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.
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.
Left Loop With the continuing dry season more holes have opened up in the clearing and for a few days more and more males have returned to Dzanga. A freak rain filled the favorite holes and this resulted in fewer males in the daylight hours. Now with a two week dry period new holes have gradually opened up. Yesterday the northern end of the clearing contained at least six big bulls waiting around the now favorite hole. The dominant bull, Left Loop, spent most of the afternoon in this hole. During the middle of the afternoon he left the hole and came in our direction where he stood in front of the observation platform and waited. I almost had the feeling that he knew we were there. This went on for about thirty minutes before he left to return to the hole. This is a bull which we first identified in 1990 and who comes in regularly. He is not a seasonal bull, but one who comes in all times of the year. The other bulls backed off as soon as they were aware of his return. How they know a bigger bull and more dominant bull is coming in their direction is a mystery, but perhaps the approach is sensed by the vibrations set off by his foot falls. Later in the afternoon another big bull entered the bai from the east. Eldridge, whom we had seen two days ago, was in musth. Today he trotted in and overtook the best hole in the southern sector which had been used by a group of younger bulls. Two days ago he competed with a smaller male in musth for what we thought was an estrous female and ended up chasing the smaller male away but in the end the courtship between the female and Eldridge didn’t work. With his entry was the unmistakable smell of musth which permeated the bai and elephants in his vicinity excitedly vocalized. He planted himself in the southern hole driving off the other males.
Eldridge
Today news that our local internet connection has been disconnected because of a billing issue. This is a place where there are always difficulties regarding technology and a lot of our time goes into trying to keep it all working. I’ll continue to write and when I have the opportunity the blogs will get posted. The weather which is normally the driest part of the year has been chaotic for the last couple of days. Today there is thunder on both side of camp threatening rain. In seventeen years we have never seen weather like this, perhaps an effect of global warming. The harmattan is also here, this being the part of the dry season cycle when the dust from the Sahara is blown south rendering the atmosphere hazy and thick. The harmattan combined with bush fires set by humans cause a pollution much like smog. Flying in light aircraft during this part of the year is hypnotic since there are no visible landmarks giving one the sensation of standing still. Yesterday besides the usual elephant observations, we were treated to a super spectacle. For those of you who have had the privilege of visiting this part of the world and are familiar with the forest antelope, the bongo, you will know that it is a rare treat to see this largest species of forest antelope. About the size of and large white tailed deer, both the males and females have long spiral horns. Their pelage is a bright auburn and their flanks being vertically striped in white. They travel in groups of adult females with their offspring and enter the clearing in a single file as they exit the forest. Yesterday they started to enter and a group of 12 were the first to appear. A couple of minutes later a large male entered. He was obviously looking for potential mates in the group. Up until this moment what I found odd was that there were no young calves seen. Then another group appeared, this time it was one adult female accompanied by 10 young calves. The adult was the designated calf-sitter. There was then a total of 30 bongo, many more than we usually observe. They spent about 30 minutes in the clearing and then returned to the forest. Their vibrant color combined with the long sunlight rays of the late afternoon was spectacular for lack of a better word. The bai surface is still wet after an unseasonable rain storm on January 2nd. The numbers of elephant reached 85 yesterday and a few large males showed up in the late afternoon including Eldridge who was in rut and made a full turn in the clearing looking for potential mates. One of my favorite juvenile males, Basil, was also in the clearing for a second day. Basil who is now about 10 years old has been sighted in Congo by a Congolese colleague who is also monitoring clearings in the Republic of Congo. He makes this trip regularly and also reunites with his mother whom I have known for about 16 years. Basil left his group at the age of five which is about the age at which forest elephant males leave their maternal groups.
Today news that our local internet connection has been disconnected because of a billing issue. This is a place where there are always difficulties regarding technology and a lot of our time goes into trying to keep it all working. I’ll continue to write and when I have the opportunity the blogs will get posted. The weather which is normally the driest part of the year has been chaotic for the last couple of days. Today there is thunder on both side of camp threatening rain. In seventeen years we have never seen weather like this, perhaps an effect of global warming. The harmattan is also here, this being the part of the dry season cycle when the dust from the Sahara is blown south rendering the atmosphere hazy and thick. The harmattan combined with bush fires set by humans cause a pollution much like smog. Flying in light aircraft during this part of the year is hypnotic since there are no visible landmarks giving one the sensation of standing still. Yesterday besides the usual elephant observations, we were treated to a super spectacle. For those of you who have had the privilege of visiting this part of the world and are familiar with the forest antelope, the bongo, you will know that it is a rare treat to see this largest species of forest antelope. About the size of and large white tailed deer, both the males and females have long spiral horns. Their pelage is a bright auburn and their flanks being vertically striped in white. They travel in groups of adult females with their offspring and enter the clearing in a single file as they exit the forest. Yesterday they started to enter and a group of 12 were the first to appear. A couple of minutes later a large male entered. He was obviously looking for potential mates in the group. Up until this moment what I found odd was that there were no young calves seen. Then another group appeared, this time it was one adult female accompanied by 10 young calves. The adult was the designated calf-sitter. There was then a total of 30 bongo, many more than we usually observe. They spent about 30 minutes in the clearing and then returned to the forest. Their vibrant color combined with the long sunlight rays of the late afternoon was spectacular for lack of a better word. The bai surface is still wet after an unseasonable rain storm on January 2nd. The numbers of elephant reached 85 yesterday and a few large males showed up in the late afternoon including Eldridge who was in rut and made a full turn in the clearing looking for potential mates. One of my favorite juvenile males, Basil, was also in the clearing for a second day. Basil who is now about 10 years old has been sighted in Congo by a Congolese colleague who is also monitoring clearings in the Republic of Congo. He makes this trip regularly and also reunites with his mother whom I have known for about 16 years. Basil left his group at the age of five which is about the age at which forest elephant males leave their maternal groups.
Sorry for the lack of blogging, there have been some technical problems of connecting to the internet from this area of the Central African Republic. This will result in a lack of photos until we can suss out the problem. Despite the technical difficulties there are record numbers of elephant being sighted in Dzanga Clearing over the past week. Over the period of several days there were more than 150 individuals observed during the daylight hours but this still doesn’t break the all time daylight record of 180 seen in the early 1990’s. With the continuing dry season there is less and less quality food available for the elephants and this is evident everywhere with the increase destruction of the vegetations. The roads are strewn with broken saplings and an area not far from our camp which is ordinarily filled with weedy secondary vegetation was leveled in one night by a group of elephants. With a remote night camera we would have filmed an undoubtedly comic scene of elephants thoroughly enjoying themselves. In camp we are also witnessing increased elephant activity with nightly visits from elephant family groups and lone males who come in search of anything palatable. Before retiring we check to see that anything which may interest our large friends is put away out of their reach and their keen sense of smell. In the past they have broken down the wall of our storehouse after smelling bars of soap. They even find where I have spit the remains of my toothpaste and eat the soil ! This is a dry season phenomenon since they are food stressed. Fruit, a high quality food, is scarce so the eles spend there time searching far and wide for food to quell their enormous appetites.
Yesterday afternoon at the bai, the surface of the bai is drying up and the number of holes being opened up by the elephants is increasing by the day. One hole on the southern end of the bai is proving to be the favorite of the biggest bulls. It was comical today when each big bull entering the bai came through the forest into the bai from the same trail from the eastern edge. They all headed directly to this favorite hole and depending on his size would either be rebuffed of take possession of the hole. This scene was replayed over and over until there were six big bulls who had parried for the top position. The most successful bull was a huge male Ibrahim, whom I had last seen in December 2004. He held the hole and was still there when we departed at 5:00 PM. While he held the hole he would periodically chase any males which came too close to him which resulted in a rearrangement of the males waiting in the vicinity of the hole.
Ibrahim Today the dynamics at the clearing had dramatically changed. The favorite hole which had been attracting the larger bulls had flooded as a result of too much digging close to the small stream which had been flowing nearby. The result was now a big puddle and there were markedly fewer larger males today. The main draw for the biggest bulls is definitely these huge dry holes, once they disappear the bulls no longer find the clearing as attractive. The bai was scattered with family groups consisting of adult females and their young with their numbers reaching 100. The main activity of these females and young was the excavation of lots of small holes as well as grazing on the edge of the clearing in the small meadow.
Dzanga Bai: Southern End The Dzanga clearing is often referred to as Dzanga bai, bai being the local Bayaka word for forest clearing. These clearings are numerous in this part of the Congo Basin and where they are protected from poachers and other human activity attract wildlife providing the best “window” in the forest. Bais are usually found along rivers and vary in surface area. The main attraction to wildlife is the availability of mineral salts which lie beneath the surface of these clearings. The minerals are accessed in several ways, one being by excavation, elephants being the most adept at this. They use their feet like shovels kicking away surface soil creating huge holes which expose the mineral layer. The other way elephants access the minerals is by pumping with their trunks through the surface water to the mineral layer. This in the more difficult way of getting minerals and since the biggest males dominate the best mineral holes, females and their offspring as well as younger males are observed vigorously pumping through the water in search of minerals. During the wetter parts of the years when it is impossible to dig big holes in the bai because of the continuous rain, fewer males are observed in the bai. I tend to think for the large males pumping through the surface water is difficult because their long tusks get in the way. Bongo Male and Female Elephants are the dominant animals at Dzanga bai but other species of forest mammals are also observed on a regular basis. After elephant the most commonly observed species is the sitatunga, a species of forest antelope which prefers the wetter parts of the forest. The females are reddish in color while the adult males are a chocolate brown. The most spectacular species is the bongo, the largest species of forest antelope. They are observed in groups ranging from six to thirty individuals and are made up of females and their offspring. Males are seen periodically in the groups looking for estrous females. We also observe the two species of forest pigs: giant forest hog and the red river hog. They also are observed in the clearing where they skirt the edges avoiding the elephants. The pig species serve as the main scavengers in the forest and we have observed them feeding on elephant carcasses. Bais not only serve the nutritional needs of animals but also serve as centers of social activitiy for forest animals. At Dzanga we witness a myriad of social behavior which is otherwise impossible to observe in the forest environment.
Forest Buffalo
Habib The last two days at Dzanga have been overwhelming, the numbers soaring to well over one hundred. The weather although overcast and cloudy was a perfect temperature being cool and bugless. The real dry season is marked by the arrival of the biggest bulls in the Dzanga population and this year it has started earlier than expected. The first arrival was Habib two days ago. I recognized him immediately because of his distinctive ears. He however had broken his left tusk and was in full musth. Musth gave him the lead in the male hierarchy and he positiioned himself in the best mineral hole in the bai. I discovered that the last time I had seen him was in December of 2004 when he was also in musth. The peak of musth in the Dzanga area is the dry season and the bulls I haven’t seen all year make their way to the bai in search of receptive females.
Hilton The dry season is by far the most interesting part of the year and holds most of the surprises because of the high turn over of individuals. There are not only males I haven’t seen for several years but also the new calves born to well known females who come to spend time in the bai. Also because of the small surface there is a vast range of social behavior only scene in settings such as Dzanga. Clearings also provide one of the most effective protection tools for forest wildlife because it is in these settings where we are able to observe wildlife and do effective monitoring. In the case of Dzanga we are immediately alerted to poachers in the area by observing the behavior of the animals. Elephants in particular are the first animals to leave an area if threatened by poachers and this indicator is what we use to mobilize park guards to reinforce patrols in suspected areas to insure the future of these animals.
Hello everyone. I’m Andrea Turkalo and I have been working in the Central African Republic for the last 25 years and involved on a variety of wildlife studies including savannah elephants, western lowland gorillas and for the past seventeen years on forest elephants. Conservation of wildlife is my passion and I hope that my work is making a difference in the future of animals in this part of the world.
The Dzanga Forest Elephant Study now in its seventeenth year is the longest ongoing study of forest elephants, Loxodonta cyclotis. We have identified over 3000 elephants and are following their daily lives at the Dzanga Clearing in the Central African Republic.
The Dzanga Clearing in the Central African Republic attracts more forest elephants than any other clearing in the Central Africa region. On any day, we see between forty and one hundred elephants. Elephants are present in this clearing 24 hours a day and are attracted to the area by the availability of mineral salts, which are found below the surface of the clearing.
Elephants spent most of their time in the bai digging in search of this mineral layer. The biggest males dig most of these holes and spend a lot of their time competing for the better holes. Female access the minerals by pumping down through the surface water of the clearing with their trunks to the minerals. During the dry season, the surface of the clearing is drier and the elephants dig more holes making minerals available to more animals, which also include forest buffalo, bongo, giant forest hog and red river hogs.
It is now the beginning of the dry season and animal activity is quickly picking up in the bai. With the advent of the dry season, we are seeing more individuals than throughout the rest of the year. This is also the height of mating season and the bigger males who have been absent for most of the year will now reappear in the bai looking for potential mates.
Today we observed over one hundred elephants in the clearing, which included many family groups and about seven large males. The males spent most of the afternoon waiting for the biggest male, Malek, who dominated the biggest hole in the bai, to vacate the hole therefore giving the other elephants a chance to partake of the best mineral site
The biggest surprise of the afternoon was the appearance of an adult female with two offspring who I first thought I had never seen before. Her ears were clearly marked with a sizeable hole in her left ear. Upon returning to camp, I looked through my identity cards to see if I had ever seen this female and sure enough, I found her, her name being Fenena. The first time I first identified her was in 1994, and then saw her two more times in January and February of 1998. The last time I saw her in 1998 had two offspring both males. Today she was accompanied by two offspring, a sub adult and juvenile female with no sign of any males. The males have left the group and are now on their own. This is the most interesting part of the observations at Dzanga: the appearance of individuals who have not been seen for long periods. We wonder where they have gone, what they have experienced and seen. This is also what keeps us here, teasing out the relationships and witnessing one of the most exciting wildlife sites in the Central African region.
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