Elephants
Another thing .is that when mating comes around the female will pick her boyfriend which is not necessarily the old bull. She will often pick one of a number of younger bulls and then lead him off into the forest where mating takes place in privacy!
They have a terrific loyalty and regard for each other, especially so if one is wounded or in any danger. Cow elephants knowing they are being attacked will stop to help their wounded even to the extent of placing their trunks under a falling bull , then pass their trunks underneath its neck and hold it up by leaning against it, often one on either side and carry it for a short distance when apparently unconscious or even dead.
No elephant discussion would be complete without mentioning the fable of the elephants graveyard, which is I think a complete myth. However I do know of a place where sick or old elephants to go to, where there is plenty of good food by a small stream, yet not enough to satisfy the demands of a large herd but enough for one or two beasts. During the course of a normal day elephants will wander great distances, possibly eight miles for high shade at midday, and a further five miles for water, and miles more for good leaves etc to eat. If an animal is sick or ailing he obviously does not want expend all this energy but will remember a small remote isolated valley where all is to hand and there he and his mate will shelter until he feels better. Often they do not and then they die, but they do not go there to die but instead look upon the vale as a sanatorium or health resort.
During the normal course of a day they arise early in the cool and have their breakfast by stripping branches and pushing over small trees. Later during the course of a normal day, they will lie up asleep under high shade to protect themselves from the blazing sun, but around 3 or 4 pm they will awake and like ourselves who would make a cup of tea with tannin and caffeine as a “pick me up”, they will instead strip the bark of the mopani tree which also is rich in tannin and probably has a similar effect. Likewise using their innate or learned medical skill they will know and be aware of where there are deposits of magnesium sulphate, and will dig a bank to eat it, or drink water from hot springs which also purge the bowels. Another purgative they use is the nut of the white ivory palm, which is covered with a layer of fibrous sugary material, which also acts as a stimulus on the intestines. I know this from bitter experience as I tried it once with my boys and went through agony for two days, more effective and more violent than anything purchased from a chemist! Bathing is usually in the late afternoon and they are very particular about not drinking their bathing water and fastidious that it should be clean and pure as possible. When water is scarce in the dry season they will dig a hole in the sand a little way from their bathing site and allow the water to filter and percolate through to give them a clean fresh drink. They then will get down to the really large feed after bathing and can eat up to 500 – 1,000 lbs of food during the day, most of which is consumed in the evening.
Another accomplishment that they will do is to construct dams. I know of a place where the Msindile River comes off the escarpment and the water flows for a few hundred yards even in the driest weather before being absorbed in a great waste of sand as the river widens out. As the stream is too small for them to enjoy a bath, they will move boulders and dam the river in a series of steps each making a pool between 15 – 50 foot long making and about 4 – 5ft in depth. When they made these dams they would roll boulders about 2 – 3 ft across from the edges, and then have smaller stones placed in between . Finally earth and mud are squelched and trampled in blocking the stream that makes a pool behind the semi waterproof barrier. The flowing water soon clears the mud, leaving a crystal clear pool where a weary elephant can rest during the heat of the day……elephants do love their little luxuries!
