This week we’re joined by Dr Susan Canney, research associate at the University of Oxford Zoology department and Project leader for the Mali Elephant Project. Susan is also on the Oxford University Expedition Council, who fund offical Oxford student expeditions.

Working in Mali’s remote Gourma region south of Timbuktu Susan works to protect an iconic population of “desert-adapted” elephants who have managed to survive through undertaking the longest annual migration of all elephants over a vast remote area the size of Belgium and Luxembourg combined.

She will speak about the importance of understanding the migration and how this knowledge informed the establishment of the Mali Elephant Project (MEP), a long-term initiative that aims to find ways for humans and elephants to thrive together and ultimately restore the ecosystem to a state where it can support the reintroduction of lost species.

The talk will also cover the challenges along the way, not least the outbreak of conflict and lawlessness following the combination of a separatist rebellion and jihadist insurgency; and the resulting surge in trafficking and poaching.