ElephantVoices

After a early morning recording session last week Blake and I were told by our ATE research assistant Katito Sayialel that an elephant baby was reported stuck in a well west of Amboseli National Park. We decided to go together, and followed behind the cloud of dust from the Amboseli Elephant Research Project vehicle. Despite lots of “shadows” in terms of cellphone contact with the maasai that had called the AERP team it didn’t take long before we found the right location a few meters from the Tanzanian border. Helpful maasai with cows and donkeys were all around, and told us that the baby had been in the well and struggling since last night.

To get a 400 pound elephant baby out of a well is not a piece of cake. And one thing is to get it up, another is to avoid ending up in the middle of an upset elephant family when the baby cries for help. Katito decided that we should try to look for the baby’s family, to find out how realistic it would be to get the baby back to them after a rescue. She also got in contact with Kenya Wildlife Service, to get their advice and assistance. 
The well was not deeper than 1,2 meter, but deep enough to make it impossible for the less than one year old baby to get out.

Since Blake’s job for ElephantVoices during a 10 week field stay is to record rare calls, we had to try to get the low and very sad-sounding complaints from the baby on our Nagra digital recorder.

After having tried for quite some time to locate the family, and fearing that the baby could get serious injuries by the numerous attempts to get up, we had to take a decision what to do. Katito had already been in contact with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (their Orphans Project) in Nairobi, and they were ready to come and pick up the baby by plane. We decided to lift the baby carefully up with ropes around the belly together with our maasai friends. Next step was to get him into the back of our rustic Landcruiser – the first elephant passenger ever… Luckily we had a foam-pad (normally used as camera support) to provide as head-rest.

The baby was for natural reasons exhausted when finally out of the well, and quickly fell asleep when safe and sound in our field vehicle. In the photo we’re at the Amboseli airstrip waiting for Sheldricks people.

The baby was well fed and looked strong and not too uneasy when arriving at the air strip, and an hour afterwards she was on the way to the orphanage in Nairobi with the very experienced Sheldrick staff that came to pick her up.

I’m of course not happy at all that a baby elephant got separated from her family – but I do think what happened was the best solution considering the circumstances. That Blake and I had a very different day from what we expected is part of our story. We’re crossing our fingers for the baby from the well.

Cheers, Petter

Amboseli carries all signs of being dry – in the afternoons dust often sweeps over us as grey or brownish fog. There is not much green gras to see, not much to feed on. Several days we have seen rain in the near by slopes of Kilimanjaro, and Loitokitok 1 hour away experienced this week much more rain than what’s normal for this time of the year. Unfortunately most things previously planted have already died – the rain came too late.

The elephants are less active and talkative in a period like this, which is not great in terms of what we’re trying to achieve within our communication study. They are hot and have less energy, but thanks to the Amboseli swamps they are doing relatively fine everything considered. Unstable weather often leads to heavy winds, which our sensitive microphone is not very pleased with. Blake and I are in any case happy to collaborate with the very competent research assistants in the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, both Norah Njiraini and Katito Sayialel have been “in action”.

Blake Murray and Norah Njiraini in the Amboseli Elephant Research camp.

There are many babies in Amboseli these days – which indicates that 2006 and 2007 where years with enough rain and food. But times are harder now – even though dusting feels good for elephants even in the best of times.

At night we very often hear lions – several are staying near by and sometimes walk so we can see them from the camp during day time. And in and around the camp numerous animals are having a peaceful time feeding on what’s left, they continue to know that we are friends. Outside my tent opening a buffalo is looking at me 8-10 meters away, when I walk over to the dining tent a couple of zebras hardly move out of the path.

Male lion resting near by entrance to camp – currently getting all the food that he wants thanks to others being hungry and weak.

Last Wednesday ended up very different and more dramatic than expected – since we had to follow AERP’s Katito to find an elephant baby that was reported having fallen into a well. I will tell you some more, and share a couple of photos, in a couple of days. Right now other tasks need my attention.

Have a great Sunday!

Cheers, Petter 

Thursday started with the BIG shopping – going off to the bush for weeks one has to stock up quite a bit. There are no shopping malls anywhere near Amboseli; a weekly supply of vegetables from Loitokitok (one rough hour drive away) and goods brought down with others coming to Amboseli is what we have to rely on.

The drive from Nairobi to the border town of Namanga takes a couple of hours. Some amazing road construction going on over quite a long stretch from Kajiado indicates that the main road to Tanzania will soon again see better days. Having been built properly in the first place this particular stretch of the road has been good for a long, long time, but it is finally falling apart. The ongoing re-construction done by Chinese road builder is, therefore, urgently needed.

I had heard that the road from Namanga to Amboseli National Park’s Meshanani Gate was terrible, but since it had obviously been graded quite recently Blake (Murray) and I experienced an unusually smooth ride. Having just done (more) major repairs on our field vehicle I was relieved to find the road in such good shape.

We brought fresh newspapers (with Obama all over, of course) to Soila and the gang in ATE’s field office, and continued on to the camp. A hot shower rinsed off sweat and dust from a hot journey. It was great to be back again, even though it is very sad to see how extremely dry Amboseli is. The photo below is from our stay in January 2008, but we’re going to see even more dust, dust devils and dusting elephants in the coming few months before we (hopefully) get rain. 
Through a “dongle” connected to the computer I can, for the first time, be online from our (Joyce’s and my) tent -  but the question remains if this is really what I want considering the huge number of incoming mails…which reached closed to 60 yesterday. Anyway – it gives me the option of staying in touch with my family, friends and WD visitors – which is good!

It was blowing hard Thursday night, and it was cold sitting by my desk. To stay warm I tried getting into bed with the laptop … 2,5 meters away ….but that was enough for it to switch to a Tanzanian cellphone-provider. I was forced back to my desk, to avoid roaming.

After I dealt with some urgent emails I went back to my current book, “The Crunch” (guess what it is about), fell asleep, and woke up in the middle of the night with a couple of grumpy old buffaloes in the swamp just in front of the tent and several elephants noisily feeding on the palms surrounding the tent. A little bit further away lions were roaring – a couple of days ago they chased a baby warthog through the camp and into the bushes. It has not been seen since.

Petter