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Dear Wildtuinman

Thanks for sharing the wonderful sightings with us all. We are truly fortunate to have a wonderful national park like Kruger National Park!

That was a rare experience not seen by many!
Thanks for sharing it with us all..

Just back from the park and temps of 40+ !
We saw a big tusker in the Shingwedzi river and the staff told us that its name is Mashakadzi (spelling?) but I forgot to ask what it means - can anyone help?

Unfortunately I can't help you with the meaning of name (Think the spelling could be Mashagadzi) which is a tremendous elephant; sometimes resting his tusks on the ground, but I also want to add that I was fortunate enough to have seen Maburule (meaning grootvoet/bigfoot, named after Johan Oelofse wearing no.14 size shoe) once just south of Mopani as he crossed the road in front of us.

Sadly he passed away in November last year. Tusks measured were approximately 2.6 and 2.8 meters.

Mashagadzi is the correct spelling Wildtuinman. Also do not know the meaning of this word. The correct spelling of the other elephant "Big feet" is Mabarule.

To see some pictures and info of the original "Magnificent 7" as well as the "new generation tuskers" have a look at the following website: http://www.themagnificentseven.co.uk/

You will see a little white block on the screen, this is suppose to be an arrow to take you to the next page.

While on the subject - how do you guys know which elephant is which? Is there a way the rangers at the various camps know which bull might be in that area so we can look out for it?

Although it's not always easy to see, there are a couple of things you can go on identifying an elephant. The shape of tusks and ears. A telltale cut, tear or hole in the ear. If a piece of trunk is missing then that could also help. How older the elephant how deeper the ditches in his temples.

These together with the area of where the elephant roams should give you an indication of who it could be. Bull elephants tend to move around in specific home areas, but they could also move considerable distances.

For instance: If you want to look for Duke (current biggest tusker in the park) then a good place would be the Duke waterhole area northeast of Croc Bridge. But as I said before Duke has also been spotted almost as high as the Tshokwane picnic spot. Mabarule was frequently seen in the Mopani area.

Tshokwane roamed the same named picnic area and so forth.

Best is to take a pic of the elephant and ask one of the ranger or other staff of that camp in that area to help you identify it.

I think that Mashagadzi was named after the Mashagadzi waterhole just east of Shingwedzi where he is often spotted.

My favourite is still Mafuyane ("The Irritable One").

Although not the biggest in Stature his tusk were one of the straightest ones. If you view it today you'll see how they scraped on the floor when he was still alive.

He also had a hole of about 10cm in his head which he actually could breath through. Depending on who you talk, the hole was either caused by a fight with another elephant while others say it was a poachers bullet.

Fortunatly he did not die from it and only passed away much later due to natural causes. The hole however did make him extremely irritable and he was not one of the happier ellies.

Funny thing about the Big 7 ellies were that most of them died in the 1980's. And most of them were injured at some time in the life by poachers

I must say that I think the Letaba museum is most probably one of the best museums I have been to. Thank you SANP for such an amazing display of nature’s true wonders.

Danie, I am mailing you a pic of an elephant I have seen in the Shingwedzi River about 5km east of Shingwedzi in Jul 2004. Could you please find out if it is a well-known tusker and his name if any?

Dear Wildtuinman

I'll do so with pleasure. I'll send the image to our elephant expert here in KNP who knows the big tuskers and has lots of photographs of especially the big tuskers. I'll let you know as soon as I receive an answer from him.

Regards from South Africa's flagship National Park and paradise!

Are there any potential great tuskers in the park that could match the size of the Magnificent 7. I know about Duke but are there any others?
There seems to not to be much talk about living giants of the Elephant world. Surely their genes must have been passed on? If not, will those be the last Big Tuskers to walk the paths of Kruger, or will latent genes produce big ones in future generations?

I read something by Dr Ian White, the specialist scientist on large herbivores where he said there are 11 new tuskers in the Kruger.
Duke (not so new) - Lower Sabie/Crocodile Bridge
Mac - Lower Sabie/Crocodile Bridge
Tshilonde - Shingwedzi
Mabarule - Mopani
Hlamalala - Sirheni
The other 6 do not have names yet or ID photos, some camp rangers have named them but the names are not well known.
A project is being started to get tourists to photograph these big tuskers to help with identification.

Hi bwana

Would this guy be classified as an up and coming big tusker?Was spotted on the S90 near Satara.



Regards
Paul

Hi Paul,

Yes he is big and would definatly be up their with the best of the lot. I wish there was an accurate way of ageing these guys. Nice spotting!

Unfortunately Mabarule passed away last year.

The elephant in the pic has got nice tusks, but believe me there are boys in the park that will make this guy look like a primary school boy which he probably still is as he does not seem that old yet. Elephant's tusks grow at a increasing rate during the last couple of years of their lifetime.