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Hi

I think this is a very intresting story: African sun puts albino jumbo at risk

Details of the story. Visit above for photo:

The little one kept on rolling in the mud, as if trying to disguise its strange colour with the dirt.

The baby elephant, spotted among a herd in the southern part of the Kruger National Park, could be an albino or white elephant.

The baby is believed to be about a month old, and an older sibling and its mother seemed very protective of it.

Sadly, however, it is most probably doomed as it would be susceptible to the harsh African sun.

'As they were drinking I noticed a very light one'
Odette Joubert and her husband, who have a house on the banks of the Crocodile River near Hectorspruit overlooking the Kruger Park, came across the little elephant.

"Yesterday morning (Monday) we were having breakfast when I saw the herd of elephants come to drink. As they were drinking I noticed a very light one, then they disappeared."

"Later we were lounging around the pool, and I saw the same herd and I grabbed my camera," Joubert said.

She said the herd came so close to the fence she was able to take pictures which clearly show the elephant's pink eyes and white eyelashes.

Joubert said the elephants, especially the mother and an older sibling were very protective.

"The baby kept on trying to roll in mud. Maybe he knows he is different," she said.

Joubert said she had spoken to a ranger in the park who said that albino elephants were very rare and that they might try and collar one of the herd to keep track of the group.

"They are very, very rare," said Dr Ian Whyte specialist scientist for large herbivores in the park.

"Sometimes you see some elephants with patches, particularly behind their ears, that don't have pigment. Some time ago I saw a newborn, who was pink, from a helicopter when we were doing a census.

"Maybe they are more common than we think they are but they just don't survive. It would struggle in the African sun," he said. - Environment Reporter.

Hi Santie, I saw a photo of an elephant you took in Lower Sabie. I thought he looked familiar, so I went and looked at some photos we took in October 04.
Have a look, I think its the same bull. He was also in Lower Sabie and was as lazy as all hell, plodding along and in musth.

Here he is:

We have just returned from the bush and were witness to some very strange elephant behaviour. Most of which was in breeding herds.

We saw an entire herd submerge themselves in a dam, even the babies, with only the trunks sticking up as snorkels. They played around a bit and then left as quickly as they appeared. Leaving behind a male and female who proceeded to mate in the water. Some times only his head and shoulders were visable above the water.

Secondly we saw another smaller breeding herd grazing on the side of the road. We passed them and then stopped to watch, looking behind us. The herd eventually moved into the road and we saw that there were some very small babies with them. The next thing one of the adult females just lay down on her side in the road. She stayed like that for a few minutes and then rose front legs first and ambled off into the bush.

Our vehicle was also mistaken on 2 occassions for an elephant. A calf of about a year or two suddenly pitched a fit as we crept past slowly as they grazed next to the road. We thought we had startled him or disturbed him so we sped up to give them their space. The little guy got even more worked up and trumpeting all the way followed us at high speed just like a kid who's mother was leaving him behind. The racket he kicked up brought out his mother who stood in the road and called for him. Now he was really confused he stood there shaking his head looking from vehicle to mom not knowing which way to go. On the second occassion, we passed a small group and as we passed they entered the road. We stopped a while to watch and all of a sudden they lined up and in single file came at us, walking down the road, we got going slowly but still watching and these guys just kept coming. We sped up and they broke into a trot, we stopped and they resumed browsing, we moved off again and lo and behold they started following again. This continued for over a km.

Maybe I'm misreading it all but it seemed very strange, wonderful, but still strange. What do you guys think?

Good Evening! The ellies in the water were about 120m away so my digital camera wouldn't have produced anything decent , they were just at a nice distance to see all the action but far away enough not to have to worry about them suddenly discovering our presence. It was nice to relax and watch them as you can imagine this trip we spent alot of time on ellie watch scanning the bush for little surprises as we watched the closer family members. We needed a periscope!

I have a photo of the one lying down and of the herd following us and of the little blighter throwing a tantrum. It was extrodinary behaviour that continued throughout our 5 days there. I can only surmise that what ever disturbed the orginal breeding herd of +- 60 to splinter was significant enough to cause these behaviour displays. Also for the first time ever we heard the elephants vocalising ALL the time, not just the odd trumpet or the low grumbling but all manner of sounds constantly. Almost as if they were doing a head count or reassuring each other. Again I am afraid I might be imposing human behaviour on the animal world. We asked a ranger who was doing research (we kept passing him) and he said it was nothing the park had done but he was also observing the splinter groups.

I have also been very lucky to see elephants mating - once at Addo right in front of the rest camp. We were packing to leave and heard this really loud elephant type noise and ran over to the fence and saw a pair mating as the rest of the herd moved off. Then again from the deck at Lower Sabie we saw a pair mating in the river!

They often mate in the water- observed often - dontr know why ? Also lots of mock mating my young males takes place as part of a play repertoire.

w

I was just reading a thread where the Magnificent Seven were mentioned which reminded me of something that I have wondered about. When bwana and I were at Letaba in October we had the pleasure of visiting the Tuskers Museum. There was one elephant skull on display which had another elephants tusk through it's skull! I was quite disturbed to read the adjoining information board where it stated that the elephant had been 'murdered' by another elephant. The elephant that had been killed was an old bull. I can't remember whether he was killed due to a territorial dispute with the younger bull or whether the younger bull attacked the older bull for no reason but either way the aggression displayed was quite frightening. The attack was witnessed by a park ranger who described it as quite shocking. The younger bull attacked the older bull by sticking his tusk through the older bull's skull. When the older bull eventually died due to his injuries, the younger bull kept coming back and attacking the dead bull, kicking it, hitting it with his tusks and urinating on the corpse. This carried on for hours and hours. It is said that such aggressive elephant behaviour has never been witnessed before. This behaviour was quite disturbing to read about as all the documentaries etc. that I have seen have showed elephants to be very loving towards one another and have a very strong family unit. If they come across the bones of another elephant you can almost see them 'mourning' the loss of one of their kind. Just thought I'd share the story and see what other people thought of the story...

I don't know the details but I think this may have been Tshokwane? I believe he was killed at Orpen waterhole by another tusker in front of a crowd of tourists

I'm not sure what his name was, it could be Tshokwane,Tabs, I will have to dig out our videos and have a look. Imagine the power of that animal. Kind of makes the secureness we feel inside a car kind of feeble!!!

regards
bwana

It was not Tshokwane.

A ranger was present and described the impact of the tusk penetrating and breaking as a gun shot at close quarters.

here is a pic of it.

A white baby elephant has been spotted in the Crocodile Bridge area. It was spotted for the first time in January. It was thought that he would not have much of a chance for survival as experts believed that he would succumb to the harsh African sun. Due to him having no pigmentation, he would be more susceptible to the sun. Apparently he is doing fine and he has been spotted fairly regularly by a ranger who works in the area. Quite amazing! Everybody going to KNP in the next couple of months must keep an eye open for him!

We saw an elephant at Klopperfontein Dam near Punda with an old snare injury. The snare had cut through the trunk and made a large hole which had now healed. The hole was open and when he drank the water squirted out the hole. Is snare poaching a great problem? Luckily, this guy seemed to be coping fine but the damage was horendous and very saddening.

I have heard this many times on the forum and would actually like to correct it.

The noise you think to hear as an ele's tummy rumbling is in actual fact a low frequency noise made by them to keep in touch with their compatriots. I can be heard by them for a very long distance and some (most) noise they make is actually to low for us humans to hear.

It is not their tummies rumbling.
If anyone disagrees, please feel free to raise your opinion.

I agree it is a communication sound.
I have heard that it signal's contentment amongst the herd, and that seems the case when observing them. However we human's cannot presume to understand all animal behaviour.

That's right, WTM. Don't know if it's coincidence, but we've noticed that you're more likely to hear the sound if it's a herd with young ones?

Another ellie sound we've only had the priviledge to hear twice and luckily neither times directed at us , is that of a trumpeting bull. Once on the road leading to Shingwedzi gate we were on our way out and never noticed the bull - the riverbank leading to the tar road is rather steep - the bull came from the river and was apparently surprised by a car that just passed us from the front. I was driving and very nearly overturned the damn car as it trumpeted right behind us!
The other time Skukuza staff were trying to prevent a bull from going to the staff village on that road just ouside the gate to your right as you leave. To say the least he was not impressed.