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I have read the under mentioned in a Guide to the Addo-Elephant National Park dated 1982, written by Hans Grobler and Anthony Hall-Martin, which was addressed to the Secretary of the then National Parks Board:

Dear Sir

It is with pleasure to report that I have managed to chase a herd of elephant into the Park last night. I do not know how long the elephants will stay there but if they escape they will have no rest whether it is day or night. There is still a few who remain separate from the herd that I must look for – they are cows with calves.

S. H Trollope
Addo
9 October 1931

I roughly translated the above from Afrikaans to English as the guide is in Afrikaans. The same with the below:

From Dreyers Tourist Notes dated 1984:

The photo (in the above book/guide) is “Ou Haaktand” one of the magnificent 7 elephants of Kruger. He was recently found dead near Shingwedzi and he died from bullet wounds caused by poachers. His tusks, both longer than 3 m is the fourth longest elephant tusks ever found in Kruger.

It would be nice if someone can share another “did you know?” with us regarding any aspect of any of our great South African National Parks .

Grantmissy lovely thread

I love bits and peices about all kinds of history.

Just in terms of Addo, Harpoor, who was probably the father of many ellies now in Addo, was rather a bad tempered old bull. Not surprising given the fact that hunting had decimated nearly all of his kind. He had the rather bad habit of escaping at regular intervals. Harpoor dam carries his name and his memory.

Yes MM, it appears that Hapoor was quite an ill-tempered bull who did not take any nonsense from anyone! Some people even say that an elephant never forgets (the hunting that you mentioned?) and perhaps that is why he was such a “grumpy old bull” who did not like to be "told what to do" . Nice to know that he will not be forgotten and that he will always live on - the Hapoor Dam that you have mentioned

And saw his son, Harpoor Junior, was killed in a fight last week

http://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=60218

Speaking about Addo, did you know the during the late 1960's it was advisable to call the Port Elizabeth publicity Association first before you intend to visit Addo. The elephants stayed in the dense bushes during the day and only came out at night to receive their rations of oranges and other stuff. Spotlights lit up the area where they were fed. No internal roads existed(Source, 1969 issue of the AA road Atlas)

Also from the Atlas "Where hotels are far from each other, it is advisable to take along some camping equipment as well as tinned food for 2 days"

Yes P@M that is indeed. Thank you for the link. What a great legacy Harpoor left behind as MM mentioned that he thoroughly ensured that his genes will remain in Addo. I am very happy that Addo has grown from the smallish Park that it was to a such a big Park that it is today

Very interesting Rooies

From The Companion Guide to South Africa written in 1978 by Geoffrey Jenkins and Eve Palmer:

“Orpen is the little camp on the western boundary, where tourists still find paraffin lamps and open braais. Near the camp two Pretoria visitors, Mr and Mrs Wainwright, were attacked by an elephant some years ago. Elephant attacks are very rare, there have been only five incidents in which they have seriously damaged cars in the Park - and in this case the car was unwittingly driven between a cow elephant and her calf on the other side of the road. The elephant knelt on the car – a Peugeot – rocking it backwards and forwards, ripping up the bonnet and ramming it against the windscreen, finally spearing the radiator with a tusk. Mr Wainwright, somehow through the horror dredging from his memory an old warning, ‘if an elephant charges your car bang on the roof’, leaned out and banged. The elephant stopped and calmly walked away. Mrs Wainwright partially blacked out during the incident - and so can bear to tell the story; but her husband, who had been keenly alert all the time, cannot. When she told it to us, he excused himself and went away, if he had listened, he said, he would not have slept that night”

So sorry about Harpoor junior.

Grantmissy, I must remember to bang on my roof One bit of advice I hope that I never need to take.

I have seen 2 Parks with "no citrus signs". The one is Addo, the other Mapungubwe. Possibly the Addo sign is to discourage ellies from getting too familiar with tourists. In Mapungubwe it is to discourage ellies from raiding surrounding citrus farms.

Might also be historically related to the 1960’s practice what Rooies told us about and the love for oranges were passed on from one generation to the other?



Those Addo elephants under the iron rule and examples set by old Harpoor sound like a clever bunch of elephants to me

By the way what is the correct name Harpoor or Hapoor?

If I remember from my trip to Addo some years back, the "no citrus" ruling came about because the elephants can smell the citrus and many of the older ones can remember that smell as meaning food. And then they try to obtain it, which, you can imagine, is something not too many tourists would appreciate.



It's Hapoor, pronounced as hap-oor, from the piece of ear missing from a rifle shot early in his life (which allegedly accounts for his bad attitude towards people - understandably if you ask me).

Thanks Orange

From the same 1978 book that I mentioned above I read the following regarding the Tsitsikamma National Park:

“This coastal park, quite rightly, receives a great deal of publicity. It is a young Park still, not two decades old, and was the first coastal national park in Africa.”

I assume that they went for a walk on one of the trails after which they wrote this:

“On the path back we skirted a cave, the home by the sea that the Strandlopers - those early Stone Age men of the Cape coast – had used once upon a time. This must then have been as hospitable a shore as now, for all along it have been found the signs of ancient man, not ape-man but later people who left in the caves of this southern coast middens which tell us today something of the story of their lives. In places they left their bones as well the remains of skeletons ceremoniously buried, beads of ostrich eggshell, red ochre, and sometimes painted grave stones”.

The Golden Gate Highlands National Park is a place of great natural beauty and many visitors who are artistic inclined have found inspiration there. I gave seen amongst others great paintings in the art galleries in nearby Clarens and many good photographs that people have taken. I think that might be the reason why some examples of rock art can be found in the Park as contained in the book ‘The Rock Art of the Golden Gate and Clarens districts” written by Bert Woodhouse and printed in 1996. According to the book examples of rock art can be found at places such as Ribbokspruit, Buffalospruit and the Oorbietjie Basin. What I found interesting was the “Vintage Car” site as described in the book. The site is very close to where the road bends and traffic on the road is visible from the site. The engravings are of mostly vintage cars which were probably made by shepherds. It just shows that the surroundings even inspired the shepherd to put their artistic talents to use!

I have read in one of my books about Kruger (can't remember which one) about an elephant that raided a citrus farm outside Kruger. The rangers chased him back to Kruger and followed him for a while to make sure that he was as far away from the farm as possible. A few km inside Kruger, the elephant decided that it was time to make a dung heap and in this dung was a whole orange. The author of the book came to the conclusion that in the elephant's haste to gobble up as many oranges as possible, he might have missed to chow the orange.

The ranger then picked up the orange from the dung, wiped it clean and ate it. I assume that the inside of the orange was not affected by the dung.

It just shows to me that elephants do have an ability to reason



:lol: Why waste it if still in perfect condition?

Thanks Rooies for sharing this did you know with us