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This picture was on the front page of the local newspaper in Knysna yesterday



The story with it is as follows:

"Forest elephant can now be identified

Although there have been elephant sightings in Knysna's forests this year, the first clear photograph since November 2004, was taken earlier this month. The photograph shows blood vessel patterning in the elephant's left ear that will serve as a 'fingerprint' when used in comparison with other photos.
This system has been used successfully in the Addo Elephant Park in order to distinguish individual animals. It is hoped that this will go some way towards answering the mystery of how many forest elephant remain in the Knysna forest. Wilfred Oraai and Karel Maswattii, experienced forest elephant trackers, were on their usual weekly search for elephant signs, when they came across fresh tracks. Assessing the weather conditions, they split up and moved to strategic points in order to get a photo of the animal. Suddenly Wilfred heard cracking noises about 60m ahead of him and climbed a young pine tree to get a better view. As he zoomed in and focused the video camera on the animal, the branch he was standing on broke off and he fell to die ground, camera and all. The elephant heard the commotion and took off, unfortunately right in Wilfred's direction. When Wilfred eventually got to his feet the animal was very close to him but fortunately ran past. Wilfred feels he is lucky to be alive and thanks die powers that be for this. Particularly so as this was a Fynbos area, which poses far more danger when encountering elephant."

I think we can now accept that there are elephants in the forest, since April Fool's day was 3 weeks ago!

Loams, eat your heart out!

Thanks for posting, Anro! Very interesting...

I vaguely recall a tv program some time ago where they had video footage as evidence of Ellies in the forest. It included something about the trackers as well.

Just imagine - if an Ellie can play hide and seek in the forest what about the rest of the animals? like the dappled one's.

As an example, I personally saw a serval (tierboskat) out on a farm in the Magalliesburg mountains about a year ago.

Someone told me tonight that today they found a helicopter that crashed in the Knysna forest at Diepwalle seven years ago. It could not be found in an extensive search back then. Apparantly some woodcutters came across it now, still with the skeletons of the occupants.

Now try and find an animal that does not want to be seen in the forest !

No wonder something as big as an elephant can just vanish in the forest.

I am a new member to your site and find it extremely interesting. The Knysna Elephants have always been a controversial issue (whether they exist or not) but my husband has seen one . I agree with Anro, if you can't find a helicopter in the forest for 7 years, what makes you think that you will be able to find an elephant?

Even in Kruger, on a wide open savanne, ellies manage to hide in tiny bushes as we all may have noticed.

And they exist. Their names are: Bulelo, Duma, Harry, Jabari, Malaika, Mukwa, Nandi, Safari, Sally, Satara, Shaka, Thaba, Thambile and Thandi.

Harry and Sally are the oldest, Thandi was born oktober 16 last year.

Of course this is from Knysna Elephant Park.

Yes, they do, but these gentle giants in the park are only the reminder to us of those "invisible" ones roaming in the forest. And they are so invisible because they were relentlessly hunted and killed before.

I think there might be truth in the saying that an elephant never forgets. It seems that they never forgive, either!

Very interesting thank you Anro. I am sure there are ellies there, and this just proves it now.

2 bugs for the Knysna Plett Herald!!! My word, what a rip off!!!!

Anyway, Nice pics those. Jay, how about we do the mountain bike race in July 2007 and then take a slight "detour" to go look for them ellies???

Also, did you guys notice the small tusks on the ellie??? It is a feature of forest ellies

Deal ...BTW I am an ellie magnet, no jokes

Cool!!!

I know the route. When I lived in Knysna we cycled it "unofficially" a few times, which is a bit of a no-no Maybe we'll just take our tents with

you had better know the route dude, I'm directionally challenged, been lost in that forest once already ...tents and PLENTY food then

And you might just run into this fellow who was on the front page of the Knysna-Plett Herald today who seems to love being photographed!

This website has more information on the wild Knysna elephants.

WOW, Marcel, thank you! This website makes some interesting reading. I nearly forgot about the lions at Botliers. Will have to visit them soon.

Weather permitting, I will have to see the forest again this weekend. Is at the moment a bit cold and wet in there!

Thanks again for your posting.