Namibia - Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA) - Part 2 (Patrol week)
Image: Chris giving us a patrol week briefing
Overview of the Project
This is a continuation of our time with EHRA - please read the earlier post covering Part 1 if you want the background on the organisation.
Part 2 is "patrol week" where we spent our week with the Elephant Rangers observing the desert elephants, responding and reacting to any interactions with local farmers and communities, as well as doing whatever is necessary to manage the health of the herd.
Key Insights gained during this experience:
Desert elephants are not a different species, they are African bush elephants that migrated to Namibia to escape being hunted in South Africa and are now attempting to live in a very different type of terrain to the one they would traditionally inhabit. One of the most interesting things was seeing their adaptive behaviour, for example they have learned how to sense water buried under sand and use their feet and trunks to dig water holes - the only elephants we know of that are capable of doing this. We saw the adult elephants teach their young how to look for signs on rocks and in dried-up river beds to make their search more effective and preserve energy in the harsher conditions.
Given the nature of our trip, we were not rushing around trying to spot as many animals as we could. Our mindset was instead intent on seeing them in their natural behaviour, which meant we could pause and observe at length and from a distance. This gave us a much better understanding of their personality, group dynamics and being able to see when they are sending stress signals. Whilst Namibia is significantly less busy than other safari hotspots in Africa, it was obvious that when multiple jeeps turned up at the same time, the elephants were more agitated and felt like they were being pushed and herded around, which changed their behaviour. Tourism brings many benefits of course, but finding the right balance between allowing access and ensuring that the focal point of the tourists do not feel extracted upon is tricky, and it feels like it needs a more elegant solution.
During our week here, the youngest calf of the herd we were tracking - called Sorres (meaning Sun) had somehow injured his foot and could not walk on it. He was 3 weeks old, and ended up being left behind by the herd because he could not keep up - he attempted to drag himself on his knees to keep going, and was damaging his growing tendons. What to do in this situation is a decision that resides with the government, who initially determined that “nature should take its course” and no intervention was to be provided…and then two days later (unfortunately after much malnourishment and further damage) asked if EHRA could house the calf and a government vet at our base camp. So for the last two days we had a baby elephant calf in our base camp (!), and whilst we kept any interaction to a minimum (to avoid it becoming overly comfortable with humans and thereby risking rejection from the herd or having it being overly familiar as an adolescent and getting itself killed by wandering into a village), I was asked to help the vet move the elephant and do small tasks for her such as laying out some bedding or bringing food/water. Hearing the baby calf cry out in distress as I moved it in the pen (it weighs 120 kgs) is one of the hardest things I have had to do. At the time of writing, Sorres is recovering well, with no infection or disease and is undergoing physiotherapy to get the strength in his leg back again so that he can (hopefully) rejoin the herd. A long road to recovery, but some hope nonetheless. Many things to take from this, but the fact that the government decided that EHRA were the best custodians/guardians for it shows the importance, quality and prestige that this group has here, and the critical role that effective NGOs can play in partnership with government organisations in scenarios like this.
We responded to a few calls from the local people where the elephant herd had come in overnight and caused damage to watering pipes and infrastructure. It was fascinating to see the local interactions play out, with Hermann using his linguistic and diplomacy skills. In a few situations you could see a potentially vicious cycle playing out - the water pipes were not laid properly or made secure to begin with; which meant it was a tempting play-thing for the elephants to pull up when they stumbled across them; which means that the bore-holes that the farmers leave for the elephants (away from their flocks and houses) will be now run dry until they are repaired; so next time the elephants might go looking in the houses/farms where there are still stores of water and cause more damage...All potentially solved for the cost of a £2 pipe connector (if we can get it out here in time). Shows how early and effective intervention matters so much in fragile ecosystems such as these.
What our day looked like:
Slightly different to Build Week - this time we were wild camping! Which meant finding a new spot to rest every day and carrying camp with us. At night we would put our sleeping bags on a big tarpaulin sheet and sleep under the stars. It was magic. Again, we were up at around 6am, collecting firewood, eating and cleaning up before break down camp and then setting out to track the elephants using footprints or climbing hills and responding to calls.
Who we met:
We were grateful to have the same team around us as Part 1.
PS - there were three other really cool things that happened during this week that I might write a separate post about to avoid this one being too long:
Hearing from a lady who taught here for 46 years and one of the best storytellers I have ever met in my life (Ouma Hannah).
Hiking up to see the “White Lady” cave painting - which is 5,000 years old (and incidentally of a man and not a lady).
The drama of when we were asked to free a car that had got stuck in the mud and the wild elephants showed up and got dangerously curious, which had us scrambling to the top of a nearby boundering hill to watch from the grandstand as they crept in on the stuck car (Div has an excellent video of the whole thing).
