Day 15: 23/1/12 - Elephants Bones & Herds

Sunrise that morning!

In terms of elephants, this was the best day yet. Today's transect was one the ordinary forest-into-shrub-into grasslands-and-then-repeat sort. Well, until we stumbled upon an enormous decaying white mass. We had found the giant skull of an elephas maximus maximus. And a few meters away, we found the rest of his skeleton. This elephant was shot in the head -we found a tiny bullet hole in proportion to his skull- in the village and scurried away to te forest where he died, about one and a half years ago.

The skull

lower jaw

ribs

Trunk bone

The afternoon was somewhat more lively, indeed. At about 4:45pm -finally in the daylight- a herd of 10 elephants, including 3 babies, tried to slide by the treehouse unnoticed. I happened to hear rustles but I didn't think much of it, just because it seemed too early. But there, I saw an entire herd eating their way through the forest, heading for the lake. They were beautifully coordinated and surprisingly swift. Two women, with a carried child, happened to walk down the path and as they saw the herd, stopped in their tracks. The elephants seemed very aware of their presence and ducked behind the trees. Taking this as a cue for an open road, the two ladies ran for their lives to their village.

The stag he is

The Elephant Sightings!!

Elephant watching with our housekeeper, Siria, is the best way

This sunset to end the day!

We were told that it had been 5 whole months since an entire herd like this had been seen out in the open in this area.