SANParks.org Forums

If you were the lucky person to have seen these elephants and you have a photo.........why not donate it here

If you want to donate other white elephants or buy some one else's white elephant, here is your chance!!!!

Are they extinct? sure don't hope that it is the case.

Unfortunately they are probably extinct!

From what I have managed to gather from various sources there are either: (1) Five young females - but very unreliable reports of the existence of these, or (2) One old female; that report is fairly reliable but out of date. An attempt some years ago to introduce a male to mate with her (or the five young females, if they exist) were unsuccessful.

Any updates from forum members would be welcome!!

I was fortunate to listen to a talk by a member of the SANParks Board, Prof Graham Kerley (NMMU), in Addo last month. I gained the impression that there could be one elephant left.

Knysna Elliphants
From journalist Scott Ramsey's blog of his trip around the Wild areas of South Africa.

Thanks Sara, that was very interesting.

There is def at least one left. More than one newspaper article in 2012 of an elephant chasing workers near Diepwalle. A fiend also saw tracks of one elephant there recently. I have the photos.

The forest is extremely dense with many valleys where elephants can disappear from view - some may recall a helicopter that crashed in the forest one new years eve about 10 years ago and although there was no doubt that it fell within a fairly defenite area , it was not found untill approximately 2 years ago when forestry workers stumbled on it within a long stones throw of a well used road.

Dont be fooled by these mythical elephants! But do yourself a favour and read Elephantoms by Lyall Watson and another book by Gareth Patterson.

The latest book by Patterson reckons there are 9 elephants (based on studies conducted on the dung) at least in the forest including a couple of youngsters.

They roam a huge area and often cross roads at night to avoid human contact.

My brothers one friend saw 2 elephants in 2010 and during the Knysan Oyster festival last year when I went to do the marathon, I also had a friend who saw 2 of the forest elephants. They are very much around but are rarer than seeing a pangolin I would imagine.

I like where this topic is going.....I did not start it out with the intention of keeping track of these elephants, but we could keep it for that purpose!!!

Wonderful to see that they are still seen by some very lucky ones!!!

I sure hope that "o-dog" is right!!! I hope he is.

As someone said : "Let's leave them alone."

I found a copy of Layll Watson's book. It takes a lot of courage to read as it fills me with such sadness.

Very interesting to read about these elephants.