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« ELEPHANT ORPHANS »   « ELEPHANT EMOTION » 
«  IMPACT OF ELEPHANTS IN TSAVO  »  
  «  THE ELEPHANT DEBATE  »  
(Extracts from The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust)

Introduction to Choices Wild Conservation Efforts:

Choices Wild Limited starts conservation of african wildlife by fostering orphan elephants with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Brief insight into The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's operations with regards to orphan elephants:

Amongst other services the trust hand rears and rehabilitates orphan elephant calfs' from the time they are brought into the elephant nursery to the time they are self-sustainable and ready to be put back into the wild. The various orphans are brought in from all around Kenya and East Africa with sad incidents occurring to their parents such as poaching, abandoned, lost or any other possibility.

Dr Daphne Sheldrick is a recognized International authority on the rearing of wild creatures and is the first person to have perfected the milk formula and necessary husbandry for both infant milk dependent Elephants and Rhinos. The key to her success has been her life-long experience of wild creatures, an in-depth knowledge of animal psychology, the behavioral characteristics of the different species.

After years of trial and error, Dr Daphne Sheldrick succeeded in hand-rearing the very first  infant milk dependant orphaned elephant calves - a highly specialised field and something that had never before been accomplished. Since then the trust has hand-reared and rehabilitated back into the wild over 40 elephant calves orphaned in early infancy, having trained a team of specialised elephant handlers.

The trust places great emphasis on minimal expenditure , and therefore donors can be confident that contributions made reach their target in the most practical, direct and positive way.

The successful re-integration back into the wild elephant community of the hand reared orphaned elephants has been one of the trust's main conservation priorities, along term project that has proved entirely successful.

Elephants - The Introduction:

Elephants, more than any other species need S-P-A-C-E. The Tsavo National Park is the only Park in Kenya large enough to accommodate sizeable numbers in perpetuity. Where confined in smaller areas, elephants are at risk, for Nature never intended that they stay in one small patch for too long due to the impact they have on the vegetation. Also, Nature has made them a fragile species; the first to be adversely affected by drought and lack of adequate browse. Nothing in nature is static. Elephant numbers are designed by nature to oscillate in unison with natural vegetation cycles they themselves induce.

Given that they are highly intelligent, highly sophisticated, long-lived animals with an emotional make-up akin to our own, a sense of self , their sense of family, sense of death and their needs, the management and the survival of the African Elephant as a species presents the greatest challenge to the Range States today. In dealing with this species, and as we approach the second millennium, humane treatment, welfare of individuals and most especially, their quality of life, must come beneath the spotlight of world opinion. It is simply not acceptable to view them in monetary terms an a mere commodity, with no thought given to the above issues.

The Trust continues an aggressive Public Relations campaign internationally to outlaw both the trade in Ivory forever also ban the cruel trade in live elephants shipped from Africa to foreign lands for exhibition purposes in Zoos and Circuses.

Training elephants for this purpose involves domination, abuse and immense and ongoing cruelty that is unacceptable now that the elephant psyche is better understood. To think otherwise displays callous ignorance.

Every piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic animal that should have lived three score years and ten; who has loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close knit and loving family akin to our own, but who has suffered and died to yield a tusk for a trinket.

Every elephant that dies leaves family and loved ones that have grieved deeply, the dependent young doomed to die an agonising death in terror and lonely isolation.

EVERY PERSON THAT BUYS IVORY HAS BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS AND IS AN ACCOMPLICE   IN KILLING AN ELEPHANT, CAUSING IMMEASURABLE SORROW AND SUFFERING TO MANY OTHERS.

For The Elelphant Cause the Trust has, on many occasions, provided emergency funding, and in the last two years sizeable sums for the purchase of fuel to keep the anti-poaching ground patrols functioning in Tsavo, and the surveillance aircraft in the air. The Trust has also provided emergency funding for repairs to firebreaks and roads in Tsavo, at a time when the Wildlife Service was sadly mismanaged and in a state of financial collapse. It repaired heavy earth moving machinery and funded a skilled operator to man a large scraper needed to desilt existing natural waterholes so that they retain water longer in the long dry seasons.

Water has always been the limiting factor in Tsavo East National Park, since in this semi desert environment there are only two permanent rivers. The Aruba dam constructed in the early 50's provided a third source of permanent water but has recently silted up and is set to become a grassy plain that will provide extra grazing for the large herds of buffalo this Park harbours, some of which are a thousand strong. The Trust has therefore funded 4 boreholes needed to cater for the needs of the Park's inhabitants in the absence of Aruba, ensuring a more even distribution of game and relieving pressure on the two permanent rivers in the long, hot,. dry seasons.

The Elephant Orphan (In Depth) - Extracts from The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust:

When hand rearing wild animals it is important to understand their natural habits. Confining wild animals (except when very young) frustrates instinct, stifles simulation, results in boredom and turns an animal psychotic and dangerous. Wild babies need freedom and exposure to a natural environment in order for innate instincts to become honed and enable them to take their own way back into the wild system gradually and in their own time. In the meantime they need a base to which they can always return when insecure. only exposure tot he wild hones instinct. No human foster-parent can instruct an animal in the social lessons that influence rank and status, or the boundaries of acceptable behaviour amongst their wild kin, where chemistry, telepathy and instinct play an important role.

Daphne Sheldrick has been rearing and rehabilitating orphans of misfortune for most of her life and has reared and successfully returned to the wild (when grown) most African wild animal species except the big cats. However, the rearing of the infant elephant has been her greatest challenge and her greatest triumph...All elephants reared by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust end up as perfectly normal wild elephants integrated back into the wild elephant community of Tsavo East National Park.

..To a baby elephant the family is all important. During the first fragile year of infancy, when a calf is entirely milk dependent, the human "family" must be with the calf at all times, even during the night, when a keeper will sleep next to the calf, handling the animal with gentle patience and feeding it on demand and exuding fondness. All these are vital ingredients a baby elephant would enjoy from its elephant family, and the human family must do their utmost to provide the same. There must be enough keepers to represent a "family" and to avoid a calf becoming too attached to any one and pining when that particular person takes time off. Psychological depression can trigger serious physical problems, so the secret is to keep the calf as happy as possible. the babies are always traumatized on arrival, due t violent massacre or separation.

..Infant elephants are difficult feeders. The calf must feel comfortable to suckle with a hung blanket making it feel a little like mother. Gradually it will transfer the trunk to the keeper, but until it does endless patience is needed to encourage it to take sufficient milk to sustain life and eventually begin to thrive. Temperature is also important since baby elephants are essentially fragile and succumb easily to pneumonia. In an artificial situation they must be protected by blankets when cold, rainwear when it is wet, and sunscreen and umbrella when exposed to sun for the first few months.

during the 1 to 4 month they teeth which triggers diarrhoea. this can be life threatening, plunging the calf into rapid physical decline. at such times rehydration salts are administered and rice water mixed with powdered milk. If required homeopathy and sulphur based antibiotics may be used.

Baby elephants need simulation. Highly intelligent and with a giant memory they duplicate humans in emotion, development and longevity.  During infancy distractions of all sorts must be built into its daily routine (EG walks in varied surroundings, access to sticks and stones, as well as artificial playthings like rubber tubes, balls. Elephants are not fully grown until the age of 20, reaching puberty between 10 and 15 years. An elephant will only thrive if it is happy.

Discipline is necessary to instil the boundaries of good behaviour around humans, but this must be carefully and sensitively made understood. Initially tone of voice and wagging finger is sufficient, but later reinforcement of reprimand is required. It is essential to show forgiveness later, so that the calf understands that it was punished for wrongdoing but is still loved. With elephants, when grown, their reaction around humans is dependent upon how it was treated and handled by humans while young.

The second year is a weaning year when quantity and frequency of milk feeds is gradually reduced as the calf ingests a growing quantity of vegetation. Elephants need a varied diet and plant selection is instinctive. At this stage the elephant orphans are transferred to Tsavo national Park (along with their human family), where they are integrated into the still dependent group of larger orphans. There they begin the gradual process of reintegration back into the wild elephant community. Days are spent walking with keepers far and wide in the bush, encountering the scents of wild herds, actually seeing them, and returning to a communal night stockade in the evening whilst they are vulnerable to attacks by lions. The wild herds welcome the orphans into their midst, while the keepers sit under a tree at a safe distance and gradually the orphans pluck up courage to fraternize and soon find the company of other elephants far more simulating that that of humans. Usually, by the age of 10 all the orphans are independent of their human family, have close friends amongst the wild herds and know their way around. Nevertheless, they will always retain a deep fondness for the individuals who represented the human "family" in infancy, and whenever in the area, will usually drop by to keep in touch (sometimes accompanied by wild friends)...

ELEPHANT EMOTION
By Daphne Sheldrick M.B.E.: 1992 UNEP Global 500 Laureate.

Why is it that most people feel such empathy for Elephants, even if they have never had close contact with them?

Is it because of their size, their quaint characteristics, or the the fact that they are so incredibly endearing as babies, tripping over little wobbly trunks that seem to serve no useful purpose other than get in the way? Or is it, perhaps, because Elephants are "human" animals, encompassed by an invisible aura that reaches deep into the human soul in a mysterious and mystifying way.

Of course, Elephants share with us humans many traits - the same span of life, (three score years and ten, all being well) and they develop at a parallel pace so that at any given age a baby elephant duplicates its human counterpart, reaching adulthood at the age of twenty. Elephants also display many of the attributes of humans as well as some of the failings. They share with us a strong sense of family and death and they feel many of the same emotions. Each one is, of course, like us, a unique individual with its own unique personality. They can be happy or sad, volatile or placid. They display envy, jealousy, throw tantrums and are fiercely competitive, and they can develop hang-ups which are reflected in behaviour. They also have many additional attributes we humans lack; incredible long range infrasound, communicating in voices we never hear, such sophisticated hearing that even a footfall is heard far away, and, of course they have a memory that far surpasses ours and spans a lifetime. They grieve deeply for lost loved ones, even shedding tears and suffering depression. They have a sense of compassion that projects beyond their own kind and sometimes extends to others in distress. They help one another in adversity, miss an absent loved one, and when you know them really well, you can see that they even smile when having fun and are happy.

I have been privileged to live amongst elephants (and other animals too) all my life, observing them in a wild situation for over 30 years, and hand-rearing their orphaned young for just as long. But it has been the rearing of the infant milk dependent babies that has given me an in-depth insight into the elephant psyche. Hand in hand with the good times, have come heartbreaks in abundance, but each elephant life saved has rewarded us richly with untold satisfaction. When rearing long lived animals such as elephants, one must dig deep from inner reserves to find "staying power'' for it is a long-term assignment parallel to raising a human child. It took me 28 long years to perfect the milk formula and complicated husbandry vital to success in terms of rearing the new-born elephants, and in the process each one that died shredded my heart. However, success did finally come, and since then 14 near-dead infants gradually came back to life and have enriched my life in a very special and emotional way.

Let's start with Eleanor, the amazing Elephant Matriarch now in her early forties who was orphaned at the age of two and whom I have known for as long as I have known my own children. She was there for me as I struggled to save the milk dependent "No Hopers" and there to take over those orphaned older who were no longer dependent on milk. It was Eleanor, and before her, a gentle cow called Fatuma, that first demonstrated to me the great caring heart of the female elephants and the depth of their love. But Eleanor and Fatuma were not unique. Every female elephant is, in fact, just like them, always eager to take custody of those younger and especially the tiny babies. Nevertheless, the head of an elephant Matriarch must rule her heart. She must be sufficiently responsible to make tough decisions in life for she must consider, first and foremost, the well-being of her family over and above the needs of any one individual that happens to fall on hard times. For instance, she must abandon a calf that is holding up the herd in the interests of the survival of the others, and knowing elephants as I do, I know just how heartbreaking this must be, not only for the Matriarch, but for all the members of the group. Whilst all female elephants (and sometimes the males) will want to care for an orphan, there are few cows with the lactating capacity to be able to suckle more than one calf, and naturally no cow elephant will jeopardise the survival of her own baby for someone else's, just as no human would either. Therefore, if a milk dependent baby (i.e. a calf less than 2 years old) loses its own mother, it is usually doomed, for, deprived of milk, it will weaken rapidly and fall behind. Eventually, it must be left if the others are to survive. It is such unfortunates that comprise our elephant family today.

Let me introduce our readers to the first one - OLMEG, whose name means "The Outsider" in the Masai dialect, since it was from Maralal in Samburuland that he originated. The fact that Olmeg was the very first infant that I succeeded in raising, and, in fact, the first infant elephant ever to have been hand-reared, makes him very special to me, and even more so because there was just my daughter Jill, and myself, to give him the hands-on 24 hour intensive care an infant elephant needs until such time as I had managed to train a team of Keepers to take over.

OLMEG, was just two weeks old when he was flown in 1987, having been discovered by tribesmen trapped in the mud of a deep washaway, sunburnt to a frazzle and more dead than alive from dehydration. He must have been a very robust calf physically to have survived such a trauma, especially as thereafter he spent ten days at a nearby Lodge being fed on cows, milk and carrots. But, survive he did, and today at 11 years old, he is the oldest in the orphan gang.

OLMEG is a complex character, deeply sensitive and easily wounded. During his Nursery period, being the first and oldest, he basked in the admiration of all those younger, including the next in line, TARU, who was orphaned in Tsavo and is 6 months younger. It is very normal for little bull elephants to indulge in a "hero--worship" on those older, because in childhood rank begins with age and rank is all important in elephant male society. Olmeg was unquestionably the boss in the Nursery. In fact, I think he thought he was the best and biggest elephant in the world, because having been orphaned so young, he probably would not remember his erstwhile elephant family clearly. Later he and Taru were joined by three other younger bulls, namely Dika from Tsavo, Ndume, who with Malaika, a female, came from the Imenti Forest, and Edo from Amboseli. Later still they were joined in Tsavo by AJOK, from Turkana, a tough little desert elephant who still enjoys the dubious status of "naughtiest".

Tantrums from Olmeg first became a daily occurrence when it was time to begin his weaning period. Suddenly his milk ration was cut to 3 bottles at a sitting, whereas Taru and the others still needed 4. The Keepers were puzzled when Olmeg behaved like a spoilt brat at every feed, and eventually as the trouble-shooter, I was called in. The reason was, of course, that he could count, and that he felt the others were being given preferential treatment at his expense. A fourth bottle containing just water was added to the three so that the line-up was the same for all, and thereafter the matter was resolved to everyone's satisfaction. It is very important always to treat each elephant exactly the same; never to give one something another cannot have, because it will be noticed  and remembered.

Olmeg and Taru were the first to leave the Nursery to be taken down to Voi to begin their re-intergration back into the wild community. Soon after their arrival, Eleanor and her adopted family turned up in a great state of excitement. These included Lissa (the self appointed "Nanny" to those smaller) and CHUMA, a little bull 6 months older than Olmeg, but who was orphaned old enough to be able to be given directly to Eleanor. Chuma is well named. His name means "iron" in Swahili.'

Confident and settled, he came bouncing up to Olmeg and Taru, who were nervous and unsure. Chuma began tussling with Olmeg and was quite obviously getting topsides of him. Taru, watching from the touchlines, instantly switched his hero-worship to "Chuma" and for that he has been punished. To this day, Olmeg has not forgiven him and nor is there any love lost between himself and Chuma either. Taru was forced to walk at the end of the line once the younger bulls swelled the ranks; forced to be the last to drink, despite being second in Line rankwise belittled before the others until one day, when sufficiently confident, he left Olmeg's group to join his buddy Chuma and became part of Eleanor's unit.

Meanwhile, whenever Olmeg met up with Chuma out in the bush, (which happens frequently during the dry season), the tussle between these young bulls continued, and we heard about these encounters through The Keepers' Diary, which chronicles the daily events down in Tsavo. For a long time Chuma usually won, but occasionally Olmeg did, particularly when he could count on the support of Eleanor's wild adoptee, a young bull older than both Chuma and himself, to whom we have given the name "Thomas". When Thomas was not there to lend support, Chuma was the victor, but with Thomas beside him, Olmeg's confidence swelled.

For several years, Taru remained on the touchlines as a spectator, but gradually began to engage Olmeg. From time to time he returned to the Stockades to spend time with the Boys (as our Group is known) and frequently joined them when out in the bush, still tail-end Charlie but obviously growing in stature and confidence.

Then, one day not long ago, he challenged Olmeg singly without the support of Chuma and trounced him soundly on home turf, thereby superceding Olmeg in rank and denting his ego terribly. Olmeg has taken 'to spending time on his own; he is irritable, and has vented his revenge on the National Park flagpole at the airfield and on Daniel Woodley's plane, which one day happened to shower him in dust as it landed.

Dika, next in rank and age to Taru, is showing signs of having lost respect for Olmeg, whilst Ndume, who was always small in size compared to Edo who is younger, has suddenly shot up and re-established precedence in the pecking order, shoving Edo onto the touchline. During his Nursery years, Ndume made up for lack of size by being deliberately disobedient and mischievous and all this in order to gain the attention and respect of the others. He was happy to risk "the cattle prod" just as long as all the others were watching.

The "Cattle Prod" is a small electric prodder powered by two torch cells and it is with this that good behaviour amongst the orphans is enforced. Discipline must be meted out carefully, however, preceded by a sharp NO, and usually begins when the calves are 6 months old and have settled in and understand the meaning of English words, which they learn very quickly. Only one language, English, is spoken around them, both by their Keepers and us, so as not to confuse them with two.' The extent of their understanding in this respect was demonstrated by Olmeg when as a small calf, he was given a "Weetabix" every night as a special treat. Just a mention of the word "Weetabix" soon sent him flying to the relevant bin, so then we spelt it when enquiring of the Keepers whether or not he had received his evening treat. Very soon, he became wise to that too. So demanding and "hooked" on the Weetabix he became that if for some reason it was not forthcoming on time, he threw a tantrum. We decided then that it was not a good idea to "spoil" any of the elephants with handouts, a rule that is now very strictly enforced for their own good, because it is a sure recipe for bad behaviour and ultimately, "trouble".

Elephants harbour grudges. Following a shot of the Cattle Prod, they usually take themselves off, and sulk, viewing the wielder of the Cattle Prod (which is always me) with obvious animosity. After an appropriate period, it is essential therefore to make amends - to approach the calf talking softly and gently, wrap your arms around his or her neck, bend down and look into the eyes and to speak from the heart so that the elephant understands that all is forgiven and forgotten. Unless this ritual takes place, the elephant might seek to settle the score at a later date, in the same way that Taru disciplined Olmeg.

Dika was the orphan that demonstrated despair and heartbreak so graphically. Some of his family were gunned down en masse, others fled, wounded amidst a hail of gunfire, and Dika had obviously raced through a dense thorn thicket, because when he arrived, he had hundreds of long acacia thorns protruding from almost every square inch of his body. For four long months we could get no sparkle from him and there were times when we wondered whether he was, in fact, mentally normal. Even the other elephants could get no response from him as he stood by himself dejectedly brooding on the loss of those he loved, tears staining his cheeks, reluctant to feed, refusing to play and unable to sleep- so obviously and tragically distraught.

AJOK, the desert elephant from Turkana who came to us when only a day or two old and who has always been "naughtiest" is a most endearing but very mischievous character. The word "Ajok" means "Hello!" in the Turkana dialect because Ajok simply popped up out of a riverbed with not another elephant in sight. It is a miracle that the tribesmen that found him spared his life, for the Turkana people who eke out an existence in that desert environment are opportunistic survivors, prone to eating anything on four legs, whether it be an elephant or a rat. But, this totally trusting tiny elephant obviously touched even their toughened hearts, and he was spared and sent to us.

Ajok is the strongest of all our babies, both physically and psychologically, honed by eons of evolution to be able to survive in extremely harsh and marginal conditions, where even people find it difficult. Of all our calves, he is the only one who has not needed the attentions of a Vet, and today, at 7 years old, he has the potential of being the biggest by far, almost as big as Olmeg, Taru, Dika, Edo and Ndume, all of whom are a good deal older.

Ajok is a prankster with a sense of humour, a Show-off and the most adventurous. He will play to the gallery and indulge in all sorts of  tricks in order to make people laugh and become the focus of their attention. He has a special trick - "shivering" his trunk beginning at the top and progressing downwards to the very tip. No one can resist this sight. He has been known to lie down and kick his legs in the air, twist his trunk round peoples´ necks in a stranglehold, pluck a hat off someone's head, and creep up onto Simon Trevor's veranda at night in order to heave an old camp chair, which he obviously regards as his special "toy" over the wall with a deafening clatter that scares any inmates. He waltzes in amongst the wild herds like a veteran, is sufficiently confident to spend time out and about by himself, especially when planning mischief, and is a law unto himself.

Like Ajok, Olmeg also has his own special "toy", a log of wood known as "Olmeg's Rubber Duck". This is positioned near a waterhole of his choice, heaved in, rolled about in the water, then heaved back up the bank, tossed about and rolled back in. Woe betide any of the others who trespass on The Rubber Duck. Glowering from the touchlines, Olmeg cautions them all with ears up and an old-fashioned "look" until he himself is ready to initiate proceedings.

DIKA is probably the "nicest" character - very gentle, very sensitive, with an innate "softness" yet with depths of hidden strength. He is large for his age with impressive ivory, though tusks that are not quite as thick as those of Ndume. Like Ajok, he has the potential of being a dominant bull when grown, and though slow to anger, has a toughness lacking in those more volatile.

EDO from Amboseli, is a rather shy and remote character. Since he was 6 months old when he lost his mother and came to us, he remembered his elephant family clearly, added to which he arrived in the Nursery when Dika, Malaika, and Ndume were already in residence. It was Dika that persuaded him to make the effort to try to live. Without that input, I truly believe we would not have been able to save Edo, who had suffered not just the loss of a mother but the rejection of his sister as well. She had a calf of her own and was lactating at the time, but would not allow him to suckle. Of all the orphans, Edo, Ndume and Malaika are the most distant with humans - Edo because he had the others, and Ndume and Malaika because they were almost beaten and hacked to death by irate tribesmen onto whose land their herd happened to trespass. In fact, a third calf was hacked to death before their eyes, whilst Ndume was beaten unconscious, and Malaika would undoubtedly have been killed had a Ranger not intervened in time. Small wonder then that they are wary of mankind.

Malaika is becoming another "Eleanor", the self appointed Matriarch of all who are younger, who will forego having fun with The Boys in order to care for the babies she has taken under her wing. These include our miracle, "Imenti" who arrived in the Nursery the day he was born, (his mother having suffered the same fate as that of Ndume and Malaika and who comes from the same remnant population of Imenti Elephants), Emily, who fell down a pit latrine near the Manyani Entrance Gate to Tsavo, Aitong who was trampled in a stampede and had severe head injuries on arrival and the latest arrival, little Uaso from the North, whose mother was obviously speared, since he came in with a spear wound in the back.

Malaika dislikes Eleanor, because Eleanor coaxed her favourite "baby", little Mpenzi, away to join her group. Malaika adored Mpenzi and has never forgiven Eleanor for taking this calf out of tier care. Today, he is very diligent in her role as Matriarch to the smaller orphans, but occasionally hands over-the role of "Nannie" to Emily, who literally swells with pride every time she is entrusted with this role.

A heart-warming tale is the saga of orphan LOMINYEK, whose name means "The Lucky one" in the Samburu dialect, "lucky" because whilst his mother died from a hail of gunfire, he had just one ricochet hole in the leg. He is also "Lucky" because he is the only orphan to have been rescued by the Kenya Wildlife Service since Dr. Leakey's tenure of office.

He was about 14 months old on arrival, victim of tribal turbulence in the North, where Samburu tribesmen are locked in almost daily conflict with Somali bandits. Lominyek had therefore grown up in an area where all humans are "the enemy". He came in sedated and when he came round, the first thing he wanted to do, was to kill the first human he saw, who happened to be our most proficient and gentle elephant keeper, Mishak. Mishak rapidly vaulted over the dividing partition into little Zoe's stable and Lominyek gradually calmed down after several attempts at breaking down the door.

At the time, there were two other Nursery inmates, "Zoe" and "Sungelai", both very much younger than Lominyek. The next morning, we let them both into his stable and crowding around him, they rumbled their greetings, eager to escort him out. All three emerged together at sunrise, but when Lominyek found himself amidst more dreaded humans, he lost his nerve, and yelling his head off, fled into the bush, Sungelai and Zoe hot on his heels, and the Keepers after them!

Seized by despair, I was at a loss to know what to do next, but I need not have worried, because several hours later, much to my astonishment, a little procession appeared from the thicket below the house - Lominyek being escorted back by Sungelai and Zoe, one on either side of him, followed at a respectable distance by the Keepers.

By this time the daily visitors were beginning to assemble, all intent on viewing the Orphans, noon mudbath, which is a popular routine whenever there are elephant inmates in the Nairobi Nursery. Again, I was extremely apprehensive, because on this particular day, a huge crowd turned up, and I envisaged a few of our visitors being flattened by the new incumbent, who was quite capable of exacting a telling revenge. However, yet again I had underestimated the sophistication of elephant communication. Incredibly, and unbelievably, Sungelai and Zoe by then had been able to persuade Lominyek that he had nothing to fear from the hordes of humans that now swarmed all around him, and taking his cue from them, he hesitantly greeted the people, gently offering the tip of a trembling little trunk, which was rapidly withdrawn when touched, ears up to signify unease, but nevertheless immaculately behaved. Although haunted by the loss of his elephant family for a time, Lominyek was transformed into a very gentle and forgiving little character and a great favourite, who turned up trumps only weeks later when tragedy struck, and we lost little Sungelai, who, unbeknownst to us, had a congenital heart deficiency and simply died in his sleep. Now it fell to Lominyek to ease the grief of little Zoe over the loss of her year long Nursery companion.

Lominyek was only in the Nairobi Nursery for about 5 months, before joining the older orphans in Tsavo. As soon as he scented the other elephants, his excitement was obvious, and when he saw Malaika, emotion overcame him and he took to butting her repeatedly, as though in punishment, whilst Emily, Imenti and Aitong dashed around trumpeting with excitement. We think that Lominyek probably had a big sister the size of Malaika amongst his lost family, and that the memory of being abandoned by her might have prompted this unusual initial behaviour. Thereafter, however, he remained literally glued to Malaika's side, something she found irritating, since this was the prerogative of the smaller calves, namely Aitong and Uaso. Eventually, she adopted tougher measures to try and detach him, prodding him with her tusks, something he did not appreciate.

Just as soon as he had completed his weaning year, and was milk independent, which coincided with the onset of the rains in Tsavo, he left Malaika's group and went in search of a more accommodating mother figure. Finally he found one, and what's more, one without tusks, so Lominyek is now happily settled within this family, meeting up with the other orphans from time to time out in the bush, but showing no inclination whatsoever to return to the Orphan Fold. His is, indeed, a story with a happy ending, and he is well named "The Lucky One".

Meanwhile, Eleanor's adopted family one day turned up in the custody of her wild friend, a Matriarch of similar age to Eleanor, whom our Keepers have named "Catherine". Why Eleanor abandoned her adopted family still remains a puzzle to us and why she appears to have severed all ties even with her former human family is, likewise, a puzzle, especially after such long contact. What we have learnt, though, is that aspiring Matriarchs are very competitive when it comes to acquiring a "family" for themselves, and that the bonding between Matriarchs and unrelated adoptees is much looser than that existing within a normal related group. We know, for instance, that Eleanor tried to hijack the calf of our 18 year old orphan "Mary" soon after it Was born, and that Mary had difficulty in reclaiming it, choosing thereafter to leave Eleanor's unit and join a wild herd led by a mire accommodating Matriarch. Similarly Malaika has never trusted Eleanor since she took Mpenzi and still jealously tries to limit the contact the younger orphans in her charge have with older wild cows.

Could it be that Eleanor is "piqued" with Catherine? Or has she perhaps been blessed at last with a calf of her own, which she prefers to keep to herself well away from humans. There is, of course, the terrible possibility that she might have perished beyond the borders of the Park along with many others during the time that water was so scarce; or perhaps she has seen a friend gunned down by the "Problem Animal Control Unit" of K.W.S. which has been very active under the current Director. We will never know for sure, but our prayer, and I know the prayer of many who have followed her life over the past 40 years, is that Eleanor is at last fulfilled - a wild elephant with a calf of her own, no longer in need of either an adopted family or human contact.

Eleanor was a drought victim, born during a period when there was no poaching in Tsavo National Park. Perhaps what she has learned since from contact with the wild elephants, and what she has seen for herself, has left her embittered towards humans. Sad as it is, it would not be surprising.

Three of our hand-reared charges have now successfully made the transition into the wild herds on a permanent basis, returning only occasionally to visit their orphan friends and their erstwhile human family. Others are still with us, but visit their wild elephant friends, usually in pairs, whilst Ajok is sufficiently confident to spend a lot of time on his own without the support of a friend in between outings with the wild herds.

The rains in Tsavo always bring on a welcome green flush, greatly enjoyed by the orphans. However, in 1977 we lost little Zoe, Lominyek's Nursery companion and an orphan who had seemed indestructible. Like Ajok, Zoe had never before needed the attentions of a Vet, suffering just one stomach disorder during her 18 months of life. Her sudden death stunned everyone, both human and elephant, and joy at the advent of the "green season" turned into sorrow and grief. Fortunately, however, this was cut short by the arrival of little "Uaso".

We were never able to establish exactly what had cost Zoe her life, and can only assume that she must have inadvertently eaten a toxic toadstool in amongst the trunkful of greens, or perhaps a poisonous insect or frog on a food plant, for elephants have an instinctive knowledge of what to eat and what to avoid.

"Uaso", like Lominyek, is an orphan from the North, but rather than a bullet wound, bore the results of a spear injury so his mother is likely to have been speared by tribesmen. He was spotted on his own with no other elephants nearby on the North Bank of the Uaso Nyiro river, which traverses Colcheccio Ranch, and which was in quite high spate at the time. He was, however, at least a year old, and though weak, was nevertheless sufficiently strong to put up a spirited struggle, so it took at least half a dozen stalwarts to subdue and surround him. Crowding him tightly, they then had to ford the swift flowing and crocodile infested river, which fortunately they managed to do without mishap, arriving at the Ranch Airstrip just as the Rescue plane was about to land. Thereafter, everything went like clockwork. Being at least a year old, and in not too bad shape, Uaso could be flown directly to Tsavo, where he was instantly taken over by Malaika and her brood, and as the smallest calf, was allowed the privileged "close" position. Although wary of the humans that surrounded him, he drew comfort from the other elephants, as we knew he would, and was soon downing his first bottle of milk, taking his cue from Aitong, who was only too happy to give a demonstration. He was nevertheless sure to keep Malaika between him and the Keeper wielding the bottle! Since then, he has achieved fame by being the star of the popular Programme, "Noel's Christmas Present" viewed by millions all over Europe and aired immediately after the Queen's Christmas Day speech.

The saga of our orphans is an ongoing story that will undoubtedly outlive most of us, God willing. I like the words of Henry Beston, from "The Outmost House," and especially so since they were written in 1928, a period when all most people knew about animals, was how to kill them.

"We need another and wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals .... In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth"

IMPACT IN TSAVO
By Daphne Sheldrick M.B.E.: 1992 UNEP Global 500 Laureate.

In Tsavo, man has not interfered with natural processes, but stood by and observed and learned from the long-term vegetational cycles and patterns that are Nature's hallmark. During the tenureship of my late husband, who was Warden of Tsavo East for almost thirty years, we accepted the constant fluctuation of different species triggered by these cycles as natural events, understanding that we still had a lot to learn, mindful of the fact that most life forms in that arid environment are dependent upon the activities of Elephants.

Many people see a broken branch and cry "destruction" or are alarmed by a tree ringbarked and felled. They have not had the time to observe the emergence of a new generation of trees, shrubs and legumes planted by the Elephants in their dung seeds of which have been dispersed far and wide in the long range wanderings of these great creatures. Perhaps they do not understand that 100 miles is a little stroll for an elephant and that Nature never hustles; that the lifetime of a man is but a flicker of an eyelid in terms of geological time. They overlook in ignorance the part Elephants play in creating waterholes that serve many other life forms, sealing them by the puddling action of their great feet, and carrying away copious quantities of earth on their huge bodies every time they bathe. It is the elephant trails that are the conduits that lead runoff rain water into these depressions and fill them, thereby benefiting all life forms. By tunnelling into dry sandy water-courses with their trunks, Elephants have the ability to expose subsurface water that would otherwise be unavailable to others whilst their sheer weight compresses the sands and brings the underground water closer to the surface. They open up the thickets; create grasslands, and blaze the trails over difficult terrain. In fact, most of the road systems in Tsavo follow elephant trails. Elephants are essential to the survival of many other less well equipped animals. The branches they break become accessible to smaller creatures and the enormous quantity of dung they produce in a day fertilises the soil.

As Naturalists, attuned by exposure to Nature and a deep love of all things natural, we also came to understand that Nature is never static; that changes are dynamic, complex and often necessary in the long-term; and that Nature is also amazingly resilient and powerful. Evolution is in progress all the time through natural selection and adaptation to changing situations. Natural selection, Nature's most powerful tool, distils and hones the genetic base of all living things. We in Tsavo were humble lay folk, conscious of our limitations, and people who accepted that man, no matter how sophisticated, cannot better Nature. The natural world was our classroom every day for three decades and we attended class avidly and with an open mind.

Contrary to popular belief, the Elephants of Tsavo did not irrevocably damage their habitat; nor did their activities jeopardise the survival of other indigenous species. They have unquestionably improved the biodiversity of the Park, changing it from desolate sterile scrub thicket where viewing was difficult and the tourist appeal so low that the Colonial Government almost abandoned the Park in the sixties, to a beautiful mosaic of grassland and Acacia open woodland that now boasts more tourists and revenue that any of the other Parks, Nairobi, Nakuru and Amboseli included. The Elephants did not destroy the vegetation; they modified it and today it supports a greater variety of wild animals than any other Park in the world. Not only is it here that the Northern and Southern races of fauna meet but species that were absent when the Park was first created have again appeared. I speak of Topi, Oribi, Sable, Abbots duiker and even Brown Hyaena, never before reported in East Africa.

When the elephants' work was done, we waited anxiously to see what would happen. It was then that we witnessed Nature's way of controlling numbers in a one off event that only need ever happen once in an elephant's lifetime, and which by removing specific female age groups from the entire population, puts the population into the long-term decline necessary to relieve the pressure on the vegetation, and allow regeneration, regrowth and renewal.

Many people feel that to allow elephants to die of malnutrition is cruel and inhumane. But we must remember that malnutrition is a natural end for an elephant - the way it would die in old age once the last set of molars is worn. Malnutrition is not the same as starvation, because the stomach is not empty. What it contains simply does not provide the many nutrients vital to Elephant health and so the elephants gradually become weak and comatose, spending lengthy periods near permanent water asleep under trees. When they are too weak to get up, they die surrounded by their loved ones, just as we humans would choose to die. Surely this is preferable to dying in mindless terror amidst a hail of gunfire, calves getting trampled in the ensuing mayhem, remembering also that elephants communicate long range with infrasound, so the trauma is transmitted to others many miles away. Culled populations are psychotic populations, and stress takes its own toll on health, as we humans well know.

It is for a very good reason that Nature has made the elephant a greedy and "wasteful" feeder. Despite its great size and awe-inspiring strength, it is essentially a very fragile animal; fragile in infancy and the first to feel the affects of food deprivation. When an Elephant has overtaken its food resource, it loses strength rapidly and the end comes quickly and cleanly; always near permanent sources of water, because Elephants are so water dependent. (Hence the myth of the Elephants' graveyard).

Nor is it an accident that Nature has determined that female elephants are bonded strongly into female family units for life, led by the oldest cow in the family, who is the Matriarch responsible for making all the decisions. This is by design in order to target the females, who are the breeders. When the time has come, the Matriarch will be the first to feel the affects of malnutrition and will take her female unit to permanent water. There they will die en masse, removing female generations from the entire population, a process that is necessary to create the gaps that inhibit recruitment and put a population into decline, thereby relieving the pressure on the land. This is also when Nature imposes its most powerful tool Natural Selection - so that only the fittest will survive and the population will be the better for it.

To me, it seems almost incomprehensible that only six years after the international trade in Ivory was first banned by another CITES Convention, once again the world's N.G.O.'s had to assemble in Harare to plead for the Elephants and to urge the International Community to uphold the ban in the interests of the survival of these majestic and marvellous animals. Unhappily, the forces of greed and commercialism prevailed in a very unethical manner in Harare. It was a Conference marred by secret ballots, underhand deals, death threats and abuse but which resulted in the selfish decision to trade some of the Southern African ivory stockpiles to Japan. This will undoubtedly, as before, result in an upsurge of poaching. Indeed, it already has. When the Hong Kong stockpile of Ivory was sold in the eighties, another 10,000 elephants died and now we face the same scenario again. How regrettable that the lessons of history are not heeded, and that the same old mistakes have to be repeated time and time again at great cost and suffering.

A cow elephant has just one calf every five years, so in Elephant terms, six years is just time enough to allow a second generation of babies soon to be born into this troubled world which in no way compensates for the slaughter of two and a half decades, when literally hundreds of thousands of elephants perished to fuel the mindless demand for an ivory trinket. The poaching holocaust of the seventies and eighties is very alive in my mind today, because it has fallen to me to hand-rear many orphaned babies. Our oldest orphan, Olmeg, who came to us as a tiny infant of 2 weeks old, in desperate straits, is now aged 12, and mingling freely and at will with his wild friends. Through closely monitoring the progress of our orphans, we have seen how severely the poaching holocaust has disrupted Elephant society, plunging their social structure into chaos. It has left them traumatised, rudderless and even more vulnerable and fragile.

The Elephant Matriarchs of today are young and inexperienced. Many are trailing a long line of orphans who have been left with no living relatives of their own. The bonds between these groups are not as resilient as those of a real family. Some of the young Matriarchs snap under the pressure of responsibility forced upon them so young, and they abandon their charges, opting out and causing further emotional stress with youngsters confused and at the mercy of predators. We have first hand knowledge of this, because one of the orphaned elephants we reared during the three decades that my husband was the Warden of Kenya's Tsavo National Park, the famous elephant Eleanor, now a Matriarch of over 40 years of age, who has cared for the younger orphaned elephants since the tender age of 5, has done just that. This would be unheard of in a normal elephant family that enjoyed the luxury of peace and stability.

Added to this, an expanding human population in many countries in Africa has brought another set of problems, depriving the elephants of the space that is so crucial to their wellbeing. It has compressed them into areas that are too small to be viable for them, deprived them of their ancestral migratory routes and separated families and friends from one another. In our country, what is termed "problem animal control" has taken almost as great a toll as the poachers in recent years - well in excess of 100 elephants in 1996 whereas the number known to have been taken by poachers is 72. Furthermore, make no mistake, the illegal Ivory trade is alive and well. In fact, it is flourishing and can be likened to the trade in drugs. Elephants continue to die daily and on a massive scale in troubled countries such as the Sudan and Zaire, in Southern Tanzania where poaching is rife, and also in Northern Kenya and indeed, anywhere, where a man can get even a pittance for a tusk.

Elephants are a Flagship species vital to the tourist industry that is the arterial lifeblood of our East African economy. They mirror us humans in many ways - in terms of longevity, in terms of development, in terms of family ties and lifelong bonds of friendship. They have all the emotions of us humans - all the good traits and few of the bad. I know elephants intimately, having lived amongst them since the age of 21, and having hand-reared 30 of their orphaned young, 14 from brand newborns. When you raise an animal, and come to love it as you would your own child, you begin to understand the mind. We must liken the emotional trauma of the Elephants to that of humans under similar circumstances of hardship and deprivation. To deny this is simply to display gross ignorance born of human arrogance. I am convinced that what we humans lack today is a reverence for life, and that this is something we should try and engender. We should understand and accept that others that happen to share our planet with us are not ours to manipulate and consume according to our whims but are here for a purpose., They, too, have rights because they are a vital to the well-being of the whole; an integral link in the complex chain of life. They belong to, and are a part of the natural world, of which we humans are also just a part. They are not here simply to be utilised according to the dictates of human vanity and greed as a mindless commodity.

Finally I would like to quote the words of Sir Crispin Tickell whose credentials would be as long as this lecture - for example:

Warden of Green College Oxford: Chancellor of the University of Kent in Canterbury: Chairman of the Climate Institute of Washingtron: Director of the Green College Centre for Environment Policy: Chairman of the Government's Advisory Committee on the Darwin Initiative:, Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development: member of the Diplomatic Service: Chief' de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission, Ambassador to Mexico: permanent Secretary to O.D.A. and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations for many years: President of the Royal Geographical Society etc., etc.,

... "as long as Nature is seen as something outside ourselves; frontiered and foreign, separate, it is lost both to us and in us. It follows that to achieve a society in harmony with Nature, we must be guided by respect for it. We should direct and integrate our lives consistently with it rather than try to subjugate and control it. This requires deeper understanding and acceptance of Natural processes, and an ability to cope with their inherent uncertainties. Thus in the area of conservation, we should move from the static idea of conservation of places and things to the conservation of process, to allow natural processes to function, and to create conditions in which they can do so."

THE ELEPHANT DEBATE
By Daphne Sheldrick M.B.E.: 1992 UNEP Global 500 Laureate.

Introduction

No animal triggers more heated debate within conservation circles than the elephant, for no animal has greater impact on the environment or is more "human" emotionally. Elephants can change the face of the landscape enacting their allotted "recycling" role and they share with us humans many emotional traits. Theirs is a parallel lifespan, the same rate of development, a sense of family and death, loyalties and friendships forged over the years that span a lifetime and a memory that probably far surpasses our own. They also have additional attributes such as "instinct", that mysterious genetic knowledge crucial to survival; the ability to communicate over distance with low frequency infra-sound hidden to human ears, and, like many other animals, powers of telepathy. Hence, the question of how best to "manage" these highly sophisticated and sensitive pachyderms inevitably evokes heated debate.

Elephants and Ivory:- Unhappily, the ivory of their huge "incisors" has commercial and mystical significance, particularly in the Far East. In Japan, it is used for signature seals known as "hankas" and in many other Far Eastern countries such as China the ancient art of carving is an important industry with skills handed down over generations from father to son. It is the demand in the East for an ivory hanka, or in the West for an ivory trinket, that has injected the commercial element into ivory and it is the commercial trade that now threatens the survival of the largest land mammal on earth. All who buy ivory have blood on their hands, for it has cost an elephant its life and that of all its dependent young. It has also wrought immeasurable psychological suffering to many others who were friends and loved ones.

Elephants need S P A C E and space is a commodity that is fast becoming scarce due to human expansion. Ancient migration routes have been cut and elephants driven into their last refuges, often too small to be viable in the long-term, or positioned in marginal land where survival hinges on the variables of rainfall.

Meanwhile, conflicting messages from the elephant range States and different conservation factions has bred confusion in the minds of the lay public and since it is "people power" that will ultimately determine the course of events, it is important that the complexities of the elephant story are fully understood. Thirty years ago the elephant population of Africa stood at a healthy 3 million. Today less than 250,000 remain with numbers poised to decline further due to human pressures. Remnant elephant communities isolated from one another and holed up in small refuge areas immediately become "problem animals" every time they put a foot out, since they find themselves in conflict with human interests. The price of this is a bullet.

Elephant society is comprised of bonded female units which stay together for life (young bulls leave the natal family at puberty to apprentice themselves to high ranking bulls in order to learn the codes of behaviour that govern bull society). The female unit is led by the oldest member of the family, known as the Matriarch, and it is she who makes all the decisions for her family. Hence, within the cow units, the misfortunes of one, affect, all, making them particularly vulnerable. Elephant infants cannot survive without milk for the first two years of life. Thereafter, ideally, a calf would supplement its diet of vegetation with some milk from its mother for the next three years until the arrival of the next baby, by which time it will be 5 years old. It will reach puberty between the age of l0 and l5 years; be a young adult at 20, in its prime in its thirties and forties, still strong and healthy yet ageing in its fifties, and old beyond the age of sixty. Therefore, when a calf is orphaned younger than two, it is usually doomed, for whilst the family will love and care for it as best they can, few cow elephants with a calf at foot will have the lactating capacity to suckle two; nor would a cow jeopardise her own calf by doing so. Occasionally, if times are good, an old cow wise in the ways of motherhood will allow an orphan to suckle if she has lost a baby, or has one not wholly milk dependent, but such instances are rare. Deprived of milk, an orphaned infant will weaken rapidly, fall behind the herd and then the Matriarch must abandon it in the interests of the others whose survival is her responsibility. Her decision is final.

The gestation period for an elephant is between 22 and 24 months. A young cow can fall pregnant for the first time at puberty, so given optimum conditions a female elephant could have her first calf at the age of l2 or 14, thereafter producing one baby every five years into her sixties. However, conditions are seldom optimal for elephants these days. Most populations are under stress which inhibits conception; many are subjected to intense human intrusion through mass tourism and scientific monitoring; droughts are commonplace in marginal areas with both water and food scarce and, of course, in Southern Africa economics dominate, in a flawed "if it pays it stays" attitude, so periodic culls are accepted as necessary management practice. There the meat of culled elephants is canned as pet food, their hide turned into leather, fetching high prices in Japan, their feet sold as curios and their young sold to Zoos and Circuses under the "educational" loophole in the laws governing endangered species. What can be educational in viewing a miserable and usually psychotic captive is questionable, to say the least, particularly in this day and age of sophisticated technology.

The scale of abuse attached to the live baby elephant trade was graphically highlighted by what became known as the Tuli Debacle. Calves, some of which were only two years old, were snatched from their living families by Helicopter in the Tuli Block of Botswana and subsequently cruelly brutalised in a South African so called "training" facility in preparation for sale to China and the Far East. There they became the subject of a cruelty Court Case which ended up generating such international outrage that some, at least, were released into Marakele National Park where they subsequently became absorbed into a wild herd. However, others less fortunate were spirited away to Northern Transvaal , (no doubt to be "trained" further far from the public spotlight) and yet others were clandestinely airlifted to Zoos in Switzerland and Germany, there to face life imprisonment in conditions that are far from suitable for an elephant. (Pressure is being exerted to try and get these wild caught captives returned back to where they belong). Another report from Tanzania told of young elephants being isolated from the herd and chased by Landrovers until exhausted, then being netted and dragged hundreds of metres to a waiting transporter. (Needless to say, none of these captives survived). It is known that the live animal trade also acts as a convenient cover and conduit for illegal narcotics and diamonds.

The demand for young elephants in China is ongoing, because mortality is high in a country where animal welfare is an alien concept and captive elephants are subjected to untold cruelty and suffering. CITES (The International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) has always conveniently overlooked what is, and is not, "a suitable destination" in terms of elephants since few of the delegates are conversant with the needs, and nature, of elephants. The trade is lucrative, the demand is there, and money talks!

Poaching and CITES:- In the l970's and 80's poaching escalated to such an extent that public outcry forced the International Community to take action. North of the Zambezi, entire populations of elephants faced annihilation; security within the Parks impacted negatively on tourism, (the mainstay of many African economies), and the situation was desperate. Finally, in l989, CITES, which meets every two years to discuss trade in threatened and endangered species, was forced to impose an International Ban on the sale of all ivory. Elephants were placed on the fully protected Appendix Ilisting, the price of ivory fell sharply and with it the incentive to poach. In short, the elephants won a reprieve just in time throughout most of Africa and some countries such as Kenya and Zambia went so far as to burn their ivory stocks in a gesture of commitment and goodwill.

However, others further South and some further North in possession of illegal stockpiles, chose to hoard it, and immediately began to orchestrate a cunning P.R. campaign to be allowed to sell it, despite the fact that a further l0,000 elephants were estimated to have perished when Hong Kong was allowed to sell its stockpile immediately after the ban was imposed. This should have been a warning heeded but commercial interests often cloud good judgement.

The International Ivory Ban held for the next 8 years and for the first time ever poaching was brought under control. Furthermore, the in-house corruption that had crept into most wildlife authorities could be addressed. Yet, eight years is time enough only for just two generations of elephants to be born to replace the holocaust of the previous two decades and certainly not time enough to heal the fragile fabric of elephant society which had been severely disrupted. Still the pressure mounted from the Southern Africans with talk of "over population", "rampaging elephants" spilling out of protected areas to conflict with human interests, and the perennial cry that the dead must pay for the living. In this respect a quote from Dr. Richard Leakey sums up the opinion of informed conservationists:- "Biodiversity cannot be given a price The point is that species must stay, so we must pay. National Parks are not larders to be plundered and exploited." One can be excused for thinking that perhaps we humans should begin by addressing the negative impact our species has had on the planet through cultivation, open-cast mining, industrial pollution, river contamination, forest felling and other facets of mismanagement! The damage done to the planet by homo sapiens exceeds that of all others.

In June l997, another CITES Convention was convened in Harare, Zimbabwe, and amidst a great deal of political manoeuvring, the Ivory Ban that had held for the past eight years was overturned, and overturned in an unethical way through a second secret ballot. This over-rode the first vote in favour of the elephants, because the European Union chose to abstain, which cost the elephants dearly. In so doing, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana finally won the right for a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles to Japan. Shamefully, this time, Animal Welfare Organisations there to speak for the animals and provide some semblance of "conscience" within a trade oriented forum, were denied even a voice, despite the fact that it is they who are best equipped to furnish the usually ill informed delegates with first hand information on conservation issues. Even the report of the scientific "Panel of Experts" which questioned the poaching figures submitted by Zimbabwe, fell on deaf ears. In a nutshell, the l997 CITES Conference of the Parties will go down in history as a disgraceful showing of acrimony, strong arm tactics, and deviousness, besides being a mega conservation blunder. Nevertheless, the South African population of elephants remained on Appendix I and that, at least, was some consolation.

Immediately, the message was out - elephants were up for grabs again. Illegal ivory could again be "laundered" into the legal system; poaching escalated, as did the stockpiling of illegal ivory, and this at a time when the elephant populations had barely recovered from the previous onslaught. Furthermore, many African range States were in a worsening state of political chaos with no hope of adequate law enforcement; automatic weapons were easily procurable and many wildlife authorities were impoverished and riddled with corruption. More sinister still, there were those that embarked on a deliberate strategy of covering up poaching incidents either to disguise their own shortcomings or because they had vested interests in the illegal trade. In April 2000, The CITES Conference of the Parties met yet again, this time in Nairobi, Kenya, amidst conflicting and confused reports about whether, in fact, poaching for ivory was responsible for the further demise of elephants, or whether, in fact, there had been a reduction in numbers. The CITES Secretariat was quite openly biased in favour of the Southern African pro-trade lobby and Kenya and India found themselves alone in admitting a serious escalation in poaching and pressing for the fully protected Appendix I listing to be reinstated. Other range States, known to have been under poaching pressure, saw fit to again conceal the facts for the same reasons as before; yet others were either "bought" or intimidated and in the end a compromise emerged – a two year moratorium on the sale of all ivory in exchange for the downlisting to Appendix II of the South African population, thereby sanctioning the trade in all elephant by-products, except ivory, but including live elephants. Yet again, the thorny question of what is, and what is not, a suitable destination failed to be adequately defined. Worse still, within just a month or two, Zimbabwe deliberately flouted the Convention's ruling and went ahead with the sale of a large quantity of ivory to China! Nor is there any doubt that in two years' time, the pressure to open the Ivory Trade will be even greater, so the The Millennium Cites gathering will go down in history as being a no-win situation yet again for the elephants. It would seem that only when the Southern African populations are threatened with extinction will the International Community respond by placing all ivory off limits forever, since wealthy Southern Africa has more to offer the world in terms of trade than other African range States.Culling as a Management Option:- The only practical way of "culling" elephant herds is to gun down entire family groups, first having immobilised the Matriarch from a helicopter so that the family cluster around her, confused and rudderless. The drug commonly used is scholine, banned for use on humans, since it collapses the muscles causing total paralysis, yet leaves the victim fully conscious. An anaesthetic would, of course, be far more humane, but it would contaminate the meat and detract from its commercial value. Yet, no-one can deny that an elephant cull is anything short of a brutal massacre that sickens even the most seasoned men detailed to undertake this terrible task as part of their conservation duties.

Significant, however, is the fact that artificial culling is undoubtedly seriously flawed. With all age groups within the female herds still intact, and pressure off the land by the removal of some, the breeding rate inevitably rises. Culling therefore has to be ongoing and the problem of "too many elephants" is never truly solved, serving, of course, the interests of the commercial trade. But, culling as practised in Southern Africa is fundamentally flawed for another very important reason, expediently overlooked. It deprives Nature of evolution's most potent genetic tool - Natural Selection - something that can never be duplicated by man. The survival of the fittest ensures the strength of the genetic core of wild populations so that only the best genes perpetuate. Natural Selection is the powerhouse of evolution, crucial to healthy stock, and vital for adaptation in an ever changing habitat, for Nature is never static; it is a dynamic and volatile force with evolution constantly at work. The term "Conservation" has been defined thus by one of the world's most eminent ecologists, the late Sir Frank Fraser Darling:- "Maintenance of the Energy flux is conservation – reduction of it is the opposite to conservation".

No-one can argue that the removal of large numbers of elephant from the environment for commercial purposes, is anything other than a reduction of the energy flux and as such contrary to the fundamentals of conservation. Neither should the contribution of the dead to the wellbeing of the living be overlooked. A dead elephant feeds a great many predators for a long time, and the recycling of its remains back into the environment returns nutrients to the soil from whence they sprung, contributing to fertility. Even the tail hairs of a dead elephant serve a useful function, plucked out by the birds for nests; bones are chewed and scattered by predators, gnawed by rodents or weathered back into the soil by the elements. A study done in Tsavo recorded 84,700 insects in just 3 kilos of elephant dung, so ponder for a moment the forces at work to recycle what once was a living elephant. When nothing is removed from the habitat, nothing is lost, and the environment is the richer for it.

The Tsavo Example:- The thorny issue of what to do about an over population of elephants in a confined area continues to simmer. Attempts at birth control through pill implants have proved problematical and are still in the experimental stage. Who, in fact, is qualified to determine how many is too many, when there are too many, and which ones should die? Only Nature can do this, and the example is there within Kenya's Tsavo National Park, the only Park in Africa where natural processes and vegetational progression has been allowed to proceed to a natural conclusion devoid of human intervention. In Tsavo elephant/vegetational cyclical patterns have been carefully monitored over time and a natural elephant die-off that took place in the early seventies has been scientifically documented. There man stood aside to look and learn rather than to crash in clumsily where angels feared to tread.

The argument most commonly used to justify the large-scale killing of elephant herds is that they destroy the habitat, threatening the survival of other life forms. But, where is the evidence to support this premise? In Tsavo what at one point in time appeared to be wholesale "destruction" of the woody plant community, turned out to be something quite different. Nor did the predicted demise of many species due to the activity of elephants occur - rather the reverse; the habitat was improved and became more productive benefiting biodiversity. There the ability of Nature to adjust elephant numbers was illustrated and the reason for the female bonding within elephant society also became clear. Added to this, human failings such as corruption and greed illustrated the pitfalls of "commercial utilisation" of wild free ranging populations, where Nature imposes its own controls through predation, disease, and food and water availability, no provision allowed in the system for human predation on a commercial scale.

It so happened that Naturalists, as opposed to Scientists, were at the wildlife helm at that point in time. They viewed things not in isolation, but as a whole, since Naturalists do not specialise but consider the big picture. Sympathetic handling of wild populations and compassion for the orphaned and injured is not seen as a weakness but rather an essential element of sensitive conservation husbandry. A Naturalist has the advantage of vision unblinkered by scientific constraints and an intrinsic passion for wild unspoilt places where Nature and natural processes rule supreme, and where wild animals enjoy a quality of life untroubled by intrusive management. Naturalists understand that Nature holds the answers to many puzzles and that humans should take the time to look and learn rather than blunder in where angels fear to tread. Nature is complex and every living organism, whether large or small, is intertwined contributing, each in its own way, to the wellbeing of the whole. It has the ability to best correct imbalances caused by artificial boundaries with species adapting to change, and finding their own optimum levels within habitat conditions prevailing at the time. What can exist naturally within artificial boundaries will, and what can't, wont, such limitations being preferable to artificially manipulated situations that impact negatively both on quality of life and the sense of wilderness, quite apart from usually being too costly for Third World resources. Above all, Naturalists bow to the significance of natural selection, viewing it as a vital and necessary process that contributes to the wellbeing of the species. After all, no one knows better than Nature as to who should live and who should die.when the time comes. In other words, when it comes to intrusive management, less is always best.

Tsavo National Park is 8,000 sq. miles in extent. It was established in l948, not because of its wealth of wildlife, but simply because it was a large chunk of country not suitable for either pastoral or agricultural purposes - an inhospitable arid thirstland with an average annual rainfall of between just l0 and and 20 inches; its barren wastes tsetse infested "commiphora" scrub served by only two permanent rivers; the malarial parasite and tsetse borne trypanosomiasis a deterrent to both humans and domestic livestock. Grasses were sparse or absent altogether beneath the dense entanglement of barbed scrub and sanseveria that dominated at that time, and as a result water runoff during the wet seasons produced flash flooding in sand luggas that lay dry for the rest of the year. Then, the habitat favoured the browsing species such as elephant, and black rhino, both of which were present in very large numbers, as were dikdik, lesser kudu and gerenuk. Grazers were few and sparse, but diverse nevertheless. However, the viewing of anything was severely restricted due to the impenetrable wall of bush that gave way reluctantly to every trail.

By fortunate geographical accident, however, the Park just happened to hold a greater variety of different species than any other Park in the world, for there the northern and southern forms of fauna just happened to meet, doubling up on common species. It harboured Peters Gazelle as well as the Common Grant, the Somali ostrich along with the Masai, reticulated forms of giraffe merging into obvious Masai patterning, and, prior to the great rinderpest epidemic of the late l800's which decimated the ungulates, Greater kudu as well as the more common lesser variety and even Sable.

In l948 when the Park first came into being, human pressure had yet to manifest itself along the boundaries, so elephants roamed an ecosystem of l6,000 square miles, twice the size of the Park itself. By the late l960's, however, human expansion and good Park protection brought most of the 45,000 elephants of the ecosystem within the Park's borders, and their impact on the environment became glaringly evident. Damage to the woodland scrub trees at a glance did appear catastrophic, but as the picture unfolded, it became clear that what was first seen as "destruction" was, in fact, no more than a rather untidy phase of a perfectly natural cycle in which scrubland was being recycled to make way for a grassland regime which would benefit the grazers hitherto suppressed. Only the elephant can trigger such change.

Inevitably, there was talk of "culling", but ivory related corruption endemic within the higher echelons of Government called for caution. Furthermore, it had taken the Park authorities the previous two decades to control the illegal poaching of elephants within the Park boundaries by a traditional elephant hunting tribe known as the Waliangulu who would surely have difficulty rationalising why the authorities had the right to slaughter elephants when they had been prevented from doing so. Equally as important was the fact that Kenya was a leader in the psychological aspect of wild animals, and particularly of elephants, so the humane angle was a major consideration. That elephants are essentially "human" in emotion was already known as early as the fifties, (and has recently been scientifically proved through a study of the components of both human and elephant breast milk, both of which contain complex olichosacharides that promote complex brain formation). Like us, elephants "bury" their dead, covering a body with sticks and leaves; they grieve and mourn a lost loved one as deeply as any human, returning to the remains to pay their respects periodically, and for years afterwards. Like us, elephants remember - in fact, they never forget, so they are constantly in touch with friends and loved ones throughout their life.

As humans, we understand the trauma of death, and most of us are familiar with grief. So, consider the grief wrought amongst elephants subjected to an annual "cull"; the trauma of forever being stalked by the threat of death, of annually mourning friends and family and never knowing who is next. It is unacceptable to believe that only humans are worthy of compassion or that the world exists simply for the benefit of mankind. We need a more holistic approach to Nature and the other creatures that have evolved in tandem with us on this planet, all of which fulfil a specific function within the environment.

Of course, The Wardens of the time had the benefit of the South African example as well. They knew that with commercial culling inevitably come Tanning and Meat Processing plants employing a work force that cannot easily be dismissed; contracts and deadlines that have to be met and policy decisions influenced by economics rather than environmental considerations, not to mention the danger posed to visitors by traumatised and wounded animals too fearful to stand for a photograph. Then there is the perennial problem of corruption and greed creeping into the equation with disastrous results.

Fortunately, however, in Tsavo, the controversial "Elephant Debate" was overtaken by events in l970 when a worse than usual drought hit the Park and Nature stepped in to sort things out ahead of man. Subjected to stress due to the shortage of food, natural adjustment of the birth rate began to inhibit recruitment. The cows simply did not conceive. Furthermore, the oldest females of the cow units, the Matriarchs, were the first to feel the affects of malnutrition and as strength ebbed, they took the female family within easy reach of permanent water. There conditions during drought conditions are inevitably harsher, affecting all members of the female herd. Then came the quiet mass die-off of selected female age groups throughout the entire population - a one-off event that saw the loss of almost 9,000 mainly female elephants of specific age groups. This created the generation gaps necessary to relieve the pressure on the land, immediately plunging the elephant population into a long slow decline which relieved the pressure on the land and made way for the regeneration of a new generation of trees. These had, of course, been planted by the elephants themselves in their long range wanderings, deposited far and wide in their dung. The reason that Nature has ordained that female elephants stay bonded together for life now becomes obvious, for in order to put a population into decline, it is the breeding females that must be targeted.

It was all over within three months, at no cost, and with no disruption to other wild communities - no profiteering - just a cataclysmic natural tragedy soon obscured by the mists of time. Only the ivory was removed from the carcasses. In a perfect world this too should have remained where it was, to be recycled back from whence it came. The removal of females from the Tsavo population set the stage for the elephants to achieve a natural equilibrium with the food resource now available to them, bearing in mind that the population had been swelled by unnatural immigration induced by human expansion.

This now poses a question. Surely, in this day and age of sophistication, it must be possible to repeat a natural die-off artificially, using anaesthesia rather than scholine and to remove a selected number of females of selected age groups, as did Nature? A natural die off has to take place, at the most, only once in an elephant's lifetime and this surely must be more humane than an annual cull. Could mankind not sacrifice the meat once in an elephant's lifetime in the interests of good conservation, particularly as there is an over-abundance of domestic livestock badly in need of a cull for environmental reasons. These are the issues that Science should be addressing and especially now that the lay public are better informed about the nature of elephants. Inhumane handling of elephants, and indeed all animals, is becoming anathema.

Elephants are essentially fragile; huge eating machines that require not only a great quantity of vegetation in a day, but also a wide selection of different plants including the bark of trees to provide the trace elements and minerals essential for such a large frame. They are delicate in infancy and by design have been equipped with a surprisingly inefficient digestive system, passing 6% protein in their dung. Once denied the essentials in their diet, they weaken rapidly, which forces them to retreat to sources of permanent water where conditions are inevitably worse. Before all others, they are the first to feel the affects of malnutrition, inducing a condition known as ketosis, which is a painless lethargy caused by lowered blood sugar levels, even when there is food in the stomach. What that food lacks, however, is the quantity and nutritional components needed to maintain strength. The elephants become comatose, spending a lot of time asleep, devoid of energy to move far from water. Inevitably, one day, they simply cannot get up and then the end comes quickly and quietly. They die surrounded by their loved ones who bring comfort and love right up until the end, and who then have time to mourn as they "bury" their dead, comforting each other in their bereavement. (It is this natural die-off that in the past gave rise to the legendary myth of "the elephants' graveyard" when the bones of many elephants were found near sources of permanent water).

Hot on the heels of the Tsavo die-off came the rampant poaching of the seventies and eighties, and this pushed the population rapidly below the optimum downward swing of the natural vegetational seesaw, foreshortening the grassland cycle. This then is the only unnatural event in Tsavo, and one that could impact negatively on the grazers in the long-term since they may not be afforded the time they need to proliferate to the point when they can withstand another woodland cycle. The woodlands are regenerating, and regenerating rapidly, so Tsavo will revert to what it was like when the Park was first proclaimed – dense scrub thicket. Thus, within just l5 years, Tsavo's once over population of elephants became an under population threatened with annihilation. The poaching was now fuelled by in-house greed and corruption forcing the elephants to abandon huge swathes of the Park, too fearful to return for the next 30 years. Ironically they sought shelter around human habitation where the AK 47 and G3 wielding killers could not easily get at them, but this created a different set of problems – that of the so-called "problem elephants". Only the imposition of the Ivory Ban in l989 brought a reprieve and only now, thirty years later, are the elephants beginning to venture back into the interior of the Park.

The role of Elephants is a very crucial one, crucial to the survival of many other species both large and small. They are Nature's Bulldozers, their most important function that of recycling the nutrients and trace elements locked in wood, drawn up out of soil by tree roots over decades. Only when the trees themselves are felled are these rare earths released back into the environment to become available to other plant and animal life less well equipped. No other animal can, for instance, recycle the precious minerals of the giant Baobab, a long lived colossus extremely rich in calcium and trace elements. The debris of trees felled by elephants shield pioneer grasses and shrubs from trampling; deep rooted perennial grasses follow, the grazers proliferate and browsers decline. Natural selection ensures that the gene pool is honed and that the strongest survive in readiness for another thicket phase as elephant numbers fall. Then, if the elephants can be adequately protected, their numbers will rise again in tandem with the regeneration of the woodlands, and this then is the natural order of events - a cyclical vegetational seesaw of woodland to grassland and back to woodland inextricably intertwined with elephant numbers.

It is the elephants who create the trails that benefit all others, roads that not only select the best alignment over difficult terrain, but also unerringly point the way to water, acting as conduits for run-off rainwater directing it to the waterholes and ensuring that they fill more surely and rapidly. Elephants create the waterholes in the first place and enlarge them every time they bathe, carrying away copious quantities of mud plastered on their huge bodies. The puddling action of their giant feet seals the bottom against seepage, so that water lasts longer in the dry seasons benefiting all life and relieving feeding pressures near permanent sources. Elephants also have the ability to expose hidden subsurface supplies buried deep beneath the sands of the dry riverbeds, making it accessible to others by tunnelling at an angle with their trunks. Their sheer weight compresses the sand bringing water closer to the surface as dozens of elephants patiently await their turn to drink from these holes. Were the elephants not there to fulfil this function, all water dependent species would not be able to exist in such places - a case in point being the Tiva river in Tsavo, which literally died faunally when the elephants left.

Elephants provide in other ways too, breaking down branches to bring browse to a lower level, thereby making it accessible to the many smaller creatures that share their world. By felling trees they create the space that allows seedlings to take root and grow uninhibited by their parents' shadow. The very rapid metabolism of an elephant ensures copious quantities of dung, the very life support for the largest scarabs, who roll it into balls and bury it deep below the ground, thereby enriching the soil. The dung also attracts the insects that nourish a host of insectivorous birds, mammals and reptiles and because elephants have such an inefficient digestive system, it is particularly rich.

The Future:- Tsavo provides an example of how Nature controls elephant populations. Whilst the natural die- off of elephant and the build-up to it has been well documented, unfortunately, no in-depth study of the subsequent sequence of events was undertaken, simply because gun brandishing poachers proved a deterrent. However, records and photographic evidence does exist within the Sheldrick Trust's Archives making a retrospective study feasible.

One thing is sure, and that is that CITES which should have prevented the demise of the elephant by controlling the trade has failed in its mandate. Instead it has evolved into a political lobby bent on trade and the endangered species have become mere pawns in a money game. In fact, in the past CITES agents themselves orchestrated the laundering of illegal ivory into a stockpile in Burundi, accepting bribes as a pay-off for the CITES stamp. Now, more than ever, when the elephants are so very vulnerable, their social family fabric torn to tatters, should the world SAY NO TO IVORY, no matter in what form. Each and every one of us can, and should, at least do that. Every piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic animal, that should have lived three score years and ten; who has loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close-knit family akin to our own; but who has suffered and died in unspeakable agony to yield a tooth for a trinket. Something so symbolic of death and suffering can never be beautiful.

© The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust / Choices Wild Limited, 2001 - 2005.