Observers: Makalolo Team

Date: 3 September 2010

On Thursday we received a call that an elephant cow was dying next to Samavundhla pan. We are not sure what caused her distress but blood on her inner back legs indicated a problem with birth. She died that night. On Friday morning we found a large lioness feasting on the carcass and by the afternoon she had been joined by a handsome male. They stayed close to their prize the whole day, only moving off a few paces to the shade where their heaving stomachs tried to cope with the elephant meat.

Saturday was very exciting. Elephants came to drink from the pan and were predictably upset by the scene. There were endless stand-offs between the lions and the elephants. The engorged felines were very greedy and fended off waiting hooded and white-backed vultures. Even the black-backed jackals were kept at bay.

At midday, two staff went to check the pump at the pan. There they found a lone baby elephant, not more than a few days old, wandering aimlessly near cow’s carcass. The lions took a keen interest and it was not long before the big male put and end to the infants wandering. The calf’s shrill screams tore at our heart strings. The sometimes sheer savagery of nature is hard to bear.

Samavundhla Pan has a pod of hippo living in it (a bull, cow and calf). When they came out of the water to graze that evening, they separated slightly as they fed. The lion, not satisfied with two elephants to eat, tried to grab the young hippo. It ran for the safety of the water and luckily escaped with no more than a few scratches.

Observers: Mike and Marian Myers

Photographs: Mike Myers

We recently visited the Khwai Concession area, part of the Great Wilderness Journey Exploration. We stayed at the Khwai Discoverer Camp – the top of the range of the Exploration safari camps offered by Wilderness. It was absolutely wonderful. The water levels were still a bit high for the time of the year, but with skilled driving and some detours around the really deep parts of the road, we were able to find camp!

After the long drive it was wonderful to enjoy a sundowner around the fire overlooking the grassy plain in front of camp.

We had heard about a den of wild dog puppies, so we went in search of them. A two-hour drive back to the bridge and then around the airstrip near Khwai River Lodge we found the den. It was clear that there had been a kill because there were vultures everywhere and when we got close to the den we could see the adults lying around with blood-stained jaws. Our timing was such that we had just missed the return of the adults to the den by about 20 minutes. Wild dog feed their young by regurgitating partially digested meat and we had just missed that! Nonetheless, the pups were very happy to have fat, full tummies and played around the den area. A total of 11 pups were recorded and seven adults, one of which was the mother. A very, very, special sighting and a first for me.

What was also very interesting was that the dogs appeared to be sharing their residence with a couple of slender mongooses. These little folk scurried around and scratched and went about their business without worrying their neighbours at all. At one stage, a mongoose actually poked its nose in the dogs’ den entrance. Turned out to be a total non-event – they appeared to be on good terms with one another!

After hours of watching the pups, we returned to camp where we went to photograph the sun setting over a stretch of water that was full of hippo, African jacana, malachite kingfisher, pied kingfisher and blacksmith plovers. Mike got a great shot of elephant and impala just before the sun set and someone threw on the switch that got the frogs croaking! We heard lots of hippo noises during the night punctuated by occasional spotted hyaena.

All in all, it was a beautiful area and an excellent feature of this wonderful Exploration.

Date: 4th August 2010

Guides: Johnny Mowanji and Kambango Sinimbo

Management: Justin Stevens and Jacky Collett-Stevens

Photographs: Dr. David and Lisa Agard

One species’ loss is sometimes another family’s gain; this was the story that unfolded at Tubu Tree Camp on August 4th.

Just off the road, an elephant cow waited with two sub-adults. They stood very quietly. The cow did not move and eventually, the observers spotted a tiny baby elephant lying in the grass nearby. We initially thought it must be asleep but eventually realised the new-born was dead. The cow looked a little uneasy and we decided to leave her to mourn. As we moved off, however, she lost her temper and charged – perhaps distraught at her loss.

The following morning, after a night filled with lion roars, we tracked a male lion to the elephant carcass. He feasted on his own all day. In the evening, he was joined by his three cubs, very unusually without the two adult females of the pride. The following morning, the whole pride was together, their bellies distended. The fat stomachs did not stop the cubs playing with the elephant trunk and their father.

As an elephant herd lost a baby, a lion pride was able to feed for four days – indeed, they left nothing for the hyaenas, jackals or vultures.

How many are there?

At the turn of the 19^th century there were probably around 4 million elephant on the African continent – this number includes both the large savannah variety and their smaller forest cousins (there is still no clear consensus as to the taxonomic difference). This number plummeted in the wake of a poaching onslaught that only abated in 1989 with the international trade ban on ivory.

Right now there are approximately 400 000 savannah elephants. They are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN and it is around these animals that the debates rage.

Are they endangered?

Yes and no…In the areas that elephant are protected like the parks of southern and eastern Africa, they are not endangered. Poaching is relatively infrequent and populations are increasing. However in west and central Africa, it’s a bit of a free-for-all. The WWF says that elephants in these areas are counted in individuals and tens rather than in thousands. The areas they inhabit are often not protected and if they are, the level of policing is low, underfunded and prone to attack from a plethora of hungry militias looking for food and ivory.

What’s the debate?

In southern Africa, the question is whether there are too many elephants or not – and if there are too many, what to do about it.

The problem with the notion of ‘too many elephants’ is that it implies there is some sort of optimal number or a ‘carrying capacity’. A carrying capacity in turn implies that an area should house an ideal suite of species which will maintain it in a ‘climax state’, or equilibrium.

This is not logical. All biological systems are dynamic – they are constantly changing and thus no one can ever decide the ideal number of elephants for an area because such a number is a human construct. Sometimes it is based on science, sometimes emotion and sometimes a mix.

If you are going ‘manage’ elephant numbers, then there must be a clear set of objectives – a good reason for tampering with population numbers.

The scientists…

A large contingent of this bunch reckons that there are too many elephants (e.g. the Kruger National Park in South Africa and Chobe in Botswana). In general, they are worried that elephants are destroying vegetation and in so doing affecting other speices. Essentially they are worried about elephant effects on biodiversity.

There are also no conclusive scientific studies to say that beyond a certain density of elephants, biodiversity will decrease permanently. In fact, biological systems are so complex, that to understand all the variables at play is currently well beyond our capabilities.

That elephants modify habitats is without question. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Is it a bad thing if the total biodiversity of an area fluctuates?

An elephant population, left to grow on its own in Botswana, may well destroy most of the vegetation and in so doing kill other species and eventually itself. After a while, the area would recover and a new cycle would begin. The area may never look as it once did but the total biodiversity, barring some climatic catastrophe, would eventually reach the same levels it did before. Problem is, this would take much longer than the average human lifetime and we’re not so good at looking beyond the end of our own lives. It is distasteful for us to think of our children visiting Chobe and finding a moonscape. It’s worse to think of valuable tourists visiting the area and seeing rotting elephant carcasses everywhere.

Quite possibly, the elephants would start dying off before they killed everything else. The niches that they emptied would quickly be filled. So our experimental area may look different but its total biodiversity might well be similar.

The long-term strength of the biodiversity argument is tenuous.

So if the scientists can’t tell us what the objective is, who can?

The top of the food chain

Human beings are the ultimate predators. This means we call the shots (regardless of our moral obligations). We decide whether elephants survive or don’t. In order to do this, we must have objectives. The scientists, as I’ve outlined, can’t give us anything conclusive.

Thought experiment

Let’s say I own a piece of land – a really big piece. I have an elephant herd and its numbers keep increasing. Let’s also say that I run an  operation on that land and that people come from all over the world to see my elephants. At the same time, I really like big trees. If my herd grows beyond a certain number, then I start to lose big trees faster than they grow. But I want as many elephants as possible so that I can maximise my tourism business. With these objectives in mind, I can define an optimal number of elephants. The objectives are very clear, they are not based on scientists’ opinions or the public’s emotions. They are simply what I want.  As the predator on top of the hierarchy, I am allowed to decide I want big trees and elephants. Is my choice more valid than the scientists’? It may well be, given the inability of science to give me a clear answer on biodiversity. My choice is doubly valid given that my business is the reason my piece of land is not being mined or farmed.

What are your thoughts on the matter – what is the human role, if we have one? If we decide there are too many elephants, what should we do about it?

Photos: Michael Poliza, Dana Allen, Mike Myers