AFRICAN ELEPHANT
(Loxodonta africana)
Swahili: NDOVU, TEMBO
The largest land animal, elephants have a trunk, tusks (not always), large ears and pillar-like legs with heavily cushioned feet. Thick but sensitive skin varies from black to pale gray to brown.
Ecology and Behavior |
Folklore |
Wild Tales |
Distribution: Formerly most of Africa except driest regions of the Sahara, but range and numbers have shrunk as human population, development and poaching have increased.
Habitat: Any habitat that provides adequate food and water, from rain and montane forests to swamps, floodplains, all types of woodland and savannah to semi-desert (Namibia). Optimum habitat provides both grass and browse: forest edge, open woodland or arid bush country.
Food and Feeding Methods: Wide range of grasses and vegetation depending on the season. Select the most nutritious plants available but tend to feed on grasses and herbs in rainy season and woody plants in dry season. Agile trunk allows them to pick up nuts, strip off leaves and bark, break off branches, and uproot trees. Can feed from ground up to 20 feet. Elephants spend 16 hours a day feeding and consume about 5% of body weight (about 660 lbs); vegetation takes 12 hours to pass through inefficient digestive system that assimilates only 44% of food (compared to 66% for most ruminants).
Social Behavior: Gregarious, matriarchal, ranked by seniority, nomadic/migratory within large ranges. Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals with the central unit being a family group of related females and their offspring led by an older experienced ‘matriarch’, typically 9 to 11 in total (groups beyond 10 tend to split). Activity, direction and rate of movement are determined by matriarch, recognizable as biggest cow in group. Leadership and experience are so important in elephant society that female lifespan extends past age of reproduction, unusual except in man. Closely related family groups in same vicinity, ‘bond groups’, associate closely with frequent intense, friendly greeting sessions. Bond groups that share same range make up ‘clans’ of related elephants. Larger aggregations of up to 200 elephants, including bulls, form during rains and are associated with peak mating activity.
Male offspring are gradually driven out of family groups at about 10 to 14 years and associate in bachelor herds (2 to 14) or wander alone. During periods of musth, when levels of testosterone are elevated, mature, dominant bulls wander alone in search of mating opportunities. Musth is indicated by heightened aggression and copious secretions from temporal glands and swollen penis. Since elephants grow bigger with age, dominance is largely a matter of seniority and males learn strength and status through frequent playfights with peers. Females prefer mating with oldest, most dominant bulls.
With highly mobile trunks, keen sense of smell, glandular secretions, great ears and varied vocalizations, elephants are well equipped to express themselves. Elephants are contact animals using trunks to constantly touch and smell each other. Secretion flows down cheeks from temporal glands whenever elephants are excited or anxious. Frequent ‘talkers’, they communicate with variety of sounds including rumbles, trumpets and squeals. Rumbling, a deep growl, is main form of distance communication and covers a broad range of frequencies including loud infrasound below human hearing that carry over several miles. Drink and bathe daily by choice if water is available. Bathing follows drinking, and elephants will roll and wallow in shallows or submerge completely and even swim in deeper water. At small water holes, use trunks to wet bodies, and to splatter mud and dust followed by rubbing on objects.
Reproduction: Gestation lasts 22 months and one, rarely two, young are born, with a slight peak of births in rainy season. Calves can survive on solid food at about 2 years but may nurse up to 4 years. Offspring become independent at varying ages, with some staying at mother’s side up to 10 years and close mother/offspring bond can last up to 50 years. First conception occurs at 10 to 11 years. Elephants live no longer than about 65 years.
Status: Total population has declined to about 500,000 to 750,000 due partly to massive poaching for ivory during 1980s. Increase in human population has led to loss of habitat and increased conflict between elephants and farmers.
Adaptations: Elephants continue to adapt to climatic and environmental changes: ‘desert’ elephants have recently adapted to arid areas such as the subdeserts of Namibia and forest elephants living in central Africa are smaller than their savannah cousins.
Cause more environmental impact than any other animal but man. Destruction of trees spread over wide area has led to habitat diversity, but in parks where elephants are increasingly confined and over-populated, entire woodlands have been transformed into grassland to detriment of many other species.
Large ears are sound catching dishes, flagging devices and cooling mechanisms. Backs of ears are full of blood vessels that reduce body temperature when ears are fanned.
Head/Body Length: unstable measure Tail Length: 3 ½ - 5 ft.
Shoulder Height: 10 - 13 ft. (male) 8 - 11 ft. (female)
Weight: 8,800 - 13,925 lbs. (male) 4,862 - 7,735 lbs. (female)
Where elephants fight, the reeds get hurt.
- African proverb
So geographers in Afric-maps
With savage-pictures fill their gaps
And o’er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns.
- Jonathan Swift, 1733
It is said that elephants talk to one another, mumbling with their mouths the speech of men.
But not to all is the speech of beasts audible, but only the men who tame them hear it.
- Oppian, Cynegetica, II
Samburu and Elephants
The Significance of Elephants
According to legend, when the world was first created, the Samburu people and elephants lived happily together in a manyatta. Elephants worked closely with the women helping with the daily chores of fetching water and firewood. One day, one of the elephants set off early in the morning and wanting to please the women, returned with enormous logs the size of his trunk and these he dropped proudly at the woman’s feet. The woman looked down at the large log and became extremely angry. "What do you expect me to do with firewood of this size? It is too large and useless for humans to cook with. Do you expect me to cook you you fool?"
The elephant was quite embarrassed and shuffled away to make another attempt and placate the woman. Carefully he plucked off tiny bits of bark and teeny twigs of wood, and carried them pinched in the tip of his trunk. He dropped these pieces in front of the woman and again she looked at him with disgust. "Stupid elephant!" she yelled, "What can I cook with such tiny pieces of wood? Termites? We can not cook anything with this!"
Insulted by the woman’s unappreciative rudeness, the elephant suddenly lost his temper. He stormed into the woman’s boma, kicking over all he could reach, and grabbed two cowhides off her bed throwing them up onto his head. The cow hides turned into huge, great flapping ears and the elephant stormed off into the bush in a towering rage. From that day forward, elephants and the Samburu people lived separately, but great respect was always shown towards elephants to make sure they never got so angry again.
Since elephants helped women in their homes in ancient times, they continue help them today. The Samburu say that elephants create paths which will lead them to water and maintain waterholes by digging them out as they drink, which makes it much easier for women to collect water. Women also utilize the branches elephants break for firewood. The relationship continues, albeit at a respectful distance.
The Clan of the Elephants
The Samburu are divided into clans named after animals such as elephants, snakes, mosquitoes and scorpions. Each creature has a special significance and link to the clan. People of the elephant clan have certain rituals they must perform when they see elephants in the bush because they believe that their clan is descended from the elephant. When they encounter elephants the clan must throw soil in the elephants’ direction to acknowledge that they are relatives. The elephant will then also throw soil back towards the person. If a member of the elephant clan does not acknowledge his fellow relatives, the elephant will hold all power over him during that encounter and could potentially kill him. Members of the clan must respect elephants as brothers or sisters
Blessings and Burial
When the Samburu pass an elephant skull they pick some green grass, spit on it and place it inside holes in the skull. Green grass is a symbol of peace and spit a symbol of rain, and the two together are a blessing bestowed. This is because elephants were once humans. Many years ago a young bride was newly wed. As she prepared to leave her home her father gave her strict instructions that when she left the boma she was not to look back. But she felt so sad as she followed her husband away that she couldn’t resist turning around and taking one last wistful glance at her childhood home. That night in her new hut strange things began to happen. N’gai (God) was very angry that the girl had disobeyed her father and decided to punish her. She began to swell and grow and burst out of the roof of the hut turning at last, under the bright night sky, into a great, grey elephant. All elephants descended from this first elephant girl, and as such the Samburu and elephants are related by blood. It is believed that when elephants find dead humans they too place grass upon the graves. Even after the Samburu have left an area for good they have seen elephants take branches or leaves and place them upon their graves. Interestingly enough, although the Samburu practice the ritual of placing grass upon a skull many have forgotten the legend from which it came. The ritual is shared with the Maasai people, however, where the legend is still well known.
Old hunters have tales of having seen elephants bury dead or sleeping people under a pile of branches. On occasion, the hunters themselves were buried whilst taking a cat-nap. Elephants have a fascination with the bones of their own dead, smelling them, tasting them and sometimes scattering the bones over long distances. There is no explanation yet for this behavior or for the reported reaction to human dead.
Taboos
The Samburu will not eat or kill elephants because they believe that elephants have characteristics that are very similar to humans. Since elephants have breasts, a trunk (like an arm) and their meat the same odor as humans, the Samburu will not eat the meat. Elephants also have skin like humans, as they are not fully covered with hair like most other animals. This similarity to human beings, therefore, prevents the Samburu from eating and killing elephants.
The herbal benefits of Elephant Dung
The Samburu people use elephant dung in ceremonies such as weddings. Before a newly wed couple can enter their first boma (thorn enclosure) together, elephant dung is burned in the middle of the manyatta (circle of huts) and the smoke produced from this dung acts as a blessing for the couple. Since the content of elephant dung is so diverse with its mixture of herbs, leaves, and grasses, this saves the Samburu the time and energy needed to find each of the components of elephant dung separately.
Elephant dung is also used for medicinal purposes as a treatment for pneumonia and flu. Since many Samburu live in places which are quite a distance from water sources, it is difficult for them to gather parts of a special riparian tree needed for specific medicine. They search through elephant dung in order to find the seeds of this tree. Finally, they replant the seeds in order to prepare the leaves for the medicines.
A Placenta for Prosperity
When the Samburu people find an elephant placenta in the bush it is a sign of great luck. However, the Samburu say that placentas are very difficult to find because elephants carefully hide them. They take the placenta to their boma and burn it, the smoke from which fills the house bringing wealth and prosperity to all who live there.
Elephants on Sosian
Elephants and Our Water Pump
Sosian is all about elephants--even our logo is an elephant under a palm tree. One day in August, there were about 150 elephants around our house, and we watched all afternoon as they made their way to the dam and up the opposite ridge. They love to drink the clear water from the spring next to the dam, but unfortunately that's where our solar water pump is located and they've already ripped up the water pipe once. Until Mike gets some workers from the ranch to protect the pump with a rock wall, he has to drive the Land Rover down to move the elephants away whenever they come near it. As more elephants congregated around the spring and water pump, he drove down and radioed back that there were at least 100 elephants on both sides of our road, heading my way across the grassy vlei or plain below our house. The fifty or so elephants at the spring left quickly and peacefully except for one big female who was not at all happy about being driven away from the fresh water. While Mike was on top of the Land Rover watching the spectacle, she charged to within 10 feet of the vehicle and he had to dive in through an open window! I could hear her loud screaming and see her charge the truck from the safety of the verandah. Later the families of elephants made their way past the dam, right below me, totally unconcerned about our presence.
After this episode, Mike decided to make a ‘scarecrow’ figure dressed in his old yellow firefighting jumpsuit and prop it by the pump to keep the elephants away. Every time I looked down at the pump, I had to laugh as the elephants drank from the spring and totally ignored the bright yellow figure that never moved. They were far too intelligent to be fooled like that.
Elephants in the Garden
Occasionally elephants came in to the garden at night and destroyed both alien and indigenous plants. One night we heard a noise outside our bedroom window and got up to investigate. Looking out the window, we saw a huge elephant just a few feet away, munching on a succulent. The flashlight sent him away. Another time, a whole herd of elephants showed up and ate their way down our drive and around the guest cottage. We slept through it but awoke to find the drive strewn with chewed-off limbs of bushes and trees, and big piles of fresh dung. It looked like a hurricane had hit during the night.
Elephants and Mud
During the last half of September and the first half of October, we had large numbers of elephants around our house almost every day. Luckily there was still some water in the dam for several weeks and they often stopped to take mud baths, giving us the best elephant viewing we've had since we moved here. One day a large herd of maybe 50 or more elephants slowly moved through our valley and I went out to the rock ledge to watch them as they began to enter the dam to take mud baths. The young ones throw themselves down in the mud, wiggling about, raising themselves slightly and then throwing their bodies back into the mud with a splash (probably to remove parasites but also, I think, because it's fun). I watched one female with a tiny calf, no more than two months old, walk to the mud puddle to drink. Her baby ran into the water with its over-large ears flapping, legs stiff, tail held straight back, and proceeded to slip and sprawl in the mud on all four legs. Every time it tried to get up, it felt back into the muddy water. It joyfully splashed the water with its floppy little trunk that refused to cooperate.
The elephants are so physical in the mud as though they must share their joy with each other; they climb on top of one another, rub their bodies against each other and constantly touch trunks to other elephants. It's an absolute orgy. The mud must energize them because the young males almost always spar after a mud bath, pushing each other around and testing each other's strength. Most of the older bulls are too proud and aloof to throw themselves in the mud, but one day I looked out the window to see a huge bull sitting in the middle of the dam, rubbing his massive rear back and forth in the muddy water. He then flopped over and rolled for at least 10 minutes, kicking his legs about in ecstasy. It was a pleasure to watch the elephants bathing but the water slowly disappeared and the mud soon dried up like hard cement
Angry Bull
Mike had a very frightening encounter with an elephant bull that must have had something wrong with it. He was leaving the ranch HQ, driving up to the intersection with the Kinamba Road where the Sosian sign sits, when an elephant came out of the bush and charged the Land Rover. He quickly backed up but the elephant kept coming, only 20 feet away from the vehicle. He had almost reached the bridge into the ranch when he saw that the old askari stationed at the bridge had closed the gate to keep the elephant from coming through and was watching in astonishment as the drama unfolded. Mike was trapped but luckily there is a side road that goes to the Hippo Pool on the river and he swerved on to it. Now that he was going forward, he could outrun the elephant, which was still chasing him! As far as Mike could tell, the bull wasn't in musth but his eyes were very cloudy and glazed over, suggesting at least partial blindness. We hope it was a temporary infection. If that road hadn't been there, who knows what would have happened because this elephant was not bluffing