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We visited Addo for the first time over this past weekend. We are regular visiters to Kruger...

I noticed a few differerances between the Addo elephants and the Kruger elephants. Maybe someone can give me some answers...
1. we had an amazing sighting of elephants at the one dam. that is when i realized that the elephants do not really have tusks. some bulls have, but not that big at all when i compare it to the kruger elephants? the cows had no tusks. why will that be?
2. there was a bull in must. knowing how the bulls are during must, we stayed as far as possible. but this bull wasn't aggressive at all. he went about smelling the cows, making a few trumpeting sounds but that was that. there was absolutely no agression?? i am use to the Kruger elephants, and that can get a bit scary at times.
We drove round the one corner. a cow and her calf was busy eating right next to the road. the cow crossed the road and the calf stayed on the other side by itself for quite a while, before crossing. usually they stick to one another like glue??

Can someone please tell me why there is such a difference between the Addo elephants and the Kruger elephants?

hanliemarais

The only aggressive elephant I came across was Paul and he was relocated from the Kruger, we and the elephants in the Eastern Cape are well laid back.

visit us again

Hi Hanliemarais

There has NEVER been any culling in Addo, so the elephants have no hangups about humans since they were gradually habituated to vehicles by Dr Anthony Hall-Martin and his wife a few decades ago!

The tusks -- most cows with tusks were shot out at the beginning of the 20th century, so the genes for tuskless elephant cows have been passed on -- hopefully the new Kruger bulls will rectify that problem.

In Addo you can have calves touch your vehicle, with nothing major happening at all!

God bless,

Friedrich von Hörsten

Thank you for your reply... it makes one think a bit futher when it comes to culling the elephants. Nature just never stop to amaze me...
WoW

Addo elephants were once renowned for their aggressive behaviour and hated man, they were hunted to near extinction by P J Pretorious and many people have been killed by the elephants. So we must never think they are tame they are wild animals and if you get out of your car I am sure your survival rate will be zero. It seems they are friendly to our cars and not us.

Hi Hanliemarais,

The current Addo elephant population has grown from a very small gene pool of only 11 elephants. Of the original 11 elephants, there were some which did not have tusks (tusklessness does naturally occur in elephant populations) and many of the big tuskers were shot by hunters in the previous century. Tusklessness is one of the results of the small genetic pool but it does not seem to have affected / disadvantaged the elephants in any way. All bull elephants have tusks while currently only 13 cow elephants have tusks (some have only one tusk).

In 2002 and 2003, eight Kruger bulls were brought into the Park to diversify the gene pool, not specifically for tusks but to increase the health of the gene pool. In 2005, eleven of the more dominant Addo bulls were relocated to various private game reserves to give the Kruger bulls a better chance of breeding with the Addo elephant cows and therefore better chance of getting there genes into the population.

The Addo elephants were habituated to vehicles by Dr Anthony Hall-Martin (as Friedrich mentioned below) and over the years have become very used to vehicles - but NOT people out of vehicles - at close quarters due to the number of vehicles they see daily in a relatively small area (compared to e.g. Kruger).

Musth bulls can be aggressive or irritable at times but it really depends on the specific bull and the period of their musth so its best to be cautious around them anyway.

Hi there.

I myself have wondered about the elephants in addo not being as aggressive compared to the kruger elephants.

Interesting topic.

regards!