ELEPHANTS LIKE THEM

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 19

ELEPHANTS LIKE THEM

Giraffe-proof telegraph poles are the latest innovation in Kenya and Tanganyika territories along the Equator, says the San Francisco ‘ Chronicle.’ The long-neckcd brutes, with a- head reach of anything up to fifteen or twenty feet, 'have been playing tho mischief with the land lines in those districts where the animal is still plentiful. Engineers in those colonies have been much troubled about the giraffe’s habit of rubbing against the telegraph, and telephone wires. For this reason a series of poles extending from Mombassa inland through regions where big game is not yet gone will now bo replaced by steel poles of unusual height, entirely beyond the roach even of these lofty creatures. In Ovamboland, a wild part to the north of South-west Africa, the Union’s mandated territory, there are complaints of an unusual destructiveness by elephants. They have been coming out of the bush, a continuation of the Angola wilderness, and are entering settled territory. The result is a multitude of poles standing askew and only to be put right again at considerable cost. It is suggested that the supports should be anchored in “elephant-proof ” cement, but the cost is excessive. The native thief who takes copper telegraph wire has revived his activities, and tho _ linesmen on obscurer routes complain of breakages. Police punishments are severe, and the tribesman caught with ornaments of telegraph wire is in for a severe sentence.