Elephants of Botswana

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 23 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

I first meet Diana on the 22^nd of November 2008, whilst I was out doing field work with Kate and Joseph. We could tell something was wrong the minute we saw her as she was limping quite badly. We soon discovered that her leg was – or had been broken at some stage. At the time she was with her juvenile babies who were taking good care of her. When she crossed the road she was shielded by them. On the 16^th of September 2009 she was spotted again, almost a year since she was last seen. She was back with her natal herd and it seems like she is able to keep up with them. The herd is very protective, they must know that she is in need of a little extra help and they, shield her whenever she crosses exposed areas. Elephants are very resilient and it is incredible to think that she managed to survive, especially that when we saw her it was after the harsh October month of 2008 when the area is very dry and food scarce and we all await the arrival of the rains. Elephants caring for each other had saved her from predators who could have taken advantage of her weak state. I am glad she made it through thick and thin and I was very happy to see her again.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 23 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

I first meet Diana on the 22^nd of November 2008, whilst I was out doing field work with Kate and Joseph. We could tell something was wrong the minute we saw her as she was limping quite badly. We soon discovered that her leg was – or had been broken at some stage. At the time she was with her juvenile babies who were taking good care of her. When she crossed the road she was shielded by them. On the 16^th of September 2009 she was spotted again, almost a year since she was last seen. She was back with her natal herd and it seems like she is able to keep up with them. The herd is very protective, they must know that she is in need of a little extra help and they, shield her whenever she crosses exposed areas. Elephants are very resilient and it is incredible to think that she managed to survive, especially that when we saw her it was after the harsh October month of 2008 when the area is very dry and food scarce and we all await the arrival of the rains. Elephants caring for each other had saved her from predators who could have taken advantage of her weak state. I am glad she made it through thick and thin and I was very happy to see her again.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 22 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

Its 2pm on a Saturday afternoon when I hear the splashing.  It’s too regular to be one of the juveniles playing in the water and too fast to be one of the adults drinking.  I climb down from my perch on the termite mound and walk out into the flood plain to see if I can get a better look. 

I have been joining the mahouts during the day for about 4 weeks now.  Every Friday and Saturday afternoons I catch up with the herd in the bush so that I can start recording their daytime behaviour.  This involves collaring them in the boma just before they head out for the day and walking with them recording various behavioural events and degrees of visual contact between the herd members.  By the end of the morning we have normally reached a suitable spot close to the edge of the floodplain.  There are good shade trees, plenty to eat and water- and mud-holes to wallow and play in.  By 2pm in the Delta in September temperatures are topping out at the mid 30’s Celcius and the whole place has that lazy, hazy feel to it; like its too hot to move. 

But something is moving, and it sounds big.  I skirt the edge of the island using the bushes for cover, trying to get a better look at whatever is making the splashes.  But by now the splashing has stopped.  Cathy, the matriarch is on our island and she is looking , well, not relaxed.  She is looking across to the neighbouring island where Sherini and her 3 year old Abu is located.  I peer into the island and make out the form of Abu and then of another elephant, much bigger than Sherini.  It’s a wild male elephant, he’s about 20-25 years old, taller than Sherini at the shoulder, maybe over 2 meters but his tusks are thin making him a little on the immature side.  The wind is in my favour and despite being only 20m away he hasn’t spotted me. 

Interactions like these are exactly what I am after.  Collecting vocal exchanges between herd members has been fairly straight forward but where things start to get really interesting is when the herd comes into contact with other wild elephants.  Despite technically being a captive herd, my study subjects, the Abu herd, are ideal as they have this exposure and have had this exposure for the past 15 years.  Therefore if they are communicating with other wild elephants I will be able to see exactly how their calling behaviour varies when these events happen. 

At the moment this exchange seems amicable enough but I need a second opinion.  Using the cover of the island again, I head back to the shady termite mound to inform the rest of the mahouts and they come to have a look.  Most of the time these exchanges are allowed to play out but with Cathy carrying an injury the mahouts are unhappy about leaving him so close by.  They bring the car and start to move him off the island and back to the main land.  From splashes to waving goodbye takes less than 20 mins but having had the collars on Cathy and Sherini at the right place and the right time, the second by second exchange has all been documented. 

Tags: elephants, infrasound, PhD, research

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Category: Fund Raising | Date: Sep 21 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

 http://www.justgiving.com/KateandSimsMarathonChallenge/

Sunday morning and the alarm went off at 0530. We left for the airstrip at 0600 and after checking the perimeter for animals, I started running at 0630.  Sim was driving and in charge of the iPod stereo to keep me motivated. The target was 16km (10 miles). There were a few Zebra’s grazing on the side of the airstrip when we started and they looked a bit perplexed by this white lady running by the side of the car, but they soon got bored and moved off to other pastures, leaving us alone with the crowned plovers - that would buzz me whenever I ran past them.

We considered running around the perimeter but decided that the western side was too close to thick vegetation and something could ambush us and so we carried on with the up and down. At the 10km mark I grabbed an energy bar and as I concentrated on eating that I ended up going flying head over heels having tripped on a half buried stick. I lay there for a while wondering what the hell had happened before I picked myself up, blew the sand off my energy bar and carried on. At about the 12km mark my hip and knee started hurting and I kept having to stop to stretch it. I wondered if the fall had down it or it was my old knee injury returning., Hopefully the former and I will be OK for the weeks training ahead.

Running up and down was very boring indeed, and save for the plovers and an eagle of some discription that dropped in to say hello teh scenery did not change much. Thankfully General Jones (great band featuring my friend Matthew Shartsis www.thegeneraljonesband.com)

, Johnny Cash and in the final 1km when I was in need of more motivation, Dolly Parton - kept me going and I completed the 16km in 1hr48. We returned to camp and I enjoyed a guilt free fried egg breakfast before cracking on with report writting.

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Category: Fund Raising | Date: Sep 18 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

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Sim and I are running the NYC marathon on the 1st of November and trying to train in the bush which involves us running up and down the airstrip- it is the safest place for us to run. Unfortunately it is not great for our carbon footprint as someone has to drive up and down with us. As we have yet to find a willing volunteer this means that Sim and I have to take it in turns to drive and run making the training session twice as long. All rather boring really.

Oh well, hopefully it will all be worth while and we shall raise en0ugh money for the 4×4 we desperately need.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 17 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

Hello! This is my first ever blog and only my sixth day of having the Okavango Delta as my home, so bear with me!

So what brings me here? Well, I’ve been supporting Elephants for Africa since my fiancée, Dr Kate Evans, started it as a PhD research project back in 2002 and now I’ve just taken the next big step to join the Charity full time. My role is as Operations Manager, assuming responsibility for the day-to-day running and leadership in all business related or strategic issues. The idea being that this will enable to the researchers to be able to concentrate on doing the research (it plays to my strengths too).

Where did I come from? Well, I’m a Materials Engineer and I spent almost eleven years working in Product Development for Jaguar Land Rover. I joined as a graduate and worked my way up to the position of Technical Specialist, responsible for Material Characterisation. Hang in there, there is a link! As part of my role, I managed people and projects, controlled budgets, defined material strategy, established processes, created and ran training courses, gave presentations etc etc. All of these things are transferable to my new role.

I don’t plan to be chained to the office and have every intention of getting out in the field with the researchers and learning as much as I can about the Ele’s and the other flora and fauna in the area.

Until next time,

Sim

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 17 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

Hello! This is my first ever blog and only my sixth day of having the Okavango Delta as my home, so bear with me!

So what brings me here? Well, I’ve been supporting Elephants for Africa since my fiancée, Dr Kate Evans, started it as a PhD research project back in 2002 and now I’ve just taken the next big step to join the Charity full time. My role is as Operations Manager, assuming responsibility for the day-to-day running and leadership in all business related or strategic issues. The idea being that this will enable to the researchers to be able to concentrate on doing the research (it plays to my strengths too).

Where did I come from? Well, I’m a Materials Engineer and I spent almost eleven years working in Product Development for Jaguar Land Rover. I joined as a graduate and worked my way up to the position of Technical Specialist, responsible for Material Characterisation. Hang in there, there is a link! As part of my role, I managed people and projects, controlled budgets, defined material strategy, established processes, created and ran training courses, gave presentations etc etc. All of these things are transferable to my new role.

I don’t plan to be chained to the office and have every intention of getting out in the field with the researchers and learning as much as I can about the Ele’s and the other flora and fauna in the area.

Until next time,

Sim

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 13 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

This morning, after finalising the 2010 Calendars, Sim and I headed out to find elephants.

The bush is looking quite incredible at the moment, as the knobthorn trees are in flower and the leadwood trees are in seed, bringing wonderful shades of yellow and orange to the field. The birdlife is magnificent at the moment too, we saw crimson breasted shrike, a yellow billed kite,  lilac breasted rollers, cattle egret and little egret, spurwinged goose and all sorts.

At first crossing (a deep crossing where the water comes over the bonnet) we found some elephants, unfortunately they were mostley hidden in the thick bush but I think it was the ‘B’ herd (all the female’s names start with a B) and they were all looking terribly skinny and feeding off what looked to be a dead tree. It is a hard time of year as we wait for the rains, which is quite as we are surrounded by water from the floods. However, the trees are in winter mode and the wildlife that has been contrained to small amount of land have eaten most which is available.

We spent some time with them and moved on and continued with our route. There is  still plenty of water around, making the driving a little tense, but we managed to survive without getting stuck. Tomorrow we are going to do the road survey so I hope we manage the same then!!!!

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Category: Botswana Elephants, Donors, Fund Raising | Date: Sep 12 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

Dear Friends,

It has been a while since I contributed to this blog and for that I must apologise - it is not that I have not wanted to do it - it is more that I felt there was nothing of interest to tell you as I have been in the UK for most of the year and thought you would want to read more about the adventures in the bush.

Things have changed a lot recently.

In November of last year I was seriously thinking about giving up on the research. Things had become very difficult as I was had to work in the UK to earn pounds to enable me to continue doing what I love. Finding work in the UK was very hard and the demands of the charity (Elephants For Africa), which I set up with Randall Moore in 2008, and the research, including supervision of two students meant that I needed to put time aside for this. In the end the maths did not add up and I was left wondering if I could continue. I have not been paid for the work that I do, and whilst that is not an issue in the past, when I hit 30 the realisation that this was not sustainable began to play on my mind. The questions of what happens when I am older, or if I want children, and should I be unable to work through ill health or sickness what would happen to be then? Then a donation to the charity was made to cover my wage, which meant I was able to  stay out in Botswana and do the work which I love.

In January my partner of 10 years asked me to marry him and in February he decided to leave his successful engineering career behind so he could join me in Africa. He will be taking up the voluntary position of Operations Manager, responsible for the day-to-day management and using his business skills to take the charity forward. This also means that I can concentrate my efforts on the research. So, at the end of July he left his job, and we left the UK for a much needed holiday in South Africa before coming up to camp.

We arrived in camp yesterday and had such a warm welcome from our friends and are eager to start planning for the years ahead. There will be lots of stories as we follow the elephants and look forward to sharing them with you.

Best wishes

Kate

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 08 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana

Sim and I are currently stuck in Cape Town - awaiting for our personal belongings but the ship has only just left Antwerp. Our container was short-shipped and no one though to tell us. So now we have to make another plan to get to Botswana. Very frustrated, disappointed and down

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