disperse more widely. Ol Pejeta recorded 189 elephants in 2023 and 356 in 2025.
These changes highlight an important characteristic of elephant conservation: elephants do not recognise the boundaries that people create. Their movements respond to resources, weather and habitat conditions across a much larger landscape.
As elephants move between areas, interactions with people can increase. Human-elephant conflict has accounted for around a quarter of reported human-wildlife conflict incidents at Ol Pejeta in recent years. Reported incidents reached 84 in 2021 and 91 in 2022, before falling to 37 in 2023. In 2024, incidents increased again to 48, while 51 had already been recorded by October 2025.
Why do elephants break fences?
Ol Pejeta has a 120-kilometre electric perimeter fence, designed to manage wildlife movements while retaining controlled ecological connectivity through designated corridors.
Maintaining such a large fence is a significant operational undertaking. Elephants are responsible for more than 35% of recorded fence interruptions. Bulls may use their tusks to lift or twist wires, while some elephants push over fence posts with their feet.
The problem is not evenly distributed. Analysis of fence-breakage records has identified particular sections of the northern and eastern boundaries as recurring hotspots, especially where the fence borders community farmland. These areas can experience repeated breaches, sometimes several times a month. The locations correspond closely with elephant movement data and with attractants such as crops, water sources and salt licks.
This raises an important question. Rather than simply making fences taller or adding more wires, can we design them in a way that works with elephant behaviour?
From trial and error to experimental science
Ol Pejeta has been adapting its fencing systems for many years. Different configurations have included tall multi-wire fences, mesh fencing and outriggers, which extend from the fence to make it more difficult for elephants to reach the posts and wires.
More recently, shorter fences have shown considerable promise.
These designs are typically between 1.5 and 3 feet high and use fewer wire strands, combined with angled outriggers. The approach is based on a simple principle: a fence does not necessarily need to be tall if its design prevents an elephant from getting close enough to use its tusks or body weight to break it.
Some short-fence designs at Ol Pejeta have already deterred elephant fence breakages for several years in localised areas. However, these observations have not yet been subjected to a systematic experimental evaluation.
That is where the new project comes in.
Rather than assuming that one design is best, the research will deliberately test different configurations under field conditions. The project will examine the influence of fence height, outrigger height, outrigger spacing and vegetation management on elephant behaviour, fence performance and maintenance costs.
Putting the research into practice
Following some initial delays caused by heavy rains, Ol Pejeta is now actively implementing Activity 1 of the project: establishing the experimental short-fence sections.
Three identified elephant fence-breakage hotspots, Kibocha, Pelican and Garissa, are being incorporated into the trial. At each site, a three-kilometre section of existing tall fence will be replaced with two different short-fence configurations: 1.5 kilometres of a three-foot design and 1.5 kilometres of a two-foot design.
The experiment goes further than simply comparing two fence heights.
The sections will be divided into smaller experimental segments so that the team can test different outrigger heights and spacing, as well as different approaches to controlling vegetation beneath the fence. This creates a controlled field experiment in which specific elements of the fence can be compared while keeping other factors, such as post spacing, post depth and electrical voltage, consistent.
The result will be a much stronger evidence base for understanding what makes a fence effective.
Watching how elephants respond
The project is not simply measuring whether a fence breaks.
It is also examining what happens before a breach occurs.
Infrared camera traps will be deployed along the experimental fence sections to record elephant approaches and interactions with different configurations. The research team will be able to examine factors such as the number of elephants approaching a fence, how they respond to it and whether an approach results in retreat or a successful breach.
At the same time, fence technicians will carry out daily inspections and voltage checks. Damage will be recorded using GPS locations and information on the length and nature of the damage, including the number of wires broken and the animal responsible.
Monthly maintenance costs will also be tracked.
This combination of behavioural, ecological and operational data is important. A fence that prevents elephants from breaking through but requires frequent, expensive repairs may not be the most effective solution. Conversely, a cheaper fence is only useful if it provides reliable deterrence.
The research therefore aims to identify designs that work across all three dimensions: elephant behaviour, conservation effectiveness and cost.
Designing for more than elephants
There is another consideration.
Fences are designed to manage the movement of large animals, but they exist within ecosystems inhabited by many smaller species. A design that solves one problem while creating another would not represent a successful conservation intervention.
The project will therefore also consider the potential effects of different fence configurations on non-target species, including animals such as honey badgers, porcupines, tortoises and aardvarks.
This is particularly important when considering whether a successful design could eventually be applied more widely.
From Ol Pejeta to the wider landscape
The purpose of this research extends beyond Ol Pejeta’s boundary.
If shorter, carefully designed fences can provide effective elephant deterrence while reducing construction and maintenance requirements, they could offer a more sustainable approach to managing human-elephant conflict in other conservation areas.
The project has therefore been designed to generate practical evidence that can inform fencing strategies elsewhere in Kenya and potentially across sub-Saharan Africa. Its findings will be shared with conservation organisations, Kenya Wildlife Service, community representatives, researchers and other stakeholders through a dedicated dissemination process.
The partnership with the Elephant Crisis Fund and Save the Elephants is an important part of this work. By combining Ol Pejeta’s experience of managing wildlife and infrastructure on the ground with specialist expertise and support for applied conservation research, the project can move beyond assumptions about what should work and generate evidence about what actually does.
Building a culture of learning
At its heart, this is a project about adaptive conservation.
Wildlife behaviour changes. Landscapes change. Rainfall changes. The pressures facing communities and conservation areas change too. Effective conservation therefore requires the willingness to test approaches, measure their results and adapt management based on what the evidence shows.
For Ol Pejeta, the experimental fence project represents an opportunity to apply that principle directly to one of the most persistent challenges in the landscape.
The first phase is now taking shape on the ground, with the installation of the experimental short-fence sections underway following the rains. Over the coming years, the fences will become living research sites, generating data not only on where elephants break through, but on why they do so, how they respond to different designs and what it takes to maintain an effective barrier.
Ultimately, success will mean more than stronger fences. It will mean finding smarter ways to reduce conflict, protect livelihoods and allow elephants and people to continue sharing a connected landscape.
That is the real goal: using evidence and innovation to make coexistence more achievable.
Written By Tom Hicks
