Another remarkable day at the clearing, and in a way overwhelming. In the past two weeks we have observed four new calves to previously identified females. Two of the calves were born to older females whom we have known most of the study period of eighteen years. The calf born to Gonya was a male and we first saw them barely twenty-four hours after the calf was born. They entered from the south and the calf was the last to enter with the group and when I saw him I could barely believe his appearance since we had seen Gonya the previous day without him. He floated rather than walked, unsure of his legs but kept up with the group. I had no reservations with Gonya’s capacity as a mother since I had seen her with three previous newborns and they were all still alive.

A few days ago another of the older matriarchs, Dana, entered with a new calf which from out calculations was a few weeks old. We had seen other members of her group but she had been absent from the group during the last few weeks. The other two new calves were to first time mothers, Cybele II and Tess III, whom I mentioned in a previous blog. It is always a miracle to me that new calves appear, it’s magical to see a calf to a female one knows for the first time in the clearing. I can only imagine what the calf is feeling, perhaps an immense sense of confusion with everyone else being so much bigger. I am afraid that infant mortality in the clearing is because of the number of elephants and a calf can easily be trampled especially when a mother lacks the necessary experience to keep a calf out of harm’s way.

Dana and her new calf

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