By Gini Cowell
Late in the afternoon last Friday we were out on a patrol with the rangers and I was parked about 30 metres away from an elephant family we know well. Their matriarch, Eluai, was browsing on a bush while the others moved calmly past me, taking their time and stopping to nibble on the orange leaf croton bushes. Eluai remained where she was for a few minutes with her ears spread, frozen in place as she listened to sounds we could not hear. She then started to walk towards us slowly but purposefully.
When she was only about ten feet away from my driver door she stopped and stood quietly, seemingly interested in what we were doing. I was speaking to her softly and she responded by blinking her eyes repeatedly, behaviour which has been observed by members of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants when they talked in a calm and gentle voice to elephants from their vehicle. Eluai appeared to be contemplating something and at first she looked a bit unsure so she picked up a dry stick that was lying on the ground with her trunk.
She twirled it around a few times before snapping it in two. She picked up one of the discarded pieces and tossed it over her shoulder. At one point she even threw a piece of stick in my direction! All this time I was talking to her and her eyes were fluttering. With each passing moment Eluai relaxed more and more until she was almost dozing. She stood so close to me that she could see any small sudden movements and we remained as still as possible. She picked up a different stick and began doing the same, twisting it, dropping it, picking it up and caressing it with her trunk.
Previous studies have found that elephants are in fact capable of differentiating between gender, ethnicity and even the temperament of their human observers. She was standing out in the open and she was not eating or dusting. She chose to be there near to us for a reason.
I can’t help but wonder if she was trying to tell us something. Our team have known Eluai and her family for years and we have even watched some of her calves grow up. She and her sister Essa are definitely familiar with our vehicles, our voices and our smells.
Perhaps it isn’t so far fetched to think that she was trying to communicate something to us. Could it be that she is expecting another calf? We are hoping she will have one sometime this year. Eluai was named by community members after the iconic Whistling Thorn acacia tree. The rangers have learned how to identify most of the elephants in the area and they know many of them very well. We were approaching this family and Ranger Lamara said “there’s Eluai and Essa.”
Object play is a common behaviour in elephants and it really shows how imaginative they can be! Eluai has a serious responsibility as the matriarch of her family and though she is often relaxed around us, she does have to stay busy watching over her herd and it was touching to see this playful side of her personality.
Over the years our team has had the privilege of experiencing many very special moments with elephants and each leaves us in awe, stirring renewed feelings of intrigue, admiration and a passion to secure a future for these wondrous creatures in the wild . Elephants are complex, enthralling and profoundly intelligent as individuals and as a species their value to this world is beyond measure.
