ARMY OF ELEPHANTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

ARMY OF ELEPHANTS

ELEPHANTS AT SCHOOL These big fellows are being trained as , circus performers.

In East Afr Game W Are Wonde Where Th Hordes From UGANDA'S, game warden, Captain Pitman, -who is the lord protector of East Africa's big game, is sorely troubled about my lord the elephant. This intractable giant, who is a destroyer of the crops of Uganda, and will attack their native owners with deadly effect if they stand in his way, is increasing in numbers. The elephants are overrunning Uganda. They burst out in hordes from the Bunyoro game reserve and a small army of patrols has to be alert to keep them back or drive them back. Every

year more than 2000 elephants have to be got rid of in one way or other. But, says Captain Pitman, for every elephant that dies, two appear mysteriously to replace it. A point has been reached when the gamo wardens can just hold their own, and no more, against this army of elephants. It is quite impossible to explain from where the vast concourse comes. Attempts have been made in the Congo to form an elephant training school, where elephants learn to work, as in India, but the Congo experiment has hot spread elsewhere. The African elephant remains a burden on the ratepayer and the enemy of the poor agriculturist. Unusual Sight A milder picture of the elephant is afforded by Mr. J. P. Birch, who was a witness of the unusual sight of an elephant swimming across the Nile. He saw it from a launch and the elephant had a curious roll as it swam. The launch had to reduce speed to avoid a collision. The natives thought there was a sandbar across the Nile to serve it as a guide, but they had never seen an elephant cross. Elephants do cross the Nile lower down the river, but this is generally by the natural bridge formed by the accumulation of weeds, the Nile sudd.