POACHING

The only part of Tembe Reserve that is closed to us is a portion of the northern boundary, which also happens to be the border between South Africa and Mozambique, where poachers cross into Tembe and wreak havoc on the wildlife here, making fortunes from their mostly Chinese clientele who lust after rhino horns, elephant tusks, lion paws and heads and other animal body parts for what the Asians believe are their medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.  

The third largest tusker in the world, a bull named iSillo, died from old age several months ago.  His carcass was discovered by reserve rangers mutilated and with his tusks removed.  

A lion, ensnared by a trap, was found with neither head nor paws.

Rhino are killed at the rate of 3 per day in Africa and will be extinct by the end of the decade.   There are only 6 known white rhino left in the world.   The 7th was killed in Kenya just a short while ago. Almost half of the rhino herd here has been slaughtered by poachers.

There is an anti-poaching unit stationed up at the border, but many here question the loyalty of some of the patrol units.  Since Tembe is administered by the government for the benefit of the community, most employees are local residents.  Some may be informants for the poachers, but there is no way to prove  it.   The poachers have already informed the head of the anti-poaching unit that they will use their new AK-47's and other advanced weaponry against those patrolling the reserve's border.

Although no one has yet been killed, poachers from northern Mozambique, where sophisticated syndicates are hugely successful, will inevitably move south as their prey numbers decrease and the fight here will intensify.  

Researchers and monitors at Tembe hope that a protected path will open sometime in the future that will enable animal migration between Tembe and a not-too-distant Mozambique reserve.    Animals cannot survive without the space their species requires.  Without room to hunt, chaos will ensue. and will result in the animals breaking through the fence and escaping into the community, killing people and damaging crops.  Rage among the populace will cause them to (understandably) seek the animal's destruction.  An animal population that exceeds the ability of the geography to sustain it will require culling.  Management of the eco system here is therefore crucial.  Among other things, more space is required.  Negotiations between the Mozambique and the South African governments are continuing.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

We had a very close encounter yesterday with two elephant bulls who were feeding on roadside vegetation.  They had blocked the road with their enormous bodies as they fed and we were stuck waiting for the traffic to clear, as if on the LIE, so that we could pass (one never goes around an elephant.  A safe radius of about 75-100 feet must be maintained).   It was getting dark and we were anxious to get back to camp but we were forced to sit there, safely in the open air jeep, for quite awhile.  Neither elephant seemed to mind that we were watching.  Finally, the elephant closest to us disappeared into the bush and we edged forward waiting for his friend to clear the path.  We sat for awhile longer.  I was dying to pee.  Suddenly the elephant in front of us started making his way towards us, ears flapping furiously.  We knew there was an elephant behind us, but there was a curve in the road and we couldn't see where he was.  We were stuck between two elephants without an exit strategy,  a potentially dangerous situation.   If an elephant decides to charge he can destroy his target in seconds.  

A drunken field guide and his equally drunk tourist decided to taunt an elephant here not too long ago.   The tourist was urged by the guide to get out of the vehicle and approach the elephant.   The animal charged the tourist and "smeared" the floor with him.   He died immediately.   The guide was fired.

Philip, the monitor with whom we were working and the driver of the vehicle, decided to reverse in the hope that the elephant behind us would still be off road in the bush.   His gamble worked.  We raced in reverse, sped past the elephant and made a quick getaway.  We had to take the long way home and made it back only 2 hours late.

INTERESTING ELEPHANT FACTS

Did you know that...........

1.  Elephants have 6 sets of teeth throughout their lives that move forward at different stages, as if on a conveyor belt, to replace the older, previous teeth as they fall out.   Once the last set of teeth falls out, at around the age of 67-70 years, the elephant dies not of old age, but of starvation as it is no longer able to eat.

2.  Elephants must eat for 16-18 hours a day.  While elephants sleep lying down they cannot do so for more than 2 hours at a time as their weight makes it uncomfortable.   After age 35, an elephant sleeps standing up by locking its leg joints and leaning against a tree.

3.  The ears of an African elephant resemble the map of Africa while the smaller Asian Elephant's ears resemble the map of India.  When an elephant is threatened it will extend its ears as wide as possible to seem larger and more terrifying.  Elephants hear infra sounds which are to deep for humans to hear and they communicate with each other over long distances by using deep, throaty groans that only they can hear, similar to whales.  They use these deep mumbles to locate other elephants and warn each other of danger, hence the nickname "Silent Thunder," for their incredibly sophisticated way of communicating.

4.  Some elephant tusks can grow to weigh 100 pounds each and are used to dig for water, rip bark off trees and defense.  Elephants rest their heavy trunks on the tusks.  The tusks become visible at around age 2 and never stop growing.   An elephant's age can therefore often be estimated by the length of its tusks.  There is a certain Indian elephant species with no tusks at all - its ancestors were wiped out for their ivory.   Five percent of today's African elephant population are born without tusks, an increase due to poaching.

5.  An elephant's trunk has 100,000 muscles (humans have just over 600 muscles in their entire bodies).  Their sense of smell is 500 times that of a dog.  The African elephant has 2 "fingers" at the end of its tusk which enable it to use the tusk as a hand, with extreme dexterity in its fine motor coordination.   Asian elephants have only 1 'finger" so they must wrap their trunks around things to pick them up.  Trunks are used as snorkels when the elephant is underwater and to greet other elephants.    

6.  Elephants don't produce sweat.  They flap their ears like giant fans to cool down their bodies and, using their trunks, throw mud and dirt over their bodies to protect their skin from the sun.

7.  When an elephant is stressed or mourning a lost relative, the holes behind their ears start to cry.   Drops of moisture drip from them and run down the side of their temples.  

8.  Elephants' brains are the largest of all mammals.  Their brains grow from infancy as they age and learn.  

9.  When elephants walk they barely make a sound since they walk on their toes, which are cushioned.

10.  If male elephants ("bulls"), fail to leave a herd voluntarily at around age 15 they are forced out by their mothers and will eventually join a herd of other bulls.  The matriarch, the strongest and wisest leader of the female herd stops the young bulls from intra-breeding among the herd.  Young bulls are strictly disciplined by their mothers while in the herd and later, by the older bulls in the male group he joins.  The matriarch also prevents the young females ("cows") from mating until they are 16 years or older.   Their hips are not yet adequately developed before that time to carry a 200-pound fetus to full term (there is a 22 month gestation period).

11.  At about 20 years old, the glands on the sides of the bull's head ooze a watery substance and they begin to smell of a strong scent.  This condition, known as "musth," lasts for three months a year and is an indication that the male is ready to mate.  Only then can he temporarily join the herd of cows and mate with a suitable partner.     

12.  An angry elephant will life up his trunk, let out a loud trumpet and charge at up to 50 km per hour.

There are loads of incredible stories about elephants, such as my favorite, as told by the author of The Elephant Company, the true story of a young Brit sent to Burma in the 1920's to use the local elephant population to harvest lumber for export to Europe.   A mother elephant had been accidentally blinded by a poisonous leaf and was being lead to and from work and feedings by her young, 3-year-old daughter, whom she followed by placing her trunk on the youngster's rump.   When the daughter was swept away by floods, the mother heard her cries but couldn't see her.   She trumpeted and became very agitated.  From that day on she refused to either eat or work and died only two weeks later from a broken heart, wrote the Brit in his diary, who knew elephants well.

Big night tonight!   Call up of the lions.   Bait will be placed and the lions darted by the vet with an anesthesia that lasts 45 minutes.  The race will then begin to place monitoring collars around their necks, perform partial hysterectomies and certain pre-selected lions will be moved to the 'boma," a large, fenced-in area where they will be then transported to another reserve, a much needed exchange of lions to prevent in-breeding.