by E Shaw, of Fairhaven College, WWU
Photo by Emma Buckardt
Around 60% of all wild African elephants visit the Okavango Delta each year during their migrations. Because I have loved, admired, and been fascinated with African elephants since I can remember, and am fortunate enough to be able to act on this opportunity, I have come to study abroad in the Delta. Until last week, what I didn’t know was that my lifelong adoration and commitment to these animals is likely due, in part, to a deliberate and well-marketed campaign by Western conservationists in the 1980s and 90s to “Save the Elephant!”. Because of this ongoing campaign and the myriad like it, I was under the impression that African Elephants were desperately struggling across their entire remaining territory in Africa when I arrived last week in Maun, Botswana. The first new thing I learned about elephants is that while it is largely true that elephant populations in most East and Southeast African countries are decimated due to human impacts such as poaching, trophy hunting, habitat fragmentation and destruction, and conflict with humans, this is quite happily not the case in northern Botswana, where elephant populations are not decreasing. It became apparent just how at-home elephants feel here when we drove past the wildlife fence and into the delta last Thursday and this bunch crossed in front of us.
Photo by Emma Buckardt
Elephant numbers have greatly increased in Botswana thanks to a hunting ban instated four years ago by President Ian Khama, which keeps elephants safe from their greatest threat within national boundaries. Elephants, well-known for their impressive, multifaceted intelligence, quickly picked up on this phenomenon, and it didn’t take them long to spread the word to come to Botswana. Elephants use multiple methods and senses to communicate, share information, give directions, express themselves, and connect to each other. For long-distance communication it has been found that elephants register extremely low-decibal vibrations with the highly sensitive pads on their feet. One group of elephant researchers in Tanzania witnessed sudden behavior changes exhibiting disturbance, fear, and grief throughout the herd they were observing. Afterwards, the researchers learned that the onset of these behaviors was confirmed to have occurred at the exact same time that a helicopter-operated cull over 50 miles away had been executed. Herds have also been observed to exhibit seemingly inexplicable joy when the herds of known friends are many miles away. Within shorter ranges, specifically within a herd, scientists have discovered that rather than sound/vibration, recognizing and remembering the scent of an individual’s urine plays the most important role in the matriarch’s ability to create a mental map of her family members’ whereabouts. Additionally, researchers in Amboseli National Park have observed the importance and prevalence of sensory communication such as physical touch in showing affection, and teaching babies things like what foods are safe to eat.
The matriarch is often the oldest member of the herd, which consists predominantly of her female family members, but temperament, leadership ability, and other individual characteristics play into a herd’s selection of a matriarch as well. The matriarch’s leadership ability is also a key determinant of a herd’s size, in addition to resource availability. A female elephant usually only mates once for a few days every four years, as their gestation period is 22 months long and babies are drinking milk and highly dependent on their mothers for the first several years. Aunts, older sisters, cousins, and other family members are vital in helping a mother raise her calf, especially if she is a first-time mother. Male elephants typically leave the herd around the age of 15 or 20, which coincides roughly with when they first enter a hormonal breeding state known as musth. If there is a presence of older bulls in the area, a young male’s period of musth can be suppressed and shortened until the young male has grown enough to be able to compete with the older, larger bull. Males in musth ooze a black, tarry substance from their temples, dribble greenish urine from their engorged penises, and can be dangerously aggressive and violent.
Photo by Hannah Uttley
Adult males will often form herds with other bulls in which the guidance and companionship of older bulls is important to their happiness and developmental success, but all too often they are impossible to find because of the poaching of big, older bulls for their tusks.