Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants Programme
The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants Program (MIKE) is a site-based system designed to monitor trends in the illegal killing of elephants, build management capacity and provide information to help range States make appropriate management and enforcement decisions. The program is run by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The overall aim of MIKE is to provide information needed for elephant range States and the Parties to CITES to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations. MIKE aims to help range States improve their ability to monitor elephant populations, detect changes in levels of illegal killing, and use this information to provide more effective law enforcement and strengthen any regulatory measures required to support such enforcement.
At the core of the MIKE Programme is the site-based monitoring of elephant mortality. When an elephant carcass is found, local site personnel try to establish and record the cause of death and other details. This information is recorded in standardized forms, details of which are then consolidated and submitted to the MIKE programme for analysis.