Among the Elephants

For the past 2 or so weeks I have been living in Samburu, Kenya at the Save the Elephants research camp. My journey from Tanzania to Nairobi was long and uneventful. I stayed at a hostel in Nairobi that was really nice complete with hostel dogs! I finally could enjoy petting and cuddling with some dogs that weren’t full of fleas or likely to bite me. My time with elephants began with a visit to The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi which is only open for 1 hour daily. I navigated the matatus of Nairobi to get there which I really enjoyed but got me to the orphanage a little late. I hurried through the gate to where there were a bunch of baby elephants with keepers inside a roped off area. There were tourists all around but I managed to find a good spot where I could see and kind of hear the man talking. All the babies were about 2 and younger and had been rescued when their mother’s were poached from different parks in Kenya. The calves were happily munching on leaves and wandering around as they talked. The littlest ones had blankets strapped on to keep them warm which was pretty adorable. It was amazing to be that close to them and watch them. Then some of them began to come up to rope where people were standing and we were able to touch their rough skin. They babies were soon led away and the older calves were brought in. They ran into the ring with excitement because there were bottles of milk waiting for them. Some of the calves quickly wrapped their trunks around the bottles and held them up pouring milk into their mouths and splashing it all around them while the younger ones had to have the bottles held for them. After the milk was quickly chugged down they also began to walk to the edges of the ring, interacting with people. I think they were mostly looking for more to eat and luckily I was standing in front of a big bush. There were many elephants that stretched against the rope to reach the leaves behind me and I was able to rub their trunks and ears. At one point one of the calves snuffled my leg with the tip of his trunk, almost pinching my leg with his trunk fingers. Many of the calves also played in the center of the ring by climbing on top of each other, a big game of dog pile. They were adorable and so funny and awkward in their movements. I was sad when the hour was up all too quickly and I had to go. I took a taxi to the Save the Elephants (STE) office where I would sign some forms and meet the administration of the organization. I had a nice lunch there and headed back to the hostel to prepare for my early departure the next morning.

The calves with their milk at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

The next day I made my long journey north by matatu to Isiolo, Kenya. The time on the road wasn’t too long but I switched matatus twice and each time I waited almost 2 hours for the matatu to fill up before we could go. They really filled those things too! Finally I arrived in Isiolo and met staff from STE who would drive me to our camp inside Samburu National Reserve. I met my roommate Viona who is Samburu and was a sponsored student through STE working as an intern. We made it to camp after a few stops in town and a leopard sighting in the park.  I settled into our tent which had two beds and a desk inside. In the next few days I met everyone in camp and settled into the daily routine. I was assigned to help George Wittemyer, a professor at Colorado State and the scientific director for STE and his PhD student Shifra with their research.  My daily schedule is basically divided into two; half working with data and half out on drives in the park. The data work is mostly mindless cleaning of data that has been entered into the computer by comparing it to what is on the paper file. I’ve been cleaning two sets of data, one about elephant carcasses and one about the long term monitoring of elephants in the park. The carcass data is part of the international effort to monitor illegal killing of elephants so each carcass report includes the date, place, and cause of death and sometimes pictures. It got to be pretty depressing reading about all the poached elephants! The long term monitoring data involved going through the daily recording of groups of elephants, their activities, and location. The whole project here is based on knowing each elephant individually in order to fully study social structure, behavior, and the effects of poaching. So each elephant has a number and they are grouped by families, the elephants they associate with the most and happen to actually be related to. When they reach sexual maturity elephants also get a name which has to relate to the theme of their family. When I go out on drives to find elephant families I am helping to monitor the elephants identified, to record deaths and births and see which different families might be associating. At this point I’d say I’m more experiencing the process rather than helping because learning the identities of the elephants takes some time. There are 700+ possible elephants that have been identified which we could come across in the park. However they are split up into families that spend most of their time in the park and those that sporadically visit the park. I have observed about 30 families and have been trying to learn how to identify them. This is done by looking at their ears. Elephants tear their ears along the edges and get holes in the middle which make them unique and which change much less frequently than their tusks. There are also some elephants which are radio collared which is a nice clue to which family could be there. Once you figure out one individual it’s just a matter of putting together the puzzle and matching pictures in the ID book to elephants. There are many who don’t have pictures as well which you have to try to age and sex in order to figure out who they might be. It’s really fun to try to figure out unless the elephants are in thick bush or far away across the river when it becomes very difficult.

Monarch of the Butterfly family, she is a tuskless cow but she is also identified by the notches in her ear which distinguish her from the other tuskless female in her family

A year old calf spreads his ears because of our car

Usually we will drive up right next to a group which is truly amazing. They are generally undisturbed by the car and sometimes will just shake their heads in annoyance when we start the engine. Some curious calves will get really close and when our human stench will reach their outstretched  trunks they will snort and spread their ears in surprise. The calves are definitely the most amusing to watch, head butting each other and struggling to learn to use their trunks. We have also been very close to bulls in musth (their sexually active state) when they can become aggressive. The bulls loom over our cars and we are very careful not to disturb them when we see them in this state. Shifra’s research involves observing social interactions in families that have been disturbed (their matriarch was poached) vs. intact families. I have been helping her do focal follows of individual elephants, recording every interaction with other elephants over a 30 minute period. These observations are my favorite activity because you are really tuned into every aspect of their behavior. It’s so interesting to see their interactions, from friendly body rubs to agonistic pushes. Originally I was only going to be an intern for a month but I was asked if I wanted to extend my internship for another month, so I am happily staying here until July 22^nd. Then I travel to Nairobi to meet my family who are flying in the next day for a Kenya vacation!

Daud, a member of the research team, recording the elephants by our car

Shifra doing a focal follow of the cow walking away from us               

 Life at camp here is really interesting and relaxing. We are located by the Ewaso Nyiro river in a wooded area next to the sandy banks. It’s a beautiful site and we have many visiting animals daily. There are kudu that graze outside of my tent, a klipspringer that we feed acacia pods, and the resident vervet monkeys that broke into my tent and ravaged my snack supply. We also often have guests for breakfast and dinner. There is a pair of hornbills that hang out in the morning and receive bread crumbs from everyone. There is also a genet that comes to dinner and will even take food from your hand. One morning I awoke to loud sounds outside my tent and opening my window flap I saw a big bull elephant right outside! His name is Yaeger and he frequents the camp every once in a while so we always have to keep a look out for him when we are walking around at night.

A view of the Ewaso Nyiro River from a hill by our camp

The kudu grazing next to my tent

Feeding "Klippy" the klipspringer with Gilbert outside our camp office

 One of our hornbill friends at breakfast.

The genet checking something out in the bushes during dinner.

Human visitors come and go from camp quite frequently too. Iain Douglas-Hamilton (the founder of STE and one of the big names in elephant conservation) has come several times to discuss operations at camp. It has been amazing to actually meet the man who did the research I have read so much about. He is a spirited character who is very enjoyable to talk to and hear stories from. I’ve met many of the other conservationists in this area working with lions and zebra who have visited camp to compare notes. A few days ago we had journalist Jefferey Gettleman from the NY Times and photographer Tyler Hicks visiting because they are working on a story about poaching. They are both Pullitzer Prize winners and have done amazing work. Jefferey’s reports from Somalia are depressing but very well written and I would recommend reading them. They spent time with the community scouts who work to deter poaching in this area and to thank the scouts and STE they bought a goat to roast. So on their last night in camp we piled in a car and drove to a bridge to cross the river to the scouts’ camp. The bridge has been washed out since a flood 2 years ago so we all walked across to the sheer edge of the concrete where the ground loomed 12 feet below. A sketchy metal ladder was propped up against the edge and we carefully passed our chapatti (African flatbread) and vegetable dishes down as we climbed to the ground. On the other side we got into the back of a truck and drove to the scout’s camp, enjoying the shining stars above us. When we arrived the goat had been roasted and they were just preparing ugali. We all sat around campfires and ate the most delicious goat I’ve had in Africa so far. It was a great night and so interesting to hear the journalists’ stories about their escapades.

So I’m enjoying myself immensely here among the elephants and I’m sure my next month will continue to be just as amazing!

This is a view of the hills surrounding Samburu National Reserve.