On our recent trip to Lake Manyara National Park, we had our closest and scariest encounter with an elephant. I'll preface this by saying that we've had several elephant encounters (over 20?) over the course of our time here, and Ana being a wildlife biologist is pretty informed on animal behavior in general, so we're not just total idiots going out in the wild (or so I'd like to think). I'll start by saying our initial elephant encounters have all encouraged the romantic idea that elephants are majestic and awe inspiring. There is a particular national park here, Tarangire National Park, that is full of very tame elephants that can get right up next to your car. The first couple times we saw elephants here was at that park and I think it instilled a false sense of security in us.
Recently we've had a few elephant interactions with elephants that have had a bit more experience with humans, ie. raiding their crops or under pressure from poachers. Now, elephants are very smart and they also have very sharp memories. An elephant that lazes around in a national park all day will obviously be a bit different than one that raids maize at night and gets chased by angry villagers.
So the first tense interaction was a couple months ago at Arusha National Park, located near the big city of Arusha. It was the first time we had seen elephants in the park and also the first time we had elephants run from us. We approached an elephant on the road and as soon as it smelled us (they have poor eyesight but great smell) it let out a startled bellow, flapped its ears, and turned around to hide in the bush. We backed up a good distance and I got on top of our car and I got a good view of two elephants hidden among the trees with one using its trunk like a periscope to smell if we were gone or not. They were obviously uncomfortable and it felt weird to have caused them to panic.
The next tense interaction was at Tarangire National Park but on the border of the park and non-park land. It was also during the time when elephants give birth so there were loads of tiny baby elephants, barely visible because they hide between their two larger parents. This interaction was pretty startling because we approached a large group of elephants and one immediately started to square up with us and kind of sway from side to side while tip-toeing backwards. It trumpeted out and I hit reverse as fast as I possibly could. It truly felt like a warning and luckily we had enough distance between us so we backed up and let them pass. An elephant trumpeting is likely pretty cool in a controlled environment, but when it's coming from an elephant squared up with you and your vehicle staring you in the eye, it is scary as all hell. So the lesson learned was to be careful with animals on the border of the national parks as well as be careful when the babies are super tiny.
At this point I should mention that I also went to a national park in October when I went to Uganda. I stayed at a hotel in the middle of the park and early the next morning I took a taxi about an hour to the main road in order to catch a bus. The driver I was with was petrified when we ran into a group of elephants as he said they were quite hostile and had flipped over a car full of Indians the week before. We had actually stopped to take a picture and when we turned off the engine we heard a slow leak of a flat tire and pandemonium ensued as we tried to change the tire before the elephants moved in on us (they were grazing towards us). That's a wholenother story but just some more context...
During our recent visit to Lake Manyara National Park by around 3pm we had visited the last place we wanted to check out. I was in great spirits and feeling good about driving the 1 1/2 hours out of the park at a reasonable pace. Ana and I were both a little tired (we safari HARD) but in general we were in good spirits. As we pulled onto the main road we saw a single elephant eating some grass, about 10m from our car. We had only seen two other elephants that day and they were hidden among some trees, so we took some time to observe it. I always love hearing the crunching of leaves, grunting, and breathing of the huge animal. It's amazing to just sit there and watch them and I found myself having one of those idyllic deep appreciation for nature moments. This state of mind was quickly shattered by the shaking of a tree about 10m to the side of us, and a half-jogging elephant with his penis erect and his ears out. I've watched a bunch of Youtube videos and it was something like this video at :30. I had turned off the car and I decided that if this thing really was charging, our top speed in reverse wouldn't be fast enough to outrun it and we were at a funny angle whereby I thought we had more space to pass on its side but it felt like we were almost charging head on with it. I instinctively turned on the car and gunned it, aiming for the right side of where the elephant was coming. I figured we were slightly more agile than him and by the time he would turn and try to get us, we'd have passed. Turns out that when we were just about passing maybe 8m from him, he got startled and retreated back lightly. When we pulled in front of him and around a small bend, we saw over a dozen other elephants, many males with their penises erect and the commotion causing them to all bellow and move around all agitated. I basically booked it as fast as I could, scanning the trees for any that might pop out.
We later learned these elephants were in "musth" which is a hormonal phase where they basically get all horny and juiced up. We likely encountered a younger male that probably couldn't compete with older males so he was looking to take out some dominance on us (or more likely, just display this). All the animal behavior literature we read says elephants more than often do "demonstration charges" but all equally emphasize that it's never certain that it's not the real thing. One of our ecology books says "Signs of uncertainty and ambivalence preceding charge, especially displacement activities, are indications of a demonstration charge rather than a real charge--but don't count on it!".
We learned the lesson to be much more mindful of where other elephants are and what their condition is when we are in a wooded or bushy area. I talked to a few of my friends that run safari companies and they all emphasized to never turn the car off around elephants and rhinos that you are unfamiliar with. Consider this experience a lesson learned!!!
Recently we've had a few elephant interactions with elephants that have had a bit more experience with humans, ie. raiding their crops or under pressure from poachers. Now, elephants are very smart and they also have very sharp memories. An elephant that lazes around in a national park all day will obviously be a bit different than one that raids maize at night and gets chased by angry villagers.
So the first tense interaction was a couple months ago at Arusha National Park, located near the big city of Arusha. It was the first time we had seen elephants in the park and also the first time we had elephants run from us. We approached an elephant on the road and as soon as it smelled us (they have poor eyesight but great smell) it let out a startled bellow, flapped its ears, and turned around to hide in the bush. We backed up a good distance and I got on top of our car and I got a good view of two elephants hidden among the trees with one using its trunk like a periscope to smell if we were gone or not. They were obviously uncomfortable and it felt weird to have caused them to panic.
The next tense interaction was at Tarangire National Park but on the border of the park and non-park land. It was also during the time when elephants give birth so there were loads of tiny baby elephants, barely visible because they hide between their two larger parents. This interaction was pretty startling because we approached a large group of elephants and one immediately started to square up with us and kind of sway from side to side while tip-toeing backwards. It trumpeted out and I hit reverse as fast as I possibly could. It truly felt like a warning and luckily we had enough distance between us so we backed up and let them pass. An elephant trumpeting is likely pretty cool in a controlled environment, but when it's coming from an elephant squared up with you and your vehicle staring you in the eye, it is scary as all hell. So the lesson learned was to be careful with animals on the border of the national parks as well as be careful when the babies are super tiny.
At this point I should mention that I also went to a national park in October when I went to Uganda. I stayed at a hotel in the middle of the park and early the next morning I took a taxi about an hour to the main road in order to catch a bus. The driver I was with was petrified when we ran into a group of elephants as he said they were quite hostile and had flipped over a car full of Indians the week before. We had actually stopped to take a picture and when we turned off the engine we heard a slow leak of a flat tire and pandemonium ensued as we tried to change the tire before the elephants moved in on us (they were grazing towards us). That's a wholenother story but just some more context...
During our recent visit to Lake Manyara National Park by around 3pm we had visited the last place we wanted to check out. I was in great spirits and feeling good about driving the 1 1/2 hours out of the park at a reasonable pace. Ana and I were both a little tired (we safari HARD) but in general we were in good spirits. As we pulled onto the main road we saw a single elephant eating some grass, about 10m from our car. We had only seen two other elephants that day and they were hidden among some trees, so we took some time to observe it. I always love hearing the crunching of leaves, grunting, and breathing of the huge animal. It's amazing to just sit there and watch them and I found myself having one of those idyllic deep appreciation for nature moments. This state of mind was quickly shattered by the shaking of a tree about 10m to the side of us, and a half-jogging elephant with his penis erect and his ears out. I've watched a bunch of Youtube videos and it was something like this video at :30. I had turned off the car and I decided that if this thing really was charging, our top speed in reverse wouldn't be fast enough to outrun it and we were at a funny angle whereby I thought we had more space to pass on its side but it felt like we were almost charging head on with it. I instinctively turned on the car and gunned it, aiming for the right side of where the elephant was coming. I figured we were slightly more agile than him and by the time he would turn and try to get us, we'd have passed. Turns out that when we were just about passing maybe 8m from him, he got startled and retreated back lightly. When we pulled in front of him and around a small bend, we saw over a dozen other elephants, many males with their penises erect and the commotion causing them to all bellow and move around all agitated. I basically booked it as fast as I could, scanning the trees for any that might pop out.
We later learned these elephants were in "musth" which is a hormonal phase where they basically get all horny and juiced up. We likely encountered a younger male that probably couldn't compete with older males so he was looking to take out some dominance on us (or more likely, just display this). All the animal behavior literature we read says elephants more than often do "demonstration charges" but all equally emphasize that it's never certain that it's not the real thing. One of our ecology books says "Signs of uncertainty and ambivalence preceding charge, especially displacement activities, are indications of a demonstration charge rather than a real charge--but don't count on it!".
We learned the lesson to be much more mindful of where other elephants are and what their condition is when we are in a wooded or bushy area. I talked to a few of my friends that run safari companies and they all emphasized to never turn the car off around elephants and rhinos that you are unfamiliar with. Consider this experience a lesson learned!!!
Dude! That is wild stuff. Glad to hear your made it out. Best safe out there brother-
ReplyDelete