Kenya stands as the first country to use elephant texting, in efforts to protect humans and wild animals. Among wild animals, elephants make up a group in particular need of this protection; they are listed as "near threatened" on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

Two years ago, Save the Elephants began attempts to save Kimani, a large bull elephant in the 90,000-acre Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya. At the time, the Kenya Wildlife Service had already reluctantly shot five crop-raiding elephants from the conservancy.  Like these crop-raiders, Kimani also held a strong record of wrecking villagers’ harvests. Raiding elephants had such great power; they once knocked out fifteen families’ harvests at one time. Kimani had the power to destroy six months of income at once.  

Realizing how Kimani’s destructiveness endangered him, the Save the Elephants group placed a mobile phone SIM card in his collar. With the card in place, they set up a virtual "geofence”, or global positioning system that reflected the conservancy's boundaries. Since the installment, each time Kimani has approached the boundaries his collar has sent texts to rangers.

Kimani has texted rangers fifteen times since the project began, and he hasn’t been near a farmer's field for the past four months. When he does get near neighboring farms, armed guards and drivers take their jeeps to Kimani's location and shine spotlights on him, in order to frighten him back into the conservancy.

The success of this project has provided relief for farmers who need their crops to supply money for both food and education. As 31-year-old neighbor of the conservancy, Basila Mwasu shared, people with homes nearby used to spend their nights in front of bonfires, drumming on pots and pans to scare away approaching elephants.

On one occasion, an elephant stuck its trunk through one of Mwasu’s windows and into the room where her baby daughter was sleeping. The room also contained stored corn. Mwasu used a burning stick to beat the elephant. Luckily, she remained safe; another of the conservancy’s neighbors was killed while attempting to defend his crop.

Based on these dangers, Mwasu explained, "We had to go into town to tell the game [wardens] to chase the elephants away or we're going to kill them all."  

This threat did nothing, though, as the elephants kept returning. Luckily, elephant texting has helped.  

Although it has provided aid, as Founder of Save the Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton explained, the project’s youth means it does have problems. These have been presented in the high cost of the project (including five full-time staff members and a vehicle), the wearing out of collar batteries and the fact that some communities have been linking the elephants’ collars with ownership of the animals and therefore, human responsibility for their destructiveness.

Despite these problems, success with Kimani has led to the set up of a geofence for Mountain Bull, an elephant in another part of Kenya. According to Moses Litoroh, coordinator of Kenya Wildlife Service's elephant program, elephant crop-raiding leads to 1,300 complaints each year. Litoroh hopes that this project will continue to help deter some of these complaints.

On top of helping humans, elephant texting, which can be tracked through Google Earth software, has the power to help prevent poaching. It can also help teach young elephants to avoid crossing boundaries, as they follow the example of their elders, who may already be controlled and tracked texters.