Nature's Gentle Giants

Elephants are as unique as people. In this extract from her new book, elephant expert Hannah Mumby shares some fascinating insights into the lives of these wonderful creatures

- Hannah Mumby

‘I CAN’T hear anything.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Honestly, just feedback. Wasn’t his last point here?”

“Oh, but that point was very early this morning. Let’s look for him.”

I sighed and took the radio receiver from my ear. I was tracking a male elephant named Bulumko up in the very north-eastern corner of South Africa with Ronny Makukule and Jess Wilmot, two experienced field workers. I’d expected to hear a clear and firm “bleep, bleep” from the tracking collar which Bulumko had been wearing for several years now.

The collar communicated with a satellite, so we could know his movements from afar. But not today. Instead, there was no trace of him, just a tantalisingly close GPS point we’d received several hours ago when he was foraging nearby. I felt mildly exasperated that the technology had let me down.

Ronny was already scanning the horizon from the canvas roof of our pickup truck, nicknamed Shrek by employees of the non-profit Elephants Alive. It was almost autumn, but the daytime temperatures could still soar up to 34ºC, and Shrek was the best place to be if you couldn’t make it to a swimming pool.

Suddenly, Ronny smiled.

“There he is! In that big block of trees!”

I held up the binoculars. Of course, Ronny was right: Bulumko. He was a towering and impressive bull in his prime, old enough to have distinctive notches in his ears. He probably caught them on branches or thorns, and elephants tend to have more ragged ears the older they get.