Nobody's Elephant

Scientists monitoring the Knysna Forest have captured on film an enigmatic forest elephant. But is she the last? Bronwyn Mulrooney spends time with the team to find out

If you’ve ever walked in Knysna’s forests you might have felt its special spirit. Not the birdsong in the canopy punctuated by the low kow-kow-kow-kow of the resident turacos. Not the dappled light on the forest paths as the breeze stirs the leaves. Not even the mossy rocks, the boughs draped in old man’s beard, and the trunks adorned with fungi that appear to have been plucked from Tolkien’s Middle-earth. But more than this, it’s the feeling of sharing that space with the forest’s most intriguing inhabitants, its elephants.

Whether cultivated through Dalene Matthee’s descriptions of these animals in her forest novels, or from years of hearing stories about them, or simply through their elusive nature, an air of mystery surrounds Knysna’s elephants. We know they’re there, and half expect to see them on our forest walks, but we seldom do.

This has led to much debate over the years on the actual number of Knysna elephants left in the forest. Some estimates put it at 11, others at just five. Whatever the reality, fans of the forest and its gentle giants have always believed the animals are still there, silently going about their business in the Garden Route National Park under the guardianship of SANParks.

But this belief was called into question in February, when SANParks released the results of a recent camera-trap survey that suggests these numbers have dwindled to just one solitary female.

The intensive, scientifically-designed study was conducted over a 15-month period by SANParks scientist Lizette Moolman assisted by biotechnician Melanie de Morney and field and section rangers Karel Maswatie, Wilfred Oraai, Douglas London, Johannes Matabata, Dominique du Toit and Klaas Havenga.