Elephant Voices

Category: 2. Field News Kenya, Elephant Photos | Date: Jan 12 2008 | By: admin

Our last day of playbacks ended with an extraordinary meeting with visitors to Amboseli National Park – a group of elephants from the Tanzanian slopes of Kilimanjaro. These elephants look very different from Amboseli’s elephants. They have smaller and darker bodies, smaller more triangular ears with a particular venation patterns, relatively longer legs and thinner, usually upcurved tusks. Experiencing a more negative relationship with human beings they are more wary and alert than their Amboseli counterparts. And, perhaps also because they are away from their normal range, they don’t let us come too close. We find the behavior of these elephants fascinating to watch and we enjoy every meeting with them.

As our last playback, we played a series of anti predator trumpets to them. In the previous playbacks of this type all of the Amboseli elephant families responded as we expected them to – by bunching together and reacting with alarm. The elephants from this family did the same but then they decided to charge on masse! Their behavior was masterpiece of strategic defensive action to assess the danger, then a group attack and ultimately a full retreat – organized better than any law enforcement agency could have done it. It’s all documented with video and audio tape and still images, and will be analyzed together with the 74 other playbacks we completed during this field period.

Early on 9th we packed the car, said goodbye to our friends and camp staff, Peter and Ngoshopu, and started on the bumpy hour and a quarter ride back to the border town of Namanga. From Namanga to Kiserian outside Nairobi the road is relatively OK, and after another few shaky kilometers we arrived at our property on the Rift Valley escarpment south of the Ngong Hills.

It’s name Raha Mstarehe means ”tranquility,” certainly a word Kenyan politicians should include in their thinking these days.

We hadn’t expected to be able to upload this report on Kenyan soil, but an opportunity presented itself before we depart for a cold but politically calm Norway.

Best wishes, Petter and Joyce