December 2004

Despite the rains, there was no shortage of elephants in December, and numerous herds were seen on most days. Some of these herds were quite large, and there are several very tiny calves among them. Although elephant calves are born every month of the year, it does seem that more births take place in the summer months than in winter.

A few marula trees have started to drop their fruit early, and already this is evident in the droppings of the elephants. Over the next two months, elephant movement can be quite strongly influenced by the status of the marulas in different areas.

November 2004

Elephants were not nearly as abundant in November as they had been in some of the earlier months, but there were still good numbers.

In the early part of the game report, there were far more elephant sightings in the north of the reserve than in the south, but for the second half of the month, the vast majority of sightings of herds of elephants took place in the southern regions. Quite often, though, small groups of large, mature bulls were seen near the north-eastern corner. The flush of green grass after the recent rains, has been largely responsible for the fact that the elephants have dispersed somewhat.

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October 2004

Predictably, the majority of elephant sightings in October were concentrated along the banks of the Sand River, with a scattering of sightings on its tributaries.   As is often the case, after a good shower of rain, elephants disperse and can suddenly become quite scarce in areas where they are normally abundant.   It is interesting to observe that there is frequently a general movement of most of the elephant herds in a particular direction.   For example, there may be a period of three days when almost no elephants were seen in the south of the reserve, but many herds were seen in the north.   This is not only due to food availability, but also strengthens the theory that elephant herds can and do communicate with each other over great distances.

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September 2004

Elephant viewing was again exceptionally good in September, with many herds of elephants being seen every day.   Most of these herds are very relaxed, but all elephants are viewed with caution and respect, and from a good distance.   As we go deeper into the dry season, more of the elephant sightings are concentrated along the Sand River.

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August 2004

Elephant herds continue to spend a great deal of time on Mala Mala, with a high concentration of these being along the Sand River and its tributaries.   On a number of occasions, several herds were seen in close proximity to one another, so that concentrations of well over 100 animals could be seen.   It is noteworthy that the larger trees were not damaged to such a great extent, as the elephants were focusing more on smaller scrubby bushes, grass and reeds.

Some of the large herds of elephants were being followed by several adult bulls.

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July 2004

Once again, there were vast numbers of elephants seen throughout Mala Mala, but as can be expected at this time of the year, they are becoming more and more concentrated along the Sand River.   By day, the elephants are spending many hours feeding on the Fragmites reeds in the river bed, and typically they move out to higher, warmer ground in the evenings.   It seems that most of the torchwood trees have finished bearing fruit, although there may still be a few late-bearing individuals.

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June 2004

Elephant seen during June 2004 - including the little elephant with the deformed back legs

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May 2004

Elephant viewing during the May report-period was more or less a continuation of the situation experienced in April where a plentiful supply or food and water allowed the animals to scatter and still remain independent of the abundance of resources around the Sand River.

Some changes in this pattern of elephant behaviour will occur over the next few weeks if the crop of Torchwood berries is good.  The elephants love these oil-rich fruits from the Balanites maughamii trees and will certainly alter their behaviour if the harvest is worth it.  At the moment the trees appear quite heavily in fruit, but are not yet ready for eating.  Under 'normal' circumstances, individual herds can be expected to split up into smaller, more closely related groups as they go from tree to tree harvesting the fruits.  Each Torchwood bears only so much fruit and the elephants seem to realise that instead of wandering over a huge area as a big group going from tree to tree, it's more productive if they split up and each unit wanders a smaller area.  These fragmented units seem to maintain contact with each other as they circulate amongst the fruiting trees.

What can also happen is what was seen last year when the rains were patchy and mostly light.  This resulted in some regions having almost no fruit on the local Torchwood trees whilst in other areas the trees fruited well.  Under such conditions, whole areas were left almost elephant-free for days on end as the herds moved off into the fruit-rich zones.

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April 2004

The resource-rich conditions favouring the mega-herbivores continued through the month of April and elephant viewing simply wasn't what it was a few months ago when they were around every second corner.  There was actually one day this month when only one elephant, a single bull, was sighted.

In general, however, there were good elephant sightings this month, both of breeding herds and bulls.  Some of the bulls seen had most impressive tusks.  But this situation is bound to start changing as winter approaches and water quality and quantity decline and become concentrated around the more perennial rivers.  Then, as more and more herds of females and young appear, so perhaps the individual bulls will move away, leaving these areas to these groups and the more dominant of the breeding males.

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March 2004

Elephants were in short supply this month and there was one day when only a single bull elephant was seen.  Herds of females and youngsters were particularly scarce and this has been entirely a result of the heavy rains which have fallen since late February. Both food and water are plentiful and, with the area around the Sand River having been inundated by elephants before the late season rains, it perhaps comes as no surprise that elephants have dispersed and almost certainly moved to those regions which, up until the recent rains, have been unavailable to them. The end of the Marula berry season has also been reason for the elephants to move on.

Another feature of the elephant viewing this month has been the speed with which herds or individuals have moved through the reserve and this has perhaps been the result of the elephants concentrating on the seed-heads of the various grasses.  Elephants tend to harvest trunk-loads of grass-stems, bite off the nutritious seeds and drop the stalks and then repeat the exercise.  But to get enough to eat, they have to collect many such mouthfuls and they tend to walk great distances whilst doing this, their progress along roads littered by the discarded stalks.

Also, with plenty of food, the elephants can afford to pick and choose and will no doubt head to areas which might have, at least temporarily, slightly better food quality than others.

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February 2004

Elephant numbers remained high during the February viewing period, this quite surprising following the good rains which have resulted in widespread and good food and water supplies.  Perhaps it was the better-than-expected Marula-berry season in the area which kept the elephants around.  But, whatever the reason, they were certainly on the reserve in good numbers this month.

This may change, of course, with the very heavy downpours of rain which fell in late February, as well as with an end to the supply of fruits from the Marula Trees.

Several really big elephant bulls were encountered this month, including one or two with huge tusks.  These elephants appeared to be mostly in musth and travelled over great areas of the reserve in search of receptive females.

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January 2004