Being back amongst elephants!

Elephants are one of my favourite animals on this planet. My first memory as a child is of watching elephants in Zimbabwe and throughout my life I have felt a deep connection to these beautiful and graceful giants. Being around them has always filled me with a deep feeling of happiness although occasionally also of fear (with a bloodstream full of adrenaline!).

The elephants we saw on this trip were the first I have seen for nearly 10 years which is far, far too long. It’s hard to describe the pleasure I felt to be amongst these creatures once again.
Tsavo is rightly famous for it’s elephants and true to form they did not disappoint. Within about twenty minutes of arriving into Tsavo West we had our first of many sightings of this young bull.

Later that day we encountered one of the breeding herds. They had just crossed the road and were slowly making their way towards the Kilaguni water hole, while eating en route. There was suddenly a drama as one of the babies ran across the road squealing as he went. He must have found himself alone on his side of the road and when he realised he was alone he panicked and ran back towards his family. As he shouted the whole heard came alive and went running to his aid. They quickly surround him looking for danger and when they found none they touched him with their trunks and comforted him.

I try to not anthropomorphize the creatures I observe. Endowing animals with human emotions is a very unscientific thing to do. However, apart from the great apes I feel the only other creatures that have emotions similar to our own are elephants.

There is a sad story about Dr Joyce Poole, the zoologist, who was studying elephants in Amboseli. An elephant she knew called Tonie had given birth to a stillborn calf. Tonie stayed there standing over the calf for over 24 hours. Poole realised the mother must have been desperately thirsty so she took a bowl, filled it with water then took it and placed it near the mother. The female drank the water and waited with the baby a while longer before leaving. She then walked over to Joyce in her car and placed her trunk on her arm, held it there for a few moments and then left. It's hard to imagine this encounter being anything other than Tonie saying thank you.

Elephants also have the unusual ability to recognise their own dead. Elephant herds that come across the bones of their fallen brethren will go strangely quiet and will gather around and gently touch the bones.

Herds of elephants are generally ruled over by an old matriarch, the wise grandma. She is generally the mother and grandmother of many of the herd and will have stored in her head a wealth of knowledge on which they can draw. She will know where to find water at all times of year. She will know when the marula fruit trees will reach their peak ripeness and where to go to escape danger and find food. If a baby gets stuck in the mud she will show the mother how to get it out and if any of the youngsters are being silly and not acting respectfully she won't hesitate to smack them round the backside with a stick and show them their place.

When we travelled across into Tsavo East we came across much greater numbers of elephants. Along the Voi River you could never go more than a few minutes without seeing them. On one of the river loops many herds seemed to have joined together so that there where many hundreds of elephants in one swampy area.

I find watching elephants to be endlessly entertaining and I witnessed a great little exchange amongst this multitude. As one of the breeding herds was feeding one of the lone bulls started to approach. He look like he was swaggering and if were a human in the same position I'm sure he would have been saying something along the lines of 'hey ladies, how you doin!’. As he approached, the herd matriarch started slowly walking straight towards him. At first he was unconcerned but as she started to accelerate towards him he began to slow down and then stop. At that moment she launched herself into full charge and the bull, quickly coming to terms with the error of his ways, rapidly turned on his heels and fled away from the crazy grandma. She took a swipe at him with her trunk but missed wildly, I'm sure a human in her position would have been saying 'stay away from my daughters you!'. The bull ran a short distance and then glanced over his shoulder to check he was safe before slowing down and resuming his swagger as though nothing had happened. It was pretty hilarious to watch and thoroughly entertaining.

I was hoping during our trip we would come across some of the big tusked males, the fabled tuskers of old Africa. These guys are sadly a sight that not many people will witness. The lure is too great for the ivory poachers who over the last few decades have massacred hundreds of thousands of these marvellous animals. They reckon there was once around 5 million elephants in Africa. Now there is probably less 10% of that. Between 2010 and 2012 around 100 000 elephants were killed for their ivory. The illegal trade in wildlife is estimated to be worth around ten billion dollars a year and has funded terrorism and criminal groups around the world. Unfortunately we saw no big tuskers this trip although we did see this impressive looking male at a distance.

Ours days in Tsavo seemed to fly by and our time with the elephants sadly came to an end for now. I sincerely hope it will not be long before I am back with them again. I feel as though the world is slowly coming awake to the plight of these great beasts and I hope this will signal a change in their fortune for the better and maybe I will get to see them thrive once again in my lifetime.