The last few days have been incredibly slow. The elephants have been hiding out in the thickets and we have hit an all time low for focals. Our scans are somewhat more successful because they are instantaneous, although the majority taken since Thursday have been classified as “Out of View”. We had higher expectations for today because it rained last night, clearing up the sky and allowing the temperature to rise during the day.
We took our first signal at 8:53am on Leeuwspoor West in hopes of getting a good signal for any of the collared elephants. The signals were strong for Ngani, Kohlewe, and Lucky. Since their signals were all relatively in the same area we were confident that they would be hanging out as a bachelor group for the day. When the bulls associate with each other our focals are always more interesting and different behaviours emerge. The bulls are always expressing dominance behaviours toward each other through displacements and sometimes, if we are really lucky, through combat. At 9:44am we crossed paths with Lucky. He was headed in a southern direction at a very leisurely pace. A few minutes later we identified Kohlewe trailing Lucky. Separating us from the bulls was a large river line with mature trees and very dense brush. We detoured to the opposite side of the river line and were within sight of the bulls once again in less than fifteen minutes. We took a scan and started a focal on Lucky. Part way through Ngani strolled into view and Heike was immediately on her cell phone calling Heinz. Ngani is the only mature bull on the PGR who isn’t vasectomised. Due to his immense size the operation performed on him a few years ago was unsuccessful. Thus, Ngani has been undergoing treatments with GnRH to suppress his hormones and impede his ability to breed. Ngani was five months over due for his last shot because it can only be administered by Heinz on Leeuwspoor.
By noon we had met up with Heinz and had the three boys in sight. They had stopped to graze at a natural waterhole on the outskirts of a bush camp. While we waited in the vehicle Heinz positioned himself in one of the camp buildings and waited for an opportune moment. Since the beginning of the treatment regime Ngani has become used to receiving the shots and in the past has been known to turn his backside toward Heinz when he senses his presence. At 12:08pm Heinz successfully darted Ngani with 3.0mls of GnRH.
Heinz soon departed and the nine of us settled back into the vehicle to prepare to track the bulls once again. Before we had even started off Heike received a phone call from Heinz. The bulls were on the side of the road less than a minute from the bush camp. This gave us another great opportunity to perform more focal samples and finally have data to enter into our records at the end of the day. During our focal on Kohlewe we noticed that he had broken off his right tusk. It was approximately half the length it had been originally.
Breaking tusks isn’t completely uncommon due to the amount of time elephants spend using their tusks for removing obstacles, for knocking over trees, and for so many other activities. After the focals we decided that since it wasn’t possible to find the AB herd that we would continue to follow the bulls and collect more scans... we just had to find the bulls again. In any area of the reserve the elephants can slip out of sight within seconds and due to our constriction to the roads we often find ourselves creeping in and out of thickets in search of a visible trunk or tusk. We managed to find Lucky feeding on acacia but he soon disappeared, forcing us to drive around a section of thicket and wait for him on the opposite side. Wary of the other bulls potentially in the area, we slowly manoeuvred the Ele-truck through the thicket on the winding road. At 1:38pm we suddenly came across Kohlewe browsing on the side of the road. He was out of view until we were approximately five meters from where he was standing. Heike reversed the vehicle to give him enough space but suddenly realised a major problem... Ngani was behind us in the thicket; we were now stuck between two bull elephants weighing 12,000kgs between the two of them. Heike assessed the situation and decided that our only way out was to drive extremely slowly past Kohlewe and out of sight. The bulls know Heike well and with the help of her voice Kohlewe remained calm as the vehicle inched past him. We were less than five meters from him when we passed. Heike didn’t stop the vehicle until we were back on the main road, far away from the bulls. We were incredibly fortunate that the situation didn’t escalate and we made it safely out of the thicket without any problems. Had it been Buga or another temperamental individual the outcome may have been different.
With the entire afternoon ahead of us we decided to head south to try and locate Shayisa and Khumbula... it wasn’t until we were nearly at the end of the lake an hour and a half later that we came to the conclusion that the signals we had been receiving were deceiving us. The two bulls were clearly on the opposite side of the lake once again, enjoying the hospitality of the nature reserve.
We arrived back at camp around 5:00pm. Tonight the rota had K as head chef... but unfortunately she is still in Intibane assisting with the biodiversity surveys. I volunteered to cook dinner and surprisingly enough it only took an hour. As it turns out we have mastered the stove... apparently the element dials are backwards. I managed to bring water to a steady boil on the level 1 section of the dial. Brilliance.
As we have learned, the sun brings the elephants and tomorrow brings more sunshine and a projected temperature high of 23 degrees. The sun also means that I won’t have an excuse to stay in my bed due to it being too cold in the morning. With the help of extensive amounts of polysporin and Band-Aids my knees and palms are well on their way to recovery, and what better way to celebrate then to go for a run that could potentially destroy me? If I survive and the sun is shining, hopefully the AB herd will leave the mysterious thicket and bask in the open. If not, we will once again be headed west to Leeuwspoor to do what we do best, chase boys.
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