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Winston
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Slaughter
of the Bulls
In the previous newsletter I reported on the upsurge of poaching of
elephants for ivory. The reality hit us hard in August with the
death of three Amboseli bulls. On August 28th, the Field Assistants
received a message that there was a dead bull out west of the Park
near the Tanzanian border. At the same time there was a report of a
dead male to the east near Kimana sanctuary. ATE Researchers Norah
Njiraini and Katito Sayialel drove to Kimana; Robert Ntawuasa went
to the west. Norah and Katito
found a young bull who had been speared multiple times, his tusks
hacked out, and his carcass covered with branches. They could not
recognize who it was. The male in the west turned out to be
Winston, a very well-known Amboseli bull. Putting together various
reports it was deduced that Winston was shot in Tanzania and
staggered across the border and died in Kenya.
The Kenya
Wildlife Service wardens and rangers investigated both of the
carcasses but too much time had passed to be able to track the
poachers.
Winston's Carcass
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Winston was
born to Willa of the WA family in January 1980. He was one of a
sub-set of 14 calves I studied that year and so I spent many hours
with him in his first year of life. When he was killed he was 30
years old and just entering the prime of his life. What a loss and
what a waste.
At least
Winston died relatively quickly which can't be said of Keyhole, a
big bull fully in his prime at 40 years old. He was the son of
Esmeralda of the EA family. Born in 1970, he was just a two-year
old when we first met him. He got his name because he had a
keyhole-shaped slit in the bottom of his left ear. A few years ago
he broke the same ear and that made him even easier to identify.
Keyhole came into musth regularly and we feel fairly confident that
he sired some offspring.
Keyhole
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The
poachers have devised a new and very cruel way of killing
elephants. They embed spikes or nails in a piece of wood, cover the
spikes with a powerful poison, and bury it on an elephant path. We
had been hearing about these spike traps for a while and several
elephants have died from what appeared to be wounds in their feet.
It wasn't until another conservationist sent us a photo of one of
these traps found outside of Tsavo National Park that we realized
how deadly they are.
SpikeTrap
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Keyhole was
reported limping badly in June. The Kenya Wildlife Service
Veterinary Department was alerted and a vet came down and treated
him. He did not improve and was treated again, but it did not help.
It was obvious that he was in terrible agony: he could barely walk
and his whole body was swollen. We are fairly sure he stepped on
poisoned spikes. KWS decided to shoot him, but then he was found
dead on August 18.
We can't
bear to have another elephant die in this way. Please help us fight
this despicable killing method. We need people out searching for
these traps.
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New
Research Project
We are very pleased
to welcome back Beth Archie who carried out her Ph.D. research on
genetics and social relationships of the Amboseli elephants from
2000 to 2003. In July and August, Beth Archie, now an Assistant
Professor at the University of Notre Dame, came to Amboseli to
start a new project that will help ATE understand patterns of
infectious disease in the Amboseli elephants.
Katito & Beth Collect Parasites
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Currently, we know very little about how infectious disease spreads
between elephant groups, or why one elephant is more susceptible to
disease than another. This is in spite of the fact that infectious
disease can pose major threats to the stability of wild elephant
populations. Beth is working in collaboration with research
scientist, Vincent Obanda at Kenya Wildlife Service, and together
they are using dung samples to characterize the major elephant gut
parasites in Ambosel--from worms to "enteric" bacteria, such as
E. coli and Salmonella. Beth and Vincent
will use their data to learn which elephants and social groups are
susceptible to these infectious agents and how elephant social
relationships and ranging patterns might drive the spread of
disease across the population. Their results will give us a first
look into patterns of infection in the Amboseli elephants and
provide valuable information for managing future disease
threats.
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Wart Ear & Offspring at Swamp
Edge
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The History of the AA
Family
The AA family holds a very special place in the
Amboseli study, because it is the first family that was sighted and
photographed on the very first day of the study on September 1,
1972. It has since become one of the best-known
families in the population. I have continuous records
of its births and deaths, good times and bad times over the past 38
years.
On that first day
I was with my colleague Harvey Croze and we were trying to contact
as many groups of elephants as possible and photograph at least the
adult members. We drove out to the western part of the Park
crossing the causeway over the Enkongo Narok swamp. Just along the
shore we found a group of females and calves. Unfortunately, they
were disappearing into the deep swamp, but we managed to count 13
animals and note that there were two calves less than a year old.
Harvey took some photographs of the adult females. Two days later
on September 3rd we came upon this group again and this time we
were able to get better photographs and record the age and sex
structure.
To read the whole history of the AA family go to: Amboseli Trust for
Elephants website
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Sex
Change
Recently I spent some time with the EB family in
order to get a photo of Erica's new calf whose birth I reported on
in the last newsletter. I easily found them and got in a position
to take the photos. I took several pictures of the calf exploring
her environment, following her mother, and suckling. Then somewhat
to my surprise I suddenly noticed that this calf was not a female
as we had originally recorded but was very much and very obviously
a male.
Erica's New Male
Calf
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Elephant calves are not
that easy to sex when they are infants but it's also not that
difficult for experienced researchers. However, if we don't look
carefully enough we sometimes get it wrong. A few calves have
remained in the records with the wrong sex for as long as four
years before we noticed the mistake.
I am
happy to report that Erica's little male calf is doing well. I
thought you might help me find a name for him. We've used almost
every "E" name in the Names for Babies books, so it will have to be
an unusual name. For each donation of $10 or more you can submit a
name. Once I get a good number I will chose the winner who will
then receive a full history of the family, a current family tree, a
photo of the calf, and periodic updates during his lifetime. (This
will be a great bargain for the winner, because the usual donation
required to name a calf is $2500.) You can make the donation
through our
websiteand submit the name or names
through the visitors' forum or by sending us an email.
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