The zoo is in town but African elephants will not be clowning

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 14

The zoo is in town but African elephants will not be clowning

The circus has come to town. All those people doing incredible feats, and all those animals doing funny things that they would never dream of doing if left to themselves. The elephants will no doubt perform a Dumbo ballet, sit on tubs, stand on one leg, and place beautiful, bespangled girls on their heads between those elephant ears. One thing is pretty certain; they will be Indian elephants. The African elephant would create problems of housing, feeding, and transport, he is so much bigger. Also, he is not partial to Dumbo ballet, sitting on tubs, or standing on one leg, and he would be more likely to do the beautiful, bespangled girls bodily harm. Not since the days of the Carthagenians when Hannibal took his war

elephants over the Alps, have African elephants been used to any extent by man for work or war. When the Romans eradicated the Carthagenians from the earth they also wiped out the greatest trainers and tamers of elephants in Africa. “Loxodanta africana” went back to the forest and savannah of virgin Africa. The black Africans regarded him as food; the Arabs, Africans, and outside world as ivory; and, eventually, the white man as sport.

Virgin Africa has dwindled at an incredible rate in the last 100 years. Three million elephant have dropped to approximately 300,000. (It was not all slaughter; when cultivation and progress move in the wild life moves out).

It would be a great pity

if the African elephant artificial game parks for he is truly a unique animal and shows to best advantage in his natural habitat. There are a great many variations, species and sub-species in other animals, but where is there another elephant, or “ele-phant-type” animal? His only variation is in size. The big African elephant, the smaller Indian elephant, and the pigmy elephant — pigmy only by comparison. The elephant can truthfully say: “Here am I, wa’s like me”? The African variety stands 10 to 12 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs five to six tons. When extended, an ear can measure six feet across. He is a vegetarian and eats six to eight hundred weight of food a day. He is short-sighted, but has good hearing and a pow-

erful sense of smell. An elephant in the North Island broke loose from its hobble on one of the days when the temperature was 35 degrees C and made for a nearby creek. It could probably smell the water and thought that was a good place to be on a hot day. Elephants love water. Those big ears contain a lot of blood vessels so the elephant flaps them to create a draught and keep his temperature down. When he spreads his ears straight out like sails — he isn’t loving you too much, and it is best to go — he can charge at 20 miles an hour. He can trot when he is in a hurry or stride out purposefully, but mostly he ambles (or appears to amble). He can do a softshoe shuffle. He can also finished up in zoos and

By

HAZEL KENNY

drift gently through the bush like a grey ghost. His feet are cushioned shock absorbers and can be put down without a sound. It is rather disconcerting to find there are four or five grey ghosts at your back. He is a noisy eater. His tummy rumbles a lot and he pulls down branches to get at the leaves he fancies, snaps boughs, and pushes over saplings. He can be quite a bulldozer. But for all his bulk he is no basso profundo. He screams when enraged. It

is penetrating but highpitched. He has no deep roar like the lion or low cough like the leopard. His sounds are screams and squeals, almost feminine sounds. His trunk is a most useful adjunct. He can use it to pull down the topmost succulent branches, or pick up a stick to spank his offspring: thump his opponent or stuff food into his mouth. It is a vacuum cleaner for sucking up dust to give himself a dust-bath and discourage insects. It is a hose for

drinking and squirting water and it tells him how the wind is blowing and what is in it. When he stretches his trunk straight out be care ful; when lifted in the air it is a warning; but when he both lifts his trunk and fans his ears straight out — get ye gone while there is still time; he has murder in mind.

He spends most of his life on his big flat feet supported by his tree-trunk legs. Even when asleep he stands bolt upright, just shutting his eyes and swaying gently in the breeze. Sometimes he wedges his bottom against a tree but that is his only

concession to sleep. The wild African elephant on the ground is usually a very sick animal and not likeiy to rise again. The herd seem to know this and run around in agitation, trying to get him up. If sick, shot, or injured they will often support him, one on either side, helping him along and keeping him upright at all costs. The elephant even gives birth standing upright and has a long time to wait for it — 22 months is the gestation period. I have used the pronoun, “he” to avoid confusion, but the herd is often led by an old and

experienced cow, who in times of danger will form it into a tight circle. The very young in the middle between their parents legs and the largest animals facing outwards on the perimeter. Only once, that I know of, does the African elephant vary his upright stance and that is in water. He needs water, lots of water, and he loves it very much. He is a good water diviner and in times of drought will dig down through the sand until he gets to moisture. Even a muddy puddle is better than nothing. But when it comes to a waterhole, a river, or a lake then the elephant really

comes into his own. At times an elephant herd behaves sedately, coming down quietly morning and evening to drink. Other times it is" like a pack of third-for-mers just out of school. Rolling, lying down, squealing with delight; squirting water over each other, playing, and giving the funniest and most delightful exhibition of enjoyment one would wish to see.

That is why I hope when Jumbo in the North Island found his creek he was allowed to sit in it for a while, for water is a joy, a delight, and an ecstasy to our largest land animal.