Many of us in the elephant world received the devastating news this week of the death of Hezy Shoshani. Hezy was killed in Addis Ababa as he returned from work at the university where he had been teaching for the last one and a half years. For Hezy elephants had been a life long obsession and he knew more about their physiology and anatomy than anyone.

He was a rare individual whose curiosity and enthusiasm were infectious and after one encounter with him, he remained at the forefront of my memory. Not only those who knew Hezy feel a tremendous loss but the elephants of the planet have lost a true ally. My sincere condolences to Sandra Shoshani, his widow.

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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.

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Thanks to all of you for taking the time to not only read the blog but take the time to comment on the situation.

Poaching wherever it takes place is a complicated situation and is normally fueled not always by corruption but also poverty.  Elephant poaching in this part of the world is practiced by those who can afford the arms and ammunition and who are also protected from prosecution.  So it is not a matter of poor people hunting for self-sustainance.  There are well organized gangs of people who are under the thumb of one person hired by a local officials to hunt.  These criminal gangs are well protected and even when they are arrested they are only sent away for a couple of weeks or months before returning to the area to pick up where they left off.  There appears to be this tacit agreement that if the poacher keeps his mouth shut he will eventually be back at work in a short time.  I would also add that this is much the case in all of Central Africa where the forest elephants are being hunted full-time.

How do we work against this corruption ?  That is the perhaps the most difficult part.  Corruption runs deep and the more I learn about it the more I am frustrated and the most frustrating part is that most of the people here know about the system and how it works.  They accept it as the status quo, it always having been the situation and they know no other.  They also know as I have learned after more than two decades on the ground that it is virtually impossible to change the situation.  The only way I can deal with it is on a day to day basis and try to find some positive side of my experience.

In the end unless the corruption is dealt with Africa is doomed from an economic as well as social point of view.  The majority of people here deserve better because the majority of them are concerned with educating and feeding themselves but with the quality of leadership that now exists that is impossible.

I heard the news this morning on the BBC about the UN flying a helicopter into Virunga National Park and trading munition for ivory.  If this is true then it is another indication of how difficult the problem is and if there is corruption at that level one can only imagine how deep it goes.

A friend of mine said something very striking yesterday.  We were talking about the corruption and how it a form of adaptation, an adaptation of survival.  In other words in an environment where corruption is rife the only way to survive is also to be corrupt.

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Another amazing experience in the forest. Guards came to camp the other day alerting me about an elephant carcass they found at the edge of the river just below the camp. All I could think of was more poaching. I hurried to have a look and there in the middle of the path at the water’s edge was an elephant which I estimated to be less than 15 months old. Its tusks had not yet emerged and in forest elephants tusks usually are visible after they are 18 months old. It was in good condition and it puzzled me as to what could have killed it. I then heard trumpeting and looked up river and saw what was probably its mother and an older sibling coming towards us. The mother was obviously upset at the death and this also explained why we had heard so many vocalizations the previous night. From my calculation the calf had died the day before between 17:00 and 23:00 so we could exclude poaching since we had heard no gunshots. Now with the mother bearing down on us,we backed off from the carcass and the guards continued on a patrol of the area.

No we had to figure a way to get the carcass out of the way since it was right in the middle of the path where tourists walked to the clearing. I thought with the number of people we had near by. If we could move the carcass a couple of meters into the river it would most likely float. The next morning we went to the river with about 10 people which included the local guard patrol and people from my camp. Because it had rained and the water level was up it was easy to move the elephant. As we turned the body over we saw that there were wound marks and they were in pairs so this explained how it was killed. It looked like a buffalo had gored the elephant calf twice leaving considerble puncture wounds. After it was wounded the calf had walked and probably bled considerably before collapsing and dying on the path.

So we pushed and heaved and finally the elephant was in about a meter of water and floated. Rather than leave it to its own devices we guided the elephant a couple of hundred feet where it was in the midst of the current and then allowed the river to gently take it away. It was a sad farewell as we stood and watched it disappear in a bend in the river.

In the bai we frequently see small elephant calves challenging buffalo. In most instances the buffalo back off but in this case the buffalo charged and the calf paid with its life.

Patrolling 

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Another incident at Dzanga on the night of April 18th.  We heard the sound of gunshot again at about 18:30 and from the sound we knew it to be an AK47.  This is the strategy where here the sun sets at 18:00 and the poachers act knowing that guard patrols will not to risk the danger of trying to find the poachers and shooting in the dark.  The local guard patrol was dispatched immediately to the clearing and upon their return a few hours later they said that they could hear the poachers chopping away at the elephant in order to quickly remove the tusks.

The next day we went to the clearing and found the dead elephant at edge of the clearing where he had collapsed after being shot. He was a young male and was most likely shot in the clearing and then dashed about 50 meters before falling.  Yesterday the odor of the rotting corpse permeated the clearing and was a grim reminder of the poaching.  In the clearing however we were surprised to see about 30 elephants who although cautious remained in the clearing for the afternoon.  Among the elephants was Rachid, an impressive one tusker, who was in musth and trying to guard Juno.  Juno was skirting his advances and they made several passes in and out of the bai. The sexuality was infectious because another younger bull tried to copulate with a young female which resulted in a frenzy of vocalizations from the other elephants in the bai.

Later in the afternoon another bull arrived in musth. I had seen him a week ago when he came to the clearing and wasn’t able to identify him for lack of time.  This time I could clearly see and sketch his ears and identified him as Clyde. He headed for the same hole he occupied last week and didn’t pick up on the Juno being in estrous.

Since the last poaching incident the elephants have remained calm and their numbers have increased despite the constant danger.  Yesterday we observed 80 elephants in the clearing as well as bongo, buffalo, sitatunga and hylochere (Giant forest hog)  who have been scavenging on the most recent elephant carcass.

I think what amazes me about Dzanga is how unforgiving these elephants can be or it may be more sinister, perhaps Dzanga is the safest place for them in the area and they have few choices about where to go.

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I apologize for the lack of recent blogs and will try my best to keep these posts coming. There has been a recent rash of poaching near the Dzanga Clearing and we are trying our best to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity. I was away for a few weeks in Europe and the USA for professional and medical reasons. In my absence there was a young male elephant killed near the northern end of the clearing.

No one heard gun shots which means the elephant was either killed in the middle of the night or during a storm. One of the research assistants who goes to the clearing every day started to smell the unmistakable odor of an elephant carcass. Despite the rain he and one of the trackers went in search and found it in the forest at the edge of the clearing. The front of the head had been hacked off and the tusks taken with the meat left to rot. With the poaching the elephant numbers in the clearing dropped dramatically.

Just after my return on Easter I had been to the bai for the afternoon where the numbers has resumed normal levels. At about 18:20 ( 6:20 PM) I hear what at first I thought was tree starting to fall but the sound continued and I then knew it was the sound of an AK47 or Kalashnikov. I counted the number of shots and there were about twenty in all and the sound was coming from the direction of the clearing which is located about 2 kilometers from the camp. There were two guards nearby but between them there was only one arm, also an AK47. So I grabbed the truck keys and drove immediately to the village in search of more guards. I have never driven the rutted road so fast and made the 12 kilometers in about 20 minutes.

I found Cyril Pelissier, the technical advisor for anti-poaching for the Dzanga-Sangha Project and he found more guards and we drove back to camp. Then he and the guards went off in the night to the bai, courageous to say the least given the elephant density in this area. They arrived at the bai but were unable to see anything but they did hear elephant activity in the bai, however once the sun appeared in the early morning hours they saw the carcass at the northern end of the bai, it was also a male, a medium adult.

I awoke in the early daylight hours and thought immediately about yesterday’s incident and readied to go to the clearing, fearing the worst. Enroute I encountered the guards and Cyril on the trail and they told me what they had found. I continued to the clearing and they returned to camp to do radio with the project. Upon arriving at the clearing there were no elephants present, just the carcass in the open at the northern end of the bai. We walked toward it and saw that the tusks had been removed with the front of the head chopped away. My only question was did I know this individual ? The only way to determine this was to examine the ears to see if there was any pattern I would recognize. The elephant was lying on his left side so the only ear to look at was the right one. The right ear was marked and I photographed it and let the details set in. Then I realized that I knew him and that he had been present a day before. His name was Winky and I had first identified him in 1991. He was one of those bulls who came to the bai on a regular basis and was never one of the dominant players. He also had a very distinct posture and gait and without binoculars he was easily identifiable at 100 yards. Now he lay in front of me quickly becoming a memory.

This for me is forest elephant reality. In this area of the world poaching is escalating and we are up against a formidable enemy which rears its ugly head in the form of corruption, greed, and poverty. The solutions are few and the political will isn’t there to even give us hope for the survival of these animals but we continue to work to perhaps insure a meager future for the wildlife.

The past few days at the clearing have lifted my spirits but I have no allusions. Yesterday there were more than 90 elephants including a few bulls and newborns. Most of them however are oblivious to the Easter event and come to the clearing with no fear. A few of the elephants approached the slowly disappearing carcass. They approach, extend their trunks and then back off as if they know all is not right.

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First I would like to thank Therese Siskind for her donation to the Dzanga Study. We depend upon people’s generosity to continue the work helping protect one of the important sites for forest elephants in the Central African region. This is the time of the year when donations determine whether or not we continue. So thanks Therese for your thoughtfulness.

I apologize for not blogging more but it has been difficult to access the internet to upload recent entries. Our internet access here is via satellite link and the site is not close to camp and the best time to upload is at night when there are fewer users.

The dry season seems to be longer than usual this year and their is little sign of rain in the air. With this continuation the clearing is still attracting more and more elephants, some of which I haven’t seen in a few years. For three days we were observing a large bull who planted himself in the favorite hole in the southern section of the bai. He would spend the entire afternoon dominating the hole, never leaving it during two afternoons of observation. From a distance I could see that there were two notches in the ear as well as a small slit on the edge of his lower ear lobe. Since he was standing in profile that was the only information I could glean in order to identify him from the present collection of identity cards. This is the most exciting part of the study, seeing individuals you see infrequently and only during the dry season. Returning to camp I combed through the identity cards but found no card and then I tried again since there are so many cards and sometimes it takes several scans to find it. I finally found the card, Stasny, a male with the marks matching the right ear I had drawn and the left ear had one notch on the upper half. All the other criteria fit, a big bodied male with a noticeable large head and full tail. I then went to the computer file which contains the visitation data consisting of the dates the elephants have been sighted in the clearing. Stasny had last been seen in February of 2003 for three days in the clearing. The timing was astounding because this time it was also a visit in February for three days. I discussed this with the staff here and they too were amazed saying that the elephants have internal clocks to return to the same place at the same time of year. The bigger bulls adhere to this rule whereas the younger elephants and females are more random in their visitation to the clearing.

Stasny

Later after returning to the camp there was again a visit from Maddy and her two calves who were in the forest at the edge of camp. This was her third visit during the last month and her arrival time was the same: dusk. She could clearly see us and was a bit perturbed and reacted to us by breaking a small branch but then she calmed down as we stood and watched her with her two calves behind her. She stood still waving her tail and was clearly interested in our presence. She comes into camp when it is dark and eats the surface soil where we have carelessly drained the dish water, which contains something that the elephants need in their diets since they are able to find each spot where the waste water has been dropped. This was a mystery to me for many years as to why elephants would dig in certain areas in camp.

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Eldridge entered the clearing alone yesterday afternoon with Scar Side absent from the clearing. The guard is over and Eldridge came in search of potential mating partners. Despite a high number of elephants approaching 170 yesterday Eldridge failed to find any other females in estrous. His presence dominated the bai and he was easily able to maneuver his way into the two favorite mineral holes. On several occasions there was a chorus from elephants as he approached, this is in response to his highly sexual state. Musth males can be heard to vocalize very low powerful calls and they have a particular odor which is clearly recognizable even in the forest where they have passed. The can also be highly aggressive during their period of musth with other elephants keeping a careful distance from them.

With the advancing dry season the night time temperatures have dipped to below 20 degrees Celsius making for cool nights, the coldest part of the year in the lowland tropical forest. However the nocturnal elephant activity has increased. Not only do we hear elephants all night long around the camp but there has also been several night time incursions into camp. Last week an elephant destroyed one of the two outhouses in camp which we are in the process of repairing. This time instead of a wooden planks the base will be made of cement. However a few days ago an elephant came into camp at around 11:00 PM and tried to make off with one of the sacks of cement which had been stored under one of the elevated houses. As he picked it up the paper sack ripped spilling the cement on the ground as one of the trackers chased him off. In the waning moonlight it was thought that the culprit was a large bull. We then swept up the remains of the cement and closed it up in one of the houses. In the morning we looked for the sack but after tracking the elephant for several hundred meters we concluded that the bull had eaten the sack. This type of activity soars in the dry season when elephants are food stressed and there being little fruit they resort to eating basically anything they find interesting. There is more destruction of trees and we observe far more in camp than during the wetter parts of the year.

Two days ago at dusk after I return to camp I showered and as I exited the shower I heard an elephant nearby. I found a group of three just behind the kitchen and was able to get a look at the adult females ears. She was easy to identify since I already knew her and had seen her at the clearing a few weeks ago. She showed no signs of alarm despite my proximity and being with her two calves, standing quietly in the cover of some vegetation at the edge of camp. Her name is Maddy and she came to camp last month at the same time of day and from the same point of entry. A half hour after our encounter she returned in the dark to aspirate the powdery layer of soil which surrounds the kitchen. I could clearly hear her as she vacuumed the soil with her trunk which resembles heavy breathing, a very common sound for the dry season.

Maddy

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Two days we arrived at the bai to see that one of our favorite males, Hilton, was present. He is interesting because he is only observed during the dry season and for many years would arrive in musth. This year however this is not the case and he is showing no sign of musth and has lost his dominance position in the bai. He was in possession of the favorite hole for most of the afternoon until Eldridge arrived courting a female. Eldridge drove Hilton out of the hole and Hilton scurried out of the bai not returning for the remainder of the afternoon.

Hilton and Eldridge Faceoff

The dry season is the height of the mating season and for two days we have been observing Eldridge guarding a female we have known for a number of years, Scar Side. Eldridge is watching over Scar Side and her calf, closely warding off any potential competition. He stays very close to her and follows her where ever she goes. During the observations they have been spending most of their time in the northern section of the clearing where the favorite mineral hole is located. Eldridge rather than monopolizing the hole for himself allows Scarside and her juvenile access while he stands guard at the edge of the hole with other elephants keep a safe distance from the courting couple. Occasionally Eldridge will chase off any elephants who venture too close and Scar Side also joins in discouraging any competition for the hole. At one point on the first day of observing the couple they were all able to occupy the hole together.

Eldridge guarding Scar Side

Later in the afternoon another bull in musth arrived but was unable to wrest Scar Side from Eldridge. The couple left the bai for the forest and the new musth male circulated in the bai in search of potential mates. None were to be found, males not being presented with many mating opportunities despite their searching far and wide. They also are competing with other bulls so bull life is not an easy task.

The numbers of elephants is surpassing any other previous year of our observations, yesterday I identified over 140 individuals and I estimate the maximum number to be more than 160 for the afternoon. The elephant numbers maximize during the night as more elephants enter the clearing from the forest. Because of poaching pressure many elephants will only come into clearings at night seeking security from poachers vision. However Dzanga clearing is the only clearing in the central African region where elephants come in such abundant numbers during the day. I like to think of this small patch in the middle of the forest as a spiritual center for forest elephants, a place where they are undisturbed and where we have the privilege of watching them in their natural state.

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With the weather at its absolute driest the number of elephants is increasing in the clearing and now we are seeing an average of more than 130 individuals per day. These numbers are unprecedented and I believe the main influence on the elevated numbers at Dzanga may be a result of the increase in commercial logging to the east in the Republic of Congo. Until a few years ago there was no logging in that area and elephants and other wildlife were unperturbed. Now there is logging which has led to the creation of roads and an influx of people which is putting poaching pressure on the wildlife. With this increased pressure the elephants are quick to know where they are safe and out of harm’s way.

The bulls have established two favorite holes which means there is a lot of jockeying for the best spots. When a new bull enters it is interesting how he will fit into the male constellation, will he displace someone in the hole or stand and wait patiently by the edge ?I call this situation “bull” school because there is a lot of learning taking place by the younger bulls who stand and wait. Curiously enough there are a few sub-adult females who try to get into the holes with the bulls for minerals. The bulls at times are baffled by this behavior and gently nudge the challengers to encourage their departure. Despite their size the bulls are gentle and rarely are truly aggressive towards the other elephants in the vicinity of the hole. They will chase others away and then resume their position in the hole.

Besides the competition over mineral sites, the elephants also are enjoying mud bathing at several sites along the clearing edges. This results in mostly yellow elephant who coat themselves entirely in mud. Less frequently there are red elephants who appear coming from an area in the south where there is a pool of red mud.

Two days ago I observed an interesting sight in front of the observation platform. An adult female, Leonarda, who only comes to the bai once every few years, greeted with a young adult male, Hiram. After they vocalized they kept close to each other, Hiram in a small hole digging for minerals and Leonarda stood next to him. Then Leonarda’s three daughters of various ages approached Hiram and they trunked him to which he did not protest. The rest of the afternoon this group kept close company leading me to believe that Hiram is related to this group. It is rare to see adult males vocalize in response to family groups and in most cases it is because of a family relationship. We see this periodically in groups where we have already determined the family relationships.

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