Summer Session 1
4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2025
Jun 2 - Jul 1
Open
Program Costs
- Tuition
- Room & Board
- Total
Application Deadlines
Summer 2025
April 1, 2025
Resources
Summer Session 1 Program
Elephants of the African Savanna
Kimana, Rift Valley, Southern Kenya,
Kenya
The African elephant is a keystone species with a profound influence on the landscape and dynamic in which it coexists with other African wildlife. As the largest (and one of the most charismatic) animal walking our planet, its conservation continues to attract concern within and beyond Africa. Join SFS Faculty and leading elephant scientists to learn about these animals in the elephant conservation strongholds in and around Amboseli National Park. Hear the perspectives of local communities living at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, including their day-to-day interactions with the African elephant.
- Embark on multi-day camping expedition to Maasai Mara, where you’ll hope to encounter the ‘Big Five’–the African elephant, African buffalo, lion, leopard, and black rhino.
- On a multi-day camping trip, explore Amboseli National Park – widely regarded as the best place in the world to observe free-ranging elephants.
- Examine the causes, manifestations, trends, and current state of human-elephant conflicts in the Amboseli Ecosystem and their implications on elephants’ conservation and co-existence with local communities.
Photo Gallery
Academics
This academically rigorous program follows a six-day/week schedule. Each program combines theory learned during classroom sessions with field-based applications. The interdisciplinary curriculum is designed to help students actively discover and understand the complexities of environmental, social, and economic issues in Kenya.
Major academic themes include:
- Elephant ecology
- Elephant social behavior, communication, and intelligence
- Population dynamics and management
- Conservation strategies and challenges
- Elephant habitat range and suitability
Courses
On the Elephants of the African Savanna program, you will take one 4-credit course. This course is participatory in nature and is designed to foster inquiry and active learning combining lectures, field exercises, assignments, and tests. This course is taught in English.
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to view a description and download the syllabus.
SFS 3252
Elephant Ecology and Conservation in Kenya
4 credits
SFS 3252
Elephant Ecology and Conservation in Kenya
4 credits
The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is an important keystone species in Africa and has profound influence on the structure and dynamics of landscapes where it co-exists with other species. It’s one of the most charismatic and charming species, but its conservation and population status has continued to attract a lot of concern within and beyond Africa. A key worry is that its conservation is increasingly becoming uncertain across the entire African continent due illegal poaching, landscape fragmentation, and retaliatory attacks by local communities due to prevalence of human-elephant conflicts. In this course students will learn and examine diverse and critical aspects of African elephants in Africa, Kenya, and in the Amboseli and Maasai-mara landscapes. This learning process will be achieved through classroom interactive learning sessions, experiential field activities, class discussions and lectures by Faculty and various guests.
Core Skills
You will acquire hands-on skills in the field, including: elephant identification techniques, aging elephant dung, ground counts, behavioral studies, home range assessment using telemetry techniques, mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts, use of Swahili language, ethnophoto-voicing techniques, conducting social surveys (household interviews, focused group discussions and key informant interviews), data synthesis, analysis and interpretation, and scientific writing.
Field Sites
You will visit key elephant conservation areas in the Amboseli region, visit the Kimana Sanctuary and community conservancies, learn from the Maasai people and other local tribes living at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro and in the Maasai group ranches, and interact with researchers from the Amboseli Elephant Research Project.
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Program Costs
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Summer Session 1
Elephants of the African Savanna
4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2025
Jun 2 - Jul 1
Open
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Program Costs
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- Room & Board
- Total
Summer Session 2
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