buffalo kill
Category: Elephants | Date: May 06 2008 | By: admin
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
More poaching in Dzanga!
Category: Elephants | Date: May 05 2008 | By: admin
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.
Bad news
Category: Elephants | Date: Apr 23 2008 | By: admin
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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