Elephant Part II

Amboseli Dusk by lee DeCovnick

We were out in our land cruiser in Amboseli National Park when we spotted an older bull elephant wandering off by himself. 

Amboseli is known for its elephant population, most of whom herd together each day coming to and from the hills below Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. 

But this fellow was wandering off on his own.  Dennis, our guide, told us that older bulls who can no longer compete for the females can become quite solitary.  We decided to follow this one out toward the perimeter of the park. 

He sauntered along, picking up a bite of grass here, a bit of shrub there, looking up at us somewhat anxiously,

no doubt wondering why we were there.

OLD BULL by Janice DeCovnick

We stopped the car.  The sun was hot that day.  When the elephant saw that we had stopped, he eyed us, still munching a bit.  Very slowly he made his way a little closer to our vehicle.  He was in curious mode.  He kicked the dirt with his foot and edged a bit closer, eyeing us closely as he did.  He stood on one foot and then the other, swaying back and forth.  He stayed behind one bush and then another, testing the waters carefully.  The sun grew hotter.  He blew some dust up over his huge torso.  That dust acts like sunscreen.

Our camera shutters had been clicking right along.  We were grateful for the high top that covered the land cruiser.  We were also talking softly to the old bull, signaling our good intentions toward him.  Finally, he came out from behind the bushes and walked a few paces toward us.  We wondered just how close he might get.  He came within about fifteen feet away.

Eventually this old bull grew weary of this encounter with us and sauntered off on his solitary way.  We did not see him again in 2019, despite several more days in Amboseli.  We were delighted with the encounter, eventually watching him dance; clearly he was interacting with us.  We had spent a solid thirty minutes together, thirty minutes we would never forget. We had watched his uncertainty, trust building slowly during our interaction.  We had watched him dance, and we had watched him go.

DROUGHT

In 2022, we returned to Amboseli.  Kenya was in the midst of a drought.  We had come to photograph elephants.  Drought had driven many elephants away from Amboseli as the swamps there had receded greatly, so that the great herds were simply not to be seen.

We found somewhat larger herds at the much needed Camp Satao watering hole, but in Amboseli, we found a few mothers and thin babies, scattered about the area.  Isolated bulls waded deep into the Amboseli swamps, no longer surrounded by many herds of elephants.  Late in the day we were on our way through the park on the sandy road leading to the gate.  Quite suddenly Dennis pulled the land cruiser over to the side of the dusty road and stopped right next to a bull elephant just on the other side of the hedge that lined the roadway.  We were about five and a half to six feet away from this magnificent bull.  He was chewing leaves from his side of the hedge.

THE WATERING HOLE by Janice DeCovnick

I had never been that close to an elephant.  It was quite a remarkable experience.  We photographed him, and as we did so, we talked softly to him, conveying our good intentions.  He was watching us and we were watching him.  Gradually, he moved his trunk closer to our side of the fence.  He took a handful of leaves in his trunk and shook the dust off of them.  He moved a little closer to the hedge and reached out for the leaves closest to us.  At this point he was five feet away from us at most!  Looking up at a great big elephant like that from five feet away will take your breath away.  I think he was as curious about us as we were about him.  He was, quite clearly, a social being.  What happened next astounded us.  He began showing off to us.  He ate the same leaves, but raised his head and trunk in the air, turning sideways  so that we got a really good look at him.  I could swear he had a little grin!  The gates closed at 5:00 p.m., so eventually we had to leave.  As we did so, he turned and walked back into the acacia forest behind him.

MIGHTY ONE by Janice DeCovnick

The next day we visited Amboseli Trust for Elephants, a research group that studies elephant families and behavior in Amboseli.  A lovely woman, Nora Njiraini, met with us and taught us a good deal about elephants and the research her organization is doing.  We told her about our encounter with the bull the previous evening, and she asked if we had taken any photos of him.  Of course we had dozens!  She pulled out her elephant identification  books and rather quickly decided that we had encountered Tor.  Tor had a quite distinctive hole in one ear.  Amboseli Trust for Elephants has identified a great many of the elephants in Amboseli, often by their ears, as every ear has different tears and holes.  It was quite exciting to us that Nora could identify Tor so readily. 

OVERHEAD by Janice DeCovnick

This magnificent elephant we had seen now had a name. 

Tears came to my eyes, tears of joy.

Did you ever have an encounter with an animal that brought tears to your eyes?

How about an encounter with an animal in the wild?  That brought tears of joy to your eyes? Have you ever given a wild animal a name?  Did that change how you felt toward the animal? Have you ever had that experience with an elephant?

 

Could you tell us that story?

TOR by Janice DeCovnick