Duke sheds other tusk

By Raymond Travers

One of the most well-known tuskers of the Kruger National Park, Duke, has now broken both his tusks.

On Monday, September 1, 2008 Crocodile Bridge Section Ranger Neels van Wyk was alerted by the Shishangeni Concession that one of the game drives from this concession lodge had seen Duke without either tusk earlier that morning. He quickly drove out to the scene to find that it was true. “I am looking at Duke now,” he whispered over the telephone, “and Duke has definitely broken his right tusk.”

According to Van Wyk, he had received a report during the preceding week that Duke had been spotted by a visitor on the S-28, a looped 24-kilometre long gravel road, running on the eastern side of the main road between Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge rest camps, and that he still had his right tusk.“It would then be reasonable to assume that the tusk was nearby to where Duke was that morning,” surmised Van Wyk, as the S-28 runs along the western boundary of the concession.

Van Wyk then back-tracked along Duke’s spoor and, thanks to an enormous slice of luck, found the tusk, which measured approximately 1.56 metres on the outside of the curve and which weighed approximately 32 kg. Now this amazing achievement by Van Wyk and his field rangers brings something notable to the KNP’s already impressive book of elephant ivory records.

They were part of the team to discover and recover not one but two tusks belonging to the same known and named “tusker” elephant. For the record, named tuskers have broken off tusks before, for example, one of the famed “Magnificent Seven” – João - broke his impressive tusks in a fight with another bull in 1984, but neither of these pieces of ivory were ever recovered or positively linked to that elephant.

The amazing story of tusk recovery begins just over a year ago. On Monday, August 20, 2007 two friends and Duke enthusiasts from Johannesburg, Matthew Harding and Dirk Human spotted Duke on the S-28, just south of Lower Sabie and took what are probably the last known photographs of Duke with both sets of tusks.

At around 16:00, the duo then drove back to camp where they had arranged to meet up with another Duke aficionado, Jonathan Heger. After unhooking Heger’s caravan, the trio made their way to the exact spot and spotted Duke again, but noticed something different. Duke seemed to only have one tusk. They then took plenty of photographs and ensured that they marked the exact spot from where they saw Duke with GPS readings, before heading back to camp.

Harding, Heger and Human then reported the sighting and their suspicions to KNP officials, which resulted in Crocodile Bridge Section Ranger Neels van Wyk going into the bush the very next day (Tuesday August 21, 2007). His mission: he had to try and find the missing piece of tusk, thus positively proving that Harding, Heger and Human’s assessment of the situation was accurate and, of course, to recover a rather valuable piece of ivory from the dense Bushveld.

Unfortunately, Van Wyk’s search proved fruitless: “It was a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack, so I called off the search with the idea of recruiting the KNP’s new Bantam Ultralight Aircraft to help,” explained Van Wyk at the time.

On Thursday, August 23, 2007 the Bantam took to the air with pilot (Tshokwane Section Ranger) Steven Whitfield and observer Van Wyk with the GPS coordinates provided by Harding, Heger and Human and flew to the spot. “We flew along the Mbyandzwuspruit and made one turn and Neels saw the ivory lying under a leadwood bush,” Whitfield explained at the time, “so we marked the spot and flew back to Crocodile Bridge and our vehicles.”

The two section rangers, plus various other interested parties, including Heger (Harding and Human unfortunately had to return home earlier that week), walked in to the GPS reading and found the tusk. This right tusk measured 175 centimetres in length, 49 centimetres in circumference and weighed 37.05 kg.

All in all, this incredible individual elephant has lost a whisper over 69 kg in just over a year. In both cases, it appears that digging up trees seems to be the cause of the breakages, but he still shows the temperament that has helped to make him one of the most popular tuskers in the 110 years of KNP history.

He is probably the most photographed of all the tuskers and is described as having a “very relaxed disposition” by most of the people that see him, KNP staff members and KNP visitors alike.

According to the book “Great Tuskers of Africa”, by Johan Marais and David Hadaway, Duke was the largest of the current crop of KNP tuskers, until he lost his tusks. He was named after the borehole Duke found in what is believed to be the centre point of his impressive range.

Duke borehole, according to “A Dictionary of Kruger National Park Place Names” by JJ Kloppers and Hans Bornman, is situated 10 kilometres south of Lower Sabie Rest Camp, next to the Shimangwana Creek. This borehole is, in turn, named after ranger Tom Duke who was stationed at Lower Sabie from 1903 to 1923.

Marais and Hadaway go on to describe Duke’s range as such: “This docile bull is most often seen between Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie on the S28, or on either the H-10 or S29/S122 leading northwards from Lower Sabie towards Tshokwane.”

Duke has been reported further north than Tshokwane and has been seen to the east of Malelane, which puts his range as the entire south eastern area of the KNP.

Apart from his docile character and two broken stumps, Duke can still be recognised by a square-shaped notch on the lower lobe of his left ear and he is usually in the company of between three and four “Askari” bulls.

Duke seems to be in good health, in spite of the fact he is no longer in possession of what made him famous, the largest set of tusks of any living elephant in the KNP, and possibly the world. That mantle has probably been taken over by Hlanganini, a tusker found in the region of Letaba and Olifants rest camps.