Yesterday, we watched another elephant die

    It has been hot recently - very hot. After dispersing for a few days following scattered rain a couple of weeks ago, the elephants are back and they are dying in the heat. Sitting at the viewing point at Mandavu Dam it is possible to count six reasonably “fresh” elephant carcasses (if “fresh” is a word that can ever be applied to something so smelly). At Masuma and Shumba the carcasses are usually dragged away so that the smell doesn’t reach the viewing platforms but at both of these places the remains of many dead elephants are clearly visible.

    Lions are one of the causes of death at Masuma. The big “Mohican” pride has killed four elephants in the past four days and when we passed there on Monday they were so full of meat they made no attempt to move away from the car and we got some nice photos.

  The vultures are no doubt grateful for the lions’ wastefulness…..

   Away from the “Mohicans”, the cause of death of the elephants is not completely clear. A very few seem to have died of a mystery disease in which their legs swell to grotesque proportions. More seem to be either too young or too old and to have died of ‘poverty’ in this over-long dry season. Others however look reasonably healthy and it isn’t easy to say exactly why they have died – stress through lack of food, competition for water, extreme temperatures and so on is the best guess. Yesterday we saw the end of one such animal.

   We had parked at the crossing of the Gubombire River to drop off an anti-poaching patrol…..

   Down at the river, a big bull elephant was drinking from a hole dug in the sand. As we stood watching he suddenly threw up his head, his back legs gave way and he sank to the ground in an uncomfortable cross-legged position.

   It was obvious that this wasn’t a natural position so we went closer and as we approached, his head sank to the ground…..

  

   He was still alive at this point, his ears moving feebly and his trunk stretching out in front of him.

   But as we all stood silently watching, his breathing stopped, his ears no longer moved and, without a sound, he died.

   Even after this rather ungainly death, he was still sufficiently awe-inspiring for us to be reluctant to approach but eventually we got over our fear and Sue took some photos to mark the death of yet another of our elephants…..

   If the rains are long-delayed, he won’t be the last.