Elephant Search: Finding a Needle in a Haystack
Posted at 10:11 am October 8, 2008 by Fred Bercovitch
Once airborne, you look for two things: tiny blackish-gray rocks bunched under trees or moving across the landscape. That’s how you spot elephants from the air. They’re about the size of tiny houseflies when you see them from the airplane. The landscape varied from lush flood plains sandwiching rivers to low desert-like shrubs scattered about to high, dry grasslands punctuated by thickets and bushes and pockmarked by tall, green shade trees.
We hopped into a four-seater Cessna 172 to fly from Botswana over the eastern part of the Caprivi Strip in Namibia looking for elephants from about 750 feet (230 meters) off the ground. Our goal was to find a good-size herd from the air, so that we could return the next day to immobilize an elephant and outfit her with a GPS collar. Over a two-day period, we flew for close to eight hours and were nearly ready to stop searching in the designated area when we saw a huge herd! About 450 elephants were below us!! We had flown over about 2,500 square miles (6,475 square kilometers), which is about half the size of San Diego County and twice the size of Rhode Island. We zoomed down to get a closer look and snap some pictures.
Elephants cross international boundaries, which can land them in trouble if neighboring countries have different rules for elephant protection. I’m in Africa working with Dr. Michael Chase of Elephants Without Borders to see how the San Diego Zoo can help protect elephants in this region of the world. The work covers five countries in Southern Africa: Botswana, Namibia, Angoloa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In order to figure out why elephants move where they move, we need to use GPS collars to track their travels. It’s hard to imagine how difficult it is to spot nearly 500 elephants from the air, but it was quite a challenge. But now that one of them sports a brand-new collar with GPS unit attached, we will be able to follow her movements and try to assist in developing conservation management plans that reduce elephant/human conflict in the area.
Fred Bercovitch is head of the San Diego Zoo’s Division of Behavioral Biology.
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October 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
thanks Fred for all the interesting info. it has to be wonderful to do this kind of work! your flight alone would be exciting and challenging. to finally find a huge elephant herd of this magnitude after countless
flight hours and 2500 sq. miles , was the ultimate reward for all your searching! animal behavior, I’m sure
can be very complex at times. keep us up-dated on the gps travels of this elephant. wish I could go along
on one of your adventures!!!! it beats working in an office doesn’t it? how did you get interested in this line of work? just c urious!……..always interested in zoo keepers, zoo vets, and animal behavorists!!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
That was a very interesting story, I never would of thought that there would have been that many elephants in a herd. 450, I am shocked at the number. I thought that elephants were being killed in Africa. I also, thought that the number would have been lower, like about 100 to 150, so that was really good news for me. I love learning more new things about elephants. I love all animals, can only have a cat now, not well enough to take care of any animals right now, but my cat is 16 years old and stays with me in the bedroom. If I could I would have more. Also, I would love to come with you on that flight over Africa. Love all you do for the elephants, and keep up the good work. Thank you for all you do for the animals!
October 10th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Hi Nancy & Betsy,
Thanks for your interest. Ever since I was in kindergarten, I’ve loved animals and enjoyed wandering around in the middle of nowhere. My dream as a child was to be ” Tarzan” , so I think that I’m fortunate in having my dream come true. And, Betsy, you do what you can, so taking care of your 16 year old cat is really something. Take care of yourself, too. You’re right about elephant herds because they vary a lot in size. Some have even more than 500 animals. One of our main challenges is to figure out what does determine herd size, and how can we use this type of information to share with the human communities in order to enable people and elephants to co-exist.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
What a wonderful blog! Thanks!
October 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Hi Fred!
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful adventure! It must have taken your breath away and left your heart pounding to see so many precious pachyderms together. Is it true that a herd that size is made up of many different families led by their matriarch? It looks like there were quite a few youngsters too which had to be heartwarming. I have fallen in love with these amazing animals and am awed with each thing I learn about their family dynamics and intelligence. And the goal of being able to help humans and elephants co-exist is so important to their futures. I wish you great success in this endeavor.
To be able to live your dream has to be so wonderful–color me green with envy! To be able to wonder around in the middle of nowhere you must have seen and experienced things we only dream of. ” All those who wander are not lost” , in the words of Tolkien. Bless you for all you do.
Blessed Be With Love, Judy J
October 31st, 2008 at 7:03 am
Small world….big challenge. Was on safari with the parents of Dr. Michael Chase some years back and heard about his beginning work on elephant migration. Am pleased he continues his pursuit of this pivotal area of elephant conservation. His intelligence and determination along with good genes brings to the table a powerful force for this critical work. Thanks for the blog and links.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Fred; a great article and a fantastic project which I hope will bring about a safe sanctuary for Elephants.
The Elephants without borders now have a new web site go have a look at elephantswithoutborders dot org
Lots of interesting info including a photo of Fred.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Hello Fred,
My name is Scott O’Connor and in 2007 I did 6wks. of volunteering with EWB. Kelly is an old friend of mine from Buffalo. Needless to say it was a life altering experience. I was with Mike and Kelly in Namibia, Okavango delta, and home in Kasangula. I was so happy that they were able to join forces with you and the zoo, they are so dedicated and so good at what they do, that having a partner like the zoo could mean so much for the furtherment of their work. I believe Mikes research is some of the most cutting edge work being done about elephants in that part of the world, if not anywhere. Cheers,
Scott O’Connor