Dzanga Forest Elephants

Category: Elephants | Date: May 23 2008 | By: dzangaforestelephants

The military operation to rout out elephant poaching in the Dzanga area continues with the hope today of apprehending one of the worst elephant poachers in the region. So we are all anxiously awaiting the news about today’s anti poaching activities.The current mission which will soon end targeted elephant poachers when the situation here worsened. The news I am getting from other elephant sites in the Central African region is that the poaching is on the upsurge throughout the area. So unless there is sufficient protection and law enforcement, the future for these animals is dire. As I have mentioned in past blogs positive human presence is the most effective tool in protecting wildlife and that includes not only guard patrols but also research presence and tourism.

With the operation in motion the clearing has been very calm and numbers of elephant reaching over 100 yesterday afternoon. There was also more than 30 bongo observed accompanied by a large male. Rain which normally discourages large numbers of elephant frequenting the clearing has not deterred their appearance. Among the elephants there were several females I hadn’t seen in a couple of years, including a female called Cleo who I last observed at Dzanga in 1998.

The past week we have also observed a number of musth males. The first to be observed was Tim who has appeared several times during the week and was once observed with a female, Vicky III who already has two calves. Another big impressive male in musth was Freddy who on two consecutive days was seen guarding Bogota who is a female from a well known group. Yesterday Bogota appeared but Freddy was gone. Mafouz has also been in musth but not observed guarding a female. Musth provides much excitement in the clearing in terms of vocalizations. Females when approached by musth males tend to vocalize in an excited manner so the past week has been full of such episodes. So despite the increased poaching pressure there is reproductive success.

With the rains there is also lots of mud bathing by the elephants in the clearing who spend lots of time wallowing along the edges of the bai resulting in various colored elephants.The most common color is bright yellow which is the color of the clay in the clearing. Closeby in the forest there is another wallow which is a rich red in color. This is the rarer color and when a red elephant appears it is distinct and immediately noticed. Below is Finean bathed in red.