Three’s a riot: Video
Published by Wildcaster 6 months, 2 weeks ago Tags: adventure, africa, african, animal kingdom, animals, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephant, elephants, experience, experience adventure, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, malilangwe, Malilangwe narrowcasting, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, teach, video, waterhole, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.The elephants are really back!
Heading east at dawn there were elephant tracks smothering just about every track we travelled on, all heading east.
At the pan north east of Chivi we waited hoping the herds would shortly arrive there. But it wasn’t long and we heard branches breaking to the south and that’s pretty rough mopanie country in there, which meant I was keen to wait for them to arrive at the pan.
But something told me “a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush.â€
So we ploughed our way through the mopanie stopping to listen occasionally until we found the elephant.
It was a big herd and all were feeding in the mopanie. We spent hours with them as they slowly fed all around us. At one time we must have been surrounded by about 40 elephant. Some were only meters away.
Mandlovu was pulling branches from the very tree giving us shade, while I was filming a youngster lying down playing with his trunk with others feeding on trees all around the vehicle. Then the car rocked and from behind a young bull was pushing us. It was just a nudge really and seemingly happy with himself he moved off.
We were with the elephant for hours and around midday the herds headed south east. Bandama was in their sights. We stayed with the herd all the time, just be sure they didn’t change their minds on course and only the last 500m did we race ahead to the pan.
In position on the southern side of the pan, we were greeted by the most spectacular sight, probably one of my best ever, as some 80 elephant moving in single file came pouring out the mopanie woodland to surround Bandama pan and move right through it splashing and wallowing on their way. I don’t know what it is but seeing all these beasts on the move together like this just has the amazing awe about it!
Following up behind them was the small family group with their 3 tiny calves and these little guys were quick to take to the water for a fun time, knowing mom would shortly be moving them on again.
Just another WOW day with the elephants of Malilangwe!
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Hi Kim,
Elephants are beautiful, powerful, tender and very intelligent, I hope South Africa has a change of heart regarding the culling. Relocation and contraception are a better idea, although a lot more expensive…..but well worth it.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Have a nice weekend
Ivanova
I hate the idea of elephant being culled and if there are funds and areas that they can be relocated to then I’m all for it. And if contraception can be perfected and again the funds provided for that then yes that is the way to go. But funding isn’t always available and most areas that can carry elephant are already stocked. So somewhere along the line we’re going to come up against the problem of too many elephant. Already just about all areas in southern Africa that have elephant are over stocked. This is impacting seriously on the environment to the detriment of many other animals. As much as I absolutely hate to see any elephant culled I know in the long term we have to do something dramatic to control numbers, if we are to keep our wilderness areas. We can’t be selfish in protecting elephants to the detriment of other animals.
Hi Kim,
Thanks for your answer. I see your point, and agree, but still, I can’t help but feel a little angry about how humans have and continue to abuse nature. All animals and the wilderness they share where fine before we humans started messing around with their environments.
Ivanova
People have sometimes a strange relation to animals, in our world dogs are treated almost like humans. And whales, dolphins and elephants appeal to humans, they want to protect them. It is all about image.
But dolphins are predators, just as lions are. The largest dolphin, the killer whale (orca) is supposed to kill one third (ca 33 %) of the annual new born calves of the grey whale. The method is cruel: After a chase to exhaustion, the killer whales drown the calve by holding it under water. And mostly they eat only the tongue.
This is a survey by one of the proteges of the National Geographic Society, I do not know the name.
Just as you do, I hate to see elephants are being culled. But if the world want to prevent this, the world has to fund relocation and contraception. It cannot be a South African issue only. And yes, Kim is right that the whole ecosystem has to be protected, and in this case culling can be an option.
kind regards,
Douwe
PS: Luckily our dog is treated like a dog