Rick is currently in Africa to see elephants. Read his previous blog, Botswana: Adventures Begin!
May 5, 2009 (Tuesday morning)
At this point I have lost track of the days and time is measured only by the sun coming up or going down. I love it. Every adventure thus far has all blurred together into one remarkable experience, and today has simply doubled the awe and amazement I have for Chobe National Park.
Last night’s symphony was highlighted by more hyena calls and lions calling back and forth. Hippos were near camp too, making their calls and foraging on the plants near by. Early in the morning, around 4 a.m., I heard a male impala snorting and calling near by. Though he sounded like he was right outside of my tent, I found his track to be about 60 or 70 feet away, near the campfire.
Today we set out right away with lunches, water, and a day’s worth of supplies packed in the Land Rover. We mapped things out and planned on covering at least 250 kilometers, (about 155 miles).
The drive took us to the far western boarder of the Chobe National Park where it meets a forest preserve. There is a fire-break trail that is basically bulldozed by the government every two years that runs north/south for the most part. It also happens to mark the border line between the Chobe National Park and the forest preserve.
I am not sure how long we drove; it seemed to be at least a few hours of bumping around in the Land Rover. We headed toward the area that was well known by Mike and Kelly, of Elephants Without Borders, to have several pans (watering holes) where they knew the elephants would be. Along the way we did see elephant footprints and dung but nothing more. Kelly continued to monitor the radio antenna in hopes of catching signals from one of the collared elephants, but no luck.
Then a few more miles down the trail we saw about seven elephants drinking from a pan. We slowed but they heard us and smelled us as we were up wind from them. With trunks pointing toward us, they signaled they were not pleased with what they smelled, so they turned and disappeared into the mopane tree, (sounds like: moe-pawn-ee). Mike said not to worry, and he positioned the Land Rover on the downwind side, shut it down, and we all climbed out.
The African elephant bull soon caught our scent.
We quietly walked with our camera gear to the edge of the pan, and sure enough we were treated to a family of elephants slowly making their way back to the pan. Youngsters played in the water to the point of climbing on each other, rolling around in the water and fully submerged. A large bull came to the edge of the water right across from where Shea and I had set up. The bull then started to walk around the perimeter of the pan slowly coming our way. A rather interesting sensation comes over one when you think you are about to surprise a full-grown bull elephant. I looked at Mike, who was a few yards away, and pointed to our very large new friend. He calmly whispered, “No worries, he’ll turn around as soon as he smells us.” And with that, Mike went back to looking through his binoculars at the youngsters playing in the water. I turned back to watch the big bull and sure enough, as soon as he was downwind from us he stopped in his tracks, stretched his trunk out to smell the air, fully fanned out his ears, and paused. Only able to smell us, but not see us, he did an about-face and walked to the other side of the pan and disappeared into the trees.
Once we had seen all we thought we could see at that pan we moved on, driving for another hour deep into a teak tree forest – very beautiful. We continued to have no luck finding the collared elephants we were looking for, so we stopped in the forest for lunch. Setting up the tailgate of the Land Rover as our picnic table, we enjoyed the sounds of the birds and other animals as we ate.
To support our elephant conservation work in Africa and learn more, visit the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy.
Rick Schwartz is the San Diego Zoo’s Elephant Odyssey Ambassador.
Hi Rick. It was a well-earned picnic for you and your group, after what must have been quite an exciting experience. Will you be back in San Diego in time for the opening of Elephant Odyssey? That’s going to be another great experience (but clearly not as exciting!). I do so appreciate your blogs. Thanks!
Are you going to try to find any of the elephants that can be sponsored as part of Project Elephant Footprint. I think at least one of them may still be in Chobe.