African Elephant Society

Kruger Park Elephant

When we lived in Africa we were always fascinated by the wildlife there – it was way before the advent of regular TV contributions from the likes of David Attenborough, and the internet was not even a twinkle in someone’s eye back then. About all we knew about Africa and the wildlife there was gleaned from books, and reports from travellers who had been there. The reality was much more amazing!

Whenever we had the opportunity we used to spend time in the Game Reserves there, and again this was before the commercialisation now seen, especially in Kenya and Tanzania, where minibuses ferry guests around, and keep in contact with each other so that any animal immediately is surrounded by vehicles, and there behaviour becomes anything but natural. Back then most reserves had dirt roads (though some had tarred access roads), and parts of the parks were only accessible at certain times of the year – you certainly were not allowed to drive “off-road” so had to be satisfied with what you could see from  these roads.

Quiçama, Angola

Our first Game Reserve was Quiçama National Park, in Angola, in 1960. We borrowed a Land Rover from a friend who used to use it for hunting, so it was open-topped, and had a raised “shooting seat” in the back (I must hastily add that my family were, and still are, very anti-hunting, we just borrowed the vehicle!) – these made it completely unsuitable for driving round a park where there were elephant, buffalo, rhino, and reputedly also some lion, but we were blissfully naive back then, and it made a great game viewing vehicle. My Dad actually got out and walked away to take this photo, which again is something you just do not do!

On Safari

This trip did, however, awaken our passion for wildlife, and many happy holidays were spent in parks and reserves in Southern Africa. Nowadays most parks “suggest” that you go game watching early morning and late afternoon, when animals are easily found at waterholes, and spend the rest of your day (and your money!) in the camp. We used to be sitting in the car at daybreak when they opened the camp gates, and then spend the whole day wandering about (in a car, of course!) until returning just before dusk, when they locked the gates again. We would take a picnic breakfast, usually bacon sandwiches Mum had cooked in our rondavel (cabana), and plenty of drinks in a refrigerated coolbox, plus the makings of our lunch – so we would find a quiet spot and make lunch somewhere in the reserve. Most parks had one or two places where you are permitted to get out of the car, but still be on the lookout for animals, some had toilets (primitive!) there too.

If we found a likely looking spot, like a waterhole, we might even spend the whole day there, watching the comings and goings of different animals throughout the day – at times it almost seemed as though they had allotted times to drink, to avoid traffic jams! During one such trips (in the late 60′s) we found an elephant watering hole and witnessed behaviour we struggled to comprehend. We are forever being told not to anthropomorphise animal behaviour (that means to attribute human emotions and behaviour to animals), but we could find no other way to understand what we witnessed. This particular camp, in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had constructed brick-built drinking holes, fed by a wind-pump, adjacent to natural watering places, maybe a stream or a small dam – it meant that even in droughts there was fresh water, but also it meant that there was clean water for the animals to drink as well as a wallow. What we witnessed, though, was that all the adult males congregated round these holes, and the females and juveniles had to make do with the other water source. If an adolescent male approached these bulls, one of them would “growl” and he quickly returned back to the others. It looked like an exclusive male club, with a closely guarded membership!

The females and juveniles often struggled to get access to the other water supply, especially if it was a stream and had high banks, but they would line up and extend their trunks down onto the water – again what fascinated us is that they would close ranks so that the really small babies could not get close to the steepest places, and possibly fall in, but had to make their way along this row of big grey bodies until they found a space where the bank was not so high, and they could safely drink or play in  the water.

Evening at the waterhole

But what really amazed us one afternoon is that one of the big males, we guessed the patriarch, but there was no way of knowing, suddenly looked up rapidly – he had heard something in the distance (elephants communicate using sub-sonic rumbles inaudible to the human ear) – and he then set off away from the group across the bush. We could see nothing, but he had a determined stride and looked to have real purpose. About 500 yards away he stopped, and suddenly out of the trees in front of him another small herd of elephants appeared, and when they met they touched trunks and then started back to the others. It looked just like someone greeting friends at their front door! Suddenly he stopped again, and while the others carried on and joined the first group he again walked back and greeted a second group of visitors – and then stayed again while a third group appeared, this time returning all the way with them. As they got back to the watering holes the groups separated – the adult males to the “bar” and the females and juveniles to the stream, where the young ones all started playing together. One of the young adult males with the last group tried to join the males, but he too was “shooed” away – he obviously was almost an adult within his own herd, but not in this exalted group.

We sat in amazement in the car – had we really just witnessed this “human” interaction between elephants? We had no other explanation of what we had seen, but it was decades later that zoologists started to acknowledge that wild animals do actually socially interact, and have very strong hierarchical structures in the herds. Whatever it was we saw we were privileged to have seen such a touching display from the largest animal that walks on the earth with us!

Old Bull Elephant