SANParks.org Forums

Hi guys,

Can someone help to ID this elephant. Spotted right hand side of the grassland near the old gate in the middle of the park. This was taken in 2009. Wanted to upload this backin 2009 but lost the SD card and images. Lucky I found a few pics on a friends card who was with me at the time. Apologies for the old pics.

When we approached the Elephant it was laying on it's side. Looked like it was fast asleep or dying.
At first I thought it was sleeping so sat and watched then after 15min I got worried and though it was dying,as far as I know elephants don't lay down for so long. so made some noise, to see if he was sleeping or dying, clapped hands and nothing happened. His breathing was very shallow and not much chest movement. So I thought he was about to die. I opened and slammed the car door and then he quickly jumped up and looked very much alive. So I figured he was sleeping. Upon returning to the park in 2010 just 500m from where I saw this sighting I see there is an elephant skeleton. Wondering if its the same elephant.





Any help to ID this elephant will be great. Is he still alive or was this one of his final moments.

Interesting post simonB - hope someone is able to reply with some added info.

Unfortunately I cannot see the images you have posted. Not sure why - just states "access denied"??

Hi RosemaryH,

Thank you for your comment and for letting me know the pics are broken.
The images lifted from twitpic seem to have a hotlinking timeout limit on them,since they worked fine last night.


Please see theimages at the links below.

1. http://twitpic.com/67560t
2. http://twitpic.com/6755l4

Hi simonB! Maybe if you post in the Addo thread here, it will be more likely that someone can help you

Thanx for the feedback Micetta,

Will try as per your suggestion.

Is this the sort of behavior one should adopt? We should let nature run its course and if a magnificant animal such as the elephant is dying let it die in peace and dont slam car doors and act stupid, the animal could have turned on you. Many times I have met people who shout , slam doors bang on doors to get an animals attention and all that happens is it gets up and walks away spoiling the sighting for everyone.

@Jad

I do agree with your comments.

I grew up in the bushveld and also hate it when people make noise and scare animals.
I also know that sometimes when an animal is sick or dying Sanparks could be called in to investigate.

If there is disease in th park etc, they need to catch this early.
This animal did not look old and so Iwas worried and if he did not stand up sanparks would have been notified to investigate. When he jumpedup and walked of i figured he must have just been fast asleep.

Something which I never knew elephants did during the day. In fact barely did while humans or predators where around.

Apologies if my behavior offends you.

Also there where no other cars or people near when this happened so I did not disturb the sight for others. I request if this ele is still alive because if he is then the video I have would be very useful for researches as it proves that elephants even in the wild are know to sleep for extended periods.

Hi Simon, The only thing I am concerned about is stressing the animal out not whether it disturbs other peoples sighting, I would rather inform the rangers of the situation and let them deal with it. It is good to know that you are a concerned visitor and hopefully you will visit Addo many more times, regards JAD

Thanx for the message @Jad

Addo has become my second home, I will be back again and again and again