Elephants
I don’t quite know how to start discussing elephants as the subject is so varied that it could take volumes. These are just a few condensed thoughts and personal experiences in a vast subject. Elephants are the biggest land animals in the world today, and only the Mammoth has ever been bigger as it lived during the Ice ages and could therefore keep its body relatively cool. The only other larger mammal alive to day are the marine whales some which can weigh out at 100 tons in contrast to an elephant that has been recorded at 18,000 lbs or about 8 tons. A prize Bull in contrast will only reach about 2,000 lbs, so the elephant is a substantial beast. A big African elephant is larger than its Asian cousin and it can reach 11ft high at the shoulder. As you read this in a normal room, imagine for a moment a 5ft 6” man by the wall and then double his height, and you would normally be well into the ceiling! Now further imagine him with his head and trunk raised up to 14 ft high and his ears spread wide 9 foot across and you can see that he is a formidable beast. When we were shooting an elephant this had to be done from not more than about 5 yards range which is about 5 large paces or about the length of an average room. You can realise how puny we are facing such a formidable beast at such close quarters if something were to go wrong, and the cool nerve one needs to be in this position. Elephants live for a long time, and have a gestation period of about 22 months, the longest of any animal, and they take about 20 years rather like a human to be fully adult, and they reach their prime at about 30 – 40 yrs and die between 60 – 80 years.
Now to quote Voltaire who said “Women and elephants never forget an injury”, this is absolutely true, as of all animals other than man he would appear to have the best memory which I will illustrate later. The other thing that they can do admirably is to communicate with each other, whether to transmit affection, warn of danger or whatever. He has not got hands, but instead has a long flexible trunk, the end of which is so sensitive and delicate that in spite of his huge bulk he is capable of picking a small object like a nut off the ground. Also the trunk enables him to have the most marvellous and most delicate sense of smell, that with it even in the driest weather he can sniff a human being 1 ½ miles away, and he can smell your spoor and track 24 hours after you have passed.
Elephant grazing in the bush spread out over a mile without any sound being uttered, and they can all converge on one spot as a cohesive unit with each one somehow knowing exactly where to move in what I am sure is a form of telepathy, as they seem to move up and down and across the wind so silently and precisely. Because, for all their great bulk, elephants are one of the most silent of all creatures in the bush when they want to be. Their sense of hearing is acutely developed and they disregard all the normal background noise in the bush, but can immediately focus onto any sound of danger and when they are focussed they will pick up the slightest sound. Another method of communication that I have often noticed is “ passing the scent”. An elephant once picked up my scent. I was about 3 yards away and he was on the outside of a tightly packed herd resting under the shade of a large sausage tree. I watched as he raised his trunk up, then curl the end of it over as though it were the end of an umbrella upside down. This he passed to his nearest companion who put his trunk over and sucked the air out, and in turn he repeated the procedure to the next and so on. I watched this four times until it eventually reached the large Bull who then gave an enormous grunt and stampeded in a rush from me. They had transmitted the danger to the old chief who had then acted decisively.
