My Addo
My Addo - Accommodation, Information and News from Addo and Kirkwood

www.MyAddo.co.za: From the Finding Beanie Blog:

I visited the Addo for the first time this weekend in anticipation in seeing elephants and bird life. I was not going to get my hopes up on seeing a lion. However, on the road between Marion Baree and the south gate at 10am, we spotted a lioness walking in the road and causing traffic jam. She was walking in a north direction up the road, her eyes shifting to a pair of grazing Kudu not too far off. She was in a down-wind and they obviously had not sensed her yet.

However, it seemed unlikely that she would attempt to take down a kudu on her own. She decided to lazily lie down in the middle of the road, proving good photo opportunities. Then she was on the move again, unperturbed by the vehicles that surrounded her. Her eyes were focused, you could see that she was on the hunt.

We were lucky enough to have her walk right next to our vehicle, and we quickly turned around. She left the road and stood fixated on the bush very close to us. As we got in line with her we saw directly in front of her, was a large warthog. Holding a death stare, she jerked slightly and the warthog was off, crunching of bushes and then the squeals of a little warthog running out of the bush down the road, filled the air with a rush. Everyone waited in anticipation to hear if a successful kill had been made, and a slight pity came over one thinking about the baby who would probably lose its mother.

The circle of life. However, she soon reappeared from the thicket, obviously an unsuccessful attempt. We watched her for a few minutes as she stalked back into the bush leaving everyone enthralled. I tried to identify her with the pictures that were posted, but I just wanted to ask if I am correct in assuming that this is Gina? I also wanted to ask if anyone else thinks that she could be pregnant, as she has a swollen belly and was hunting alone?

Photograph on Finding Beanie

www.MyAddo.co.za: From cellphones to elephants

FIVE years ago Walter Gwarada was stuck in the office every day, but chance and an impatient American turned him into the “elephant whisperer” of Addo.

Gwarada, who came to South Africa in 2003 after working in information technology at a Zimbabwean cellphone operator in Harare, was hired as a manager for a fledgling private game reserve in Addo, where there was an American brought in to train three tame elephants from Knysna to do safaris.

But after four weeks the American had deserted, saying it couldn’t be done and Gwarada convinced the reserve’s owners to give him a shot.

In three months, Gwarada had the three male elephants, called Mukwa – at four-and-a-half tons the biggest of the three – Duma and Thaba, eating out of his hand, literally.

“With an elephant you’ve got to build trust so you can approach him without fear as he can pick the fear up,” said Gwarada.”

“The best way to build trust is with food – not the whip. Yes, you reprimand them but with reasonable force like you do with children. You say “quit it” if he’s doing something he shouldn’t.”

Gwarada developed a system of food rewards for the elephants – especially fruit such as oranges and apples – to get them to allow people to ride them and follow 15 to 20 simple commands such as “go” and “stop”, “left” and “right”.

“It was very scary when I first got on Mukwa's back. I thought he was going to run away with me,” said Gwarada, remembering a breakthrough moment in 2004.

Soon Gwarada – who has now stepped back from working directly with the three elephants to be the reserve’s marketing manager – needed trained elephant handlers and he turned to Zimbabwe, where elephant safaris were pioneered.

Now there are six trained handlers – mostly Zimbabwean – working at the reserve and it has grown to become an upmarket lodge called Addo Elephant Back Safaris and Lodges that can sleep 20 people.

The elephants can do up to three safaris a day – with no more than two people plus a handler on their backs – and in between they roam around and forage in the 1000-hectare reserve and wallow in two watering holes.

Two handlers must stay with them when they head off into the bush foraging so they don’t lose them and they sleep in an enormous purpose-built hangar at night.

The elephant safaris are done for the lodge guests and day-trippers.

Duma, Thaba and Mukwa also have an interesting tale to tell.

They were born in the Kruger National Park and escaped a cull by being bought by a Knysna private game reserve owner, who is also part owner of the Addo reserve. In Knysna they were tamed and then brought to the Addo area.

They are all between 18 and 21 years, and they will be maturing sexually at about 25, so Gwarada is looking around for two females. If they don’t mate, they will become frustrated and aggressive.

The reserve, however, does not intend to grow its population as one elephant needs between 250ha and 300ha in which to roam and feed.

Gwarada has come to know the three big guys well and says they have distinct personalities.

Duma, for instance, is something of a peacemaker when the other two start getting a bit rough as they are mock fighting.

“I never thought I’d be doing something like this,” said Gwarada, “but I’ve developed a passion for them and now I could never do anything else.”

Source: GILL MOODIE, Daily Despatch

www.MyAddo.co.za: Addo Elephant National Park's lion population has swelled by one following the birth of a cub, now about two months old, to Kamkwa, the oldest of the lionesses in the Park.

The cub has been seen following its mother, usually accompanied by her first female offspring named Gina, in the area of the Park known as Wayne's Valley. A number of visitors, rangers and guides have reported sightings of the cub since it was about one month old. It is unusual that a lioness will allow her cub to accompany her from such a young age. The latest addition brings the number of lions in the Park to twelve: double the number of lions originally introduced to the Park. The cubs of Ardlam – a male and a female - are now one and a half years old.

The lions' fiercest competitors, spotted hyena, are also doing well in the Park, with numbers estimated at over 20. Eight spotted hyena were originally introduced to the Park in 2003 and 2004. Visitors have also spotted hyena and their cubs periodically, especially at a den site located in the area between Rooidam and Gwarrie Pan.

www.MyAddo.co.za: SCIENTISTS have developed new technology that allows researchers working in game reserves to analyse the dung of animals on site.

South African National Parks said the technological breakthrough was made by Smithsonian National Zoological Park scientists in the US.

Previously, researchers had to use a complicated technique with specialised equipment, and dung samples had to be exported to the US for analysis. Now researchers can use a field kit that analyses hormones in fresh dung in the field.

SANParks said dung samples were a powerful tool because they provided information on sex, DNA, reproductive status, stress levels, diet and health.

Researchers in Addo Elephant National Park were using the technique to test for various hormones in elephant dung to build a more detailed picture of how the Addo elephant population functions.

Some of the topics researchers will focus on are the onset of sexual maturity, the occurrence of ovulation and pregnancy, foetal abortion and the effect of dominance on reproductive cycles.

“Questions such as whether dominance of an elephant cow affects her oestrous periods, and the length of time between successive calves, and whether rainfall patterns influence conception and birthing intervals will be asked,” SANParks said.

The dung analysis technique will also be used on Addo‘s rhino populations.

“The collection of information from the dung of this often elusive animal will significantly aid monitoring of the health and reproductive status of what is a critically endangered species,” SANParks said.

Another focus of research on Addo‘s elephants was on the sexual dimorphism of the juveniles. From as young as two years, male and female elephants begin to show different types of behaviour, practising for their adult roles.

“Males begin to engage in mock-fighting and independent behaviour, while females tend to engage in mothering roles and focus on cementing family bonds.”

There are 450 elephants in the Addo Park.

Source: Herald Online

A YOUNG leopard caught in a cable snare on a farm outside Uitenhage has been rescued and released into the Addo Elephant National Park.

Predator research organisation Landmark Foundation director Bool Smuts said the 21kg immature male cat had been discovered by a farm worker last Thursday.

Smuts said: “Fortunately, the thickness of the cable prevented it cutting into the skin of the animal and it caught it around the midriff. It suffered no debilitating injuries and could be released immediately.

He said because of the animal‘s size, it could not be fitted with a GPS collar as future growth could have resulted in his strangulation.

“The lack of a collar on his release does hamper our tracking of him and his continued well-being. However, we hope to get some data from foot patrols and infra-red camera traps in the area of his release.”

Smuts said the leopard was saved by the speedy response of a farm worker, the farmer, the local police and veterinarian Dr Anton Kruger, of Uitenhage.

The leopard was found very close to the northern part of town, near the road leading to Graaff-Reinet.

“We have very little data on how many leopards are still roaming in the Uitenhage area, hence the Landmark Foundation predator research project.

“Although until now our research concentrated on predators in the Baviaanskloof area, we are encouraged that the word is spreading that the foundation can help with leopard rescue and related matters almost anywhere in the Eastern and Southern Cape,” he said.

The Landmark Foundation, in collaboration with Eastern Cape department of economic development and environmental affairs, and SANParks were then able to arrange the successful release into the Kuzuko contractual reserve area of the Addo Elephant National Park.

“Although the farmer had not suffered losses from predation, because of the number of poachers‘ snares found on his farm he insisted the animal be moved to a place of safety, which the authorities agreed to, and the animal was moved to Addo.”

The leopard was the fourth healthy rescued cat to be released into Addo through the Landmark Foundation project. All the transferred animals have so far thrived and remained in the area.

“We are heartened by the ever- expanding collaboration among landowners, their labourers, police, other animal rights activists and conservationists, and more than 10 local veterinarians,” said Smuts.

By Athane Scholtz, The Herald

For more than a decade, the dark depths of the Knysna forest have been a lonely outpost for the last survivor of South Africa's once great forest elephant herds.

The eventual death of this elephant, an elderly female called the Matriarch, would mean the country's last free-roaming elephant would finally join the Knysna buffalo, which once also roamed this forest, on the extinction list.

Or so it was thought - until now.

Recent groundbreaking research, using elephant dung, has revealed that five previously unknown female elephants, possibly the Matriarch's offspring, are living in the expanse of the lush forest nestled in the Southern Cape.

'For years there was just one old female out there'
"Things were so bleak and dismal in the past," says Gareth Patterson, who, together with US conservation geneticist Lori Eggert, made the discovery, details of which were published recently in the prestigious African Journal of Ecology.

"For years there was just one old female out there," says Patterson. "That was going to be the end of the Knysna elephants. Shoo, it was too enormously sad. We thought: what have we done [as human beings]? Now there's real optimism and hope."

Patterson's earlier work with lions and with George Adamson of Born Free fame earned him the title of "Father of the Lions" in Botswana. But although the plight of the African lion was his focus, "elephants were always in the background", he says.

He moved to the outskirts of the Knysna forest seven years ago, determined to learn more about the elusive elephants that lumber like ghosts in the forest.

The San - the first chroniclers of the elephants - depicted them in their rock art, and thought of them as a source of power for shamans. Much later, generations of South Africans were enchanted by their battle with humans for survival in Dalene Matthee's Circles in a Forest.

It has been estimated that there would have been as many as 100 000 of the creatures today - were it not for the onslaught of ivory hunters during 1790 and 1890, who decimated them in their thousands. By 1994 it was widely believed that only the Matriarch remained.

"When I came here I looked at the size of the forest, which is a vast, unfenced area. I thought to myself: 'How is it known that there's only one elephant left in this massive area?'

"The popular perception still exists that they are restricted to the forest - I saw evidence pretty early on that there was more than one elephant. I was finding young adult elephants by their tracks and, on top of that, evidence of elephants beyond the forest and in the mountain fynbos."

This, he says, shows how incredibly adaptable elephants are in a range of habitats, which is "amazing, considering their size and diet".

Patterson has traversed thousands of kilometres of the forest, fynbos mountainsides and forestry plantations on foot, interpreting spoor and elephant dung of the world's southernmost elephants.

"The area is large and the elephants are few. Tracking in these conditions is very difficult. In the forest and even in other areas where the elephants roam, visibility is limited," he says.

"If an elephant freezes up and stands completely still, it becomes almost invisible, particularly in the dense forest areas."

Patterson was inspired by the "exciting" work of Eggert, of the University of Missouri-Columbia, with forest elephant populations in West Africa. Eggert had developed a genetic census technique for forest elephants, using DNA extracted from dung samples as a way to manage dangerous and secretive species.

The fibrous vegetation that elephants eat continuously scrapes cells from the intestine, which makes dung a reliable source of DNA. This "genotyping" can reveal the numbers of individuals and sexes, how the animals are related and the level of genetic diversity.

"Lori's method was well suited to the conditions here," says Patterson. "It was not disruptive or stressful, as sightings of the elephants were not required."

Patterson spent nearly a year gathering elephant dung, sending it to Eggert in the US for DNA analysis. Her results were astonishing.

Eggert explains: "The results show there are five different genotypes, or individuals, present in the samples. It also showed that they were all females.

"By looking at the genetic similarity of the genotypes, it revealed that the females were likely to be related. The possible presence of a male is intriguing, but we didn't detect him. I'd really like to believe that a bull is present, and I believe more study will be needed," says Eggert.

Patterson is thrilled. "It's a reason for cautious hope. Theirs [the elephants'] is a most remarkable story of survival against formidable odds."

But the research on the newfound elephants is seemingly at odds with the findings of SA National Parks, which manages the Knysna forest and says its evidence - based on photographs and sightings - point to only one female elephant, the Matriarch.

"But we do not exclude the possibility that there might be more in the area," says spokesperson Wanda Mkutshulwa. "All the photographic records we have collected over a number of years seem to derive from only one elephant. The last recent sighting by [elephant researcher] Hylton Herd is considered to be the same animal we usually encounter."

Herd, who works in the forest, says: "We're not against Gareth. We know they've done their research. But it's hard for us who are in the forest every day to believe this.

"Five elephants would leave lots of dung and cause lots of havoc, and we're just not seeing that. Either they're elephantoms or spook elephants," he laughs. "But these findings encourage us even more to get out and see the truth … We never realised how accurate dung analysis could be."

Patterson has encountered the elephants up close, but says it was never his quest to have a sighting.

"A sighting is so limited in what it can tell you. It is no good unless you get a photo, and a photo is no good unless it can tell you something. Photography is not an exact science - the same individual [elephant] can look different. There's also the danger and disruptive factor," he says.

"These findings will come as a big shock to some who thought they were doomed. But I think the public is over the moon," says Patterson, who adds there could be more elephants in the wild.

But there is a concern about their genetic longevity. "The size of this population has been small for a long time - breeding between related individuals reduces the genetic variability of the population and increases the chances that harmful recessive genes will be expressed.

"It reduces the probability that individuals will have the genes needed to adapt to changes in the environment, such as new parasites and diseases, or even changes in climate or available food plants," says Eggert.

One way to alleviate genetic stasis - and protect the elephants, who now have a range of private, commercial and state land - is through the creation of protected wildlife corridors.

"We need to identify the corridors they are using now," says Patterson. "Protecting these corridors protects not only the elephants but a myriad other species, and the habitat they all depend on.

"There's no long-term future for them unless there's a certain amount of free movement. But obviously it can never be like it was in the past."

He salutes initiatives that open up wildlife corridors, like the Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative, which aims to create a "living corridor" between the Eden district and the Greater Addo Elephant Park.

Founder Joan Berning says landowners adjoining the Garden of Eden, earmarked to be part of the corridor, seem to be happy that elephants will "march over their land".

"This will allow a greater range for the five or more Knysna elephants," she says.

But the future is uncertain for the legendary elephants. "Despite our discovery, there's no getting away from the fact they're fragile and endangered," says Patterson. There are so few in the bigger picture.

"These are iconic elephants. They're such a potent symbol in our country and mean so many things to different sectors of our population. They're a romantic link to the past! These are elephants that have somehow come back from the brink. We've got to think of the future now," he says.

Source: IOL

The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the better-known and larger of the two species of African elephants. Both it and the African Forest Elephant were previously classified as a single species, known simply as the African Elephant. It is also known as the Bush Elephant or Savanna Elephant.

Description

The African Bush Elephant is the largest land dwelling animal, normally reaches 6 to 7.3 meters (19.7 to 24.0 feet) in length and 3 to 3.5 meters (9.8 to 11.5 feet) in height. Weighing between 7,000 and 10,000 kg (15,000-22,000 lb), it is the largest land animal in the world. The largest specimen on record, shot in Angola in 1955, was a bull weighing in at 12,274 kg (27,000 lb) and standing 4.2 meters (13.8 feet) high, the body of which is now mounted in the rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.. The Bush Elephant normally moves at a rate of 6 km/h (4 mph), but it can reach a top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) when scared or upset.

The African Bush Elephant is characterized by its large head; two large ears that cover its shoulders and radiate excess heat; a large and muscular trunk; two prominent tusks, which are well-developed in both sexes, although more commonly in males; a short neck; a large, barrel-like body; four long and heavy legs that resemble columns; and a relatively short tail.

The African Bush Elephant is protected by a heavy but flexible layer of gray-brown skin, dotted with mostly undeveloped patches of hair and long, black hair at the tip of its tail. Its back feet have three toes that form a hoof, while the number of toes on the front feet have varied between four and five, in different instances. The front is smoother and less convex than that of the Asian Elephant.

The trunk is the most characteristic feature of the African Bush Elephant. It is formed by the fusion and elongation of the nose and upper lip, forming a flexible and strong organ made purely of muscle.

Relatively little scientific research has been carried out into elephants' cognitive or perceptual abilities. An exception is a recent report that African elephants are able to use seismic vibrations at infrasound frequencies for communication.

Diet

African elephants are herbivorous. The diet of the African Bush Elephant varies according to its habitat; elephants living in forests, partial deserts, and grasslands all eat different proportions of herbs and tree or shrubbery leaves. In order to break down the plants they consume, the African Bush Elephant has four large molars, two in each mandible of the jaw. Each of these molars is 10 cm wide and 30 cm long. Over time, these molars are worn away and new ones are grown to replace them as the elephant ages. Around the age of 15 their milk teeth are replaced by new ones that last until the age of 30, and then by another set which wear off past the age of 40, being replaced by the last set of teeth that last approximately until the age of 65–70. Not much later, the animal dies of starvation from not being able to feed correctly. There are known cases of over 80 year old specimens in captivity.

The African Bush Elephant typically ingest an average of 225 kg of vegetal matter daily, which is defecated without being fully digested. That, combined with the long distances that they can cover daily in search of more food, contributes notably to the dispersion of many plant seeds that germinate in the middle of a nutrient-filled feces mound. In their feeding-oriented whereabouts, elephants rip apart all kind of plants, and knock down trees with the tusks if they are not able to reach the tree leaves not even standing up straight, as actual living bulldozers. It can be said that they carry devastation with them. That causes deep trouble for other species and to the elephants themselves in national parks where there is overpopulation, so that managers of overpopulated parks often contact other parks with fewer specimens to transfer excess individuals.

Elephants also drink great quantities of water, over 190 liters per day.

Social behaviour

The African Bush Elephant is a notably intelligent animal. In fact, experiments about reasoning and learning applied on them show that they are the smartest ungulates together with their Asian cousins. This is mostly due to their large brain.

Herds are made up of related females and their younglings of assorted ages, directed by the eldest female, called the matriarch. Infrequently, an adult male goes with them, but those usually leave the pack when reaching adolescence to form herds with other elephants of the same age. Later, they spread out, carrying out a lonely life, approaching the female herds only during the mating season. Nevertheless, elephants don't get too far from their families and recognise them when re-encountered. Sometimes, several female herds can blend for a period of time, reaching even hundreds of individuals.

The matriarch is the one who decides the route and shows to each other member of the herd all the water sources she knows, which the rest will memorize in the future. The relations among the members of the herd is very tight; when a female gives birth to a baby the rest go to acknowledge it touching her with the trunk; and when an old elephant dies the rest of the herd will stay by the corpse for a while. The famous elephant graveyards are a myth, but it is true that these animals can recognise a carcass of its species when they find one during their trips, and even if it is a stranger, they form around it and sometimes they even touch its forehead with their trunk.

Mating happens when the female feels ready, an event that can occur anytime during the year. When she is ready, she starts emitting infrasounds that attract the males, sometimes many kilometers away. The adult males start arriving to the herd during the following days and begin fighting head-to-head between them, causing some injuries and even broken tusks. The female shows her acceptance of the victor by rubbing her body against his. They mate, and then both go their own way. After 22 months of gestation (the longest among mammals), the female gives birth to a single 90 cm high calf which weighs more than 100 kg. The baby feeds on the mothers milk until the age of 5, but also eats solid food from as early as 6 months old. Just a few days after birth the calf can follow the herd by foot, and so the herd resumes its course.

Some African Bush Elephants will attack and kill rhinoceroses. This behaviour, when it occurs, is mostly observed with younger adult male elephants who have come into musth prematurely.

Predators

The adult African Bush Elephant lacks natural predators thanks to its great size, but the calves (especially the newborn) are vulnerable to lion and crocodile attacks, and, much more rarely, leopard and hyena attacks. Adult females of a group will attack approaching predators. Predation, as well as drought, contribute significantly to infant mortality.

Humans are the African Bush Elephant's major predator. Elephants have been hunted for meat as well as the rest of the body, including skin, bones, and tusks. Elephant trophy-hunting increased in the 19th and 20th centuries, when tourism and plantations increasingly attracted sport hunters. In 1989, hunting of the African elephant and ivory trading were forbidden, after the elephant population fell from several million at the beginning of the 20th century to fewer than 700,000. The population of African elephants was halved during the 1980s. Scientists then estimated that, if no protective measures were taken, the wild elephant would be extinct by 1995. The protection that the elephant now receives has been partially successful, but despite increasingly severe penalties imposed by governments against illegal hunting, poaching is still common. CITES still considers this species as threatened with extinction.

Species differences

The African elephant genus Loxodonta is composed of two species, the African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). The African Forest Elephant has a longer and narrower mandible, rounder ears, a different number of toenails, different tusks, and considerably smaller size.

Another possible species (or subspecies) existed, but it has not been recognised yet as it by the scientific community: The North African Elephant (Loxodonta pharaonensis), also known as Carthaginian Elephant or Atlas Elephant. This species, extinct nowadays, lived between the Magreb and the Nile mouth, and had a smaller size than the Savanna Elephant, probably similar to the Forest Elephant. It is also possible that it was more docile than the Savanna Elephant, letting the Carthaginians tame it with an unknown method. To this species belonged the elephants with whom Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps in order to invade Italy during the Second Punic War. These elephants were also trained and used by the Ptolemies of Egypt. The historian Polybius (Histories 5.83) describes their inferiority in battle against the larger Indian elephants used by the Seleucid kings. A remaining Ptolemaic inscription does in fact speak about three types of war elephants, the Troglodytic (probably Libyan) and Ethiopian, as well as Indian. The Ptolemaic king prides himself with being the first to tame the Ethiopian elephants, a stock which should be identical to one of the two extant African species.

After the conquest of Sicily, the Romans seemed to gain interest in capturing some specimens that have been left behind in the middle of the island, but failed eventually. The species must have become extinct some decades after the Roman conquest of North Africa.

Conservation

While the species is designated as vulnerable, conditions vary somewhat by region within eastern and southern Africa. For example, The 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter in southeastern Chad refers to a series of poaching massacres of African elephants in the vicinity of Zakouma National Park. These killings have been documented in aerial surveys conducted from May through August of 2006 and total at least 100 animals.[4] This region has a four decade history of illegal killing of this species; in fact, the Chad population was over 300,000 animals as recently as 1970 and has been reduced to approximately 10,000 as of 2006. The African elephant nominally has Chadian governmental protection, but the implementation practices of the government (backed with certain EU help) has been insufficient to stem the slaughter by poachers.

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: Loxodonta
Species: L. africana
Binomial name: Loxodonta africana

Much of this article courtesy of Wikipedia