A true South African safari story by Toni Hasler.
I am fortunate to have visited the Manyeleti game reserve reasonably often. Manyeleti borders the Kruger Park and has no fences between the two reserves, so the animals have space larger than the size of Wales to wander as they please. Animals are never fed there by humans. They live totally natural lives, hunting and being hunted by other creatures of prey.
Tourists are the lifeblood of these reserves, which also have to ensure that visitors remember to take care of the environment, and particularly, to remember that the animals in these reserves are totally wild.
On one of my visits some year ago to one of the lodges there, there was a foreign couple, who could only speak a little English. They clearly did not know this very basic fact of game reserve life.
We had returned from a great early morning game drive. During the drive we had been told by the ranger that there was a young male elephant in the area (yes, full of testosterone –and on the look out for a female elephant) that was being particularly destructive. He said that this elephant has been into the staff accommodation area just two days before and had angrily torn off the wing mirrors of a staff member’s car. To add insult to injury, the elephant had seemed to think that this car was some kind of threat to his search for a woman, so he had positioned his large posterior right on top of the bonnet of the car, denting it irreparably. Amusing, maybe, but not to the poor owner of the car, and not to the staff members who were in their area at the time, who were very afraid. The ranger had warned us that he may still be around, and he was dangerous.
I thought no more of it and returned to my chalet thinking of the refreshing, cool shower I was about to take. As I opened the stable door to my chalet, there was a loud crunching noise about 100 yards from my chalet. I turned and I felt my heart in my mouth.
There was a large elephant in the camp, and he had just trampled and crushed a fairly large and pretty thorn tree that was in his way. He was heading for the camp swimming pool for a midday drink. As he walked, or rather stomped, it was very clear to see the streaks of fluid running down the side of his cheeks, a clear sign he was in musth. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the very elephant that the ranger had warned us about. I looked towards the other chalets, and realised that I was the only one in the chalets. The other guests were most likely sitting in the open lounge – covered only in cool thatch. I quickly moved inside and shut the bottom half of the door, and stood very still watching the elephant as he moved in the direction of the pool.
To my utmost horror, I then saw the foreign couple who had been on the game drive with us. The gent had seen the elephant, and was walking directly towards him, face to face, saying, “Hullo, elephant. Hullo – here, here” and gesticulating with his hands inviting the elephant to come closer.
The elephant suddenly saw the gent, and his lady – who had followed her husband to a few paces behind him. It was clear that the elephant was surprised, as he stopped immediately, raising his trunk and shaking his head wildly from side to side, and digging his front foot into the grass. It was also clear to me (and should have been clear to the tourist) that the elephant was angry and did not like this human who had the gall to stand there just feet away from him, chatting to him as though he were just a little pussy cat.
I knew I had to do something, and I also knew that I would be putting myself into extreme danger if I rushed out. That would only make the problem worse. I did the only thing I could do. I opened my lungs and I screamed as loudly as I could to the tourist, “Get away from him. Get away from him. Someone please help……danger, danger!” The tourist, not understanding English, nor understanding the body language of this wild, angry animal in front of him, continued gesticulating to the elephant, which then made a mock charge towards this silly man.
At that point, and not a second too late, the ranger who had been with us earlier rushed out with a gun, pushed the man and his wife out of the way – and indicated by pointing that they must immediately get back to the lounge area. Which they did, realising – when they saw the gun – that maybe something was wrong.
The elephant had seen the ranger before, and what happened next was something that just amazed me. The ranger spoke quietly to the elephant, while pointing his gun at the elephant’s head, and moved very slowly but in a deliberately threatening way a little closer to the elephant. He continued talking quietly to the elephant, and to my utmost surprise the elephant swung his huge head around, turned tail, and once again swaggered off, with the ranger behind him, still talking and still pointing his gun. The ranger walked until the elephant had moved out of the camp and once again disappeared into the mopani bushes.
Shortly afterwards, the ranger came back into view, and I left my chalet and moved up to talk to him. “Was it you who screamed for help?” he asked me – and I replied in the affirmative. “Not a moment too soon!” he said. “That elephant was ready to kill – and I intend having a word with those f****** tourists.” I forgave the expletive, and said to him, “How on earth did you calm that mad ellie? And what was it you did that made him turn around and go?” He shrugged, and told me that he had found that he had a way with animals – and that he had had a similar conversation with this same angry elephant just recently when the huge creature had destroyed his colleague’s car. He continued saying that this time, not only had the tourist gone too far, but the elephant also had now become far too dangerous because he had learned not to fear humans.
We were by now at the open air lounge, and I watched as the ranger moved amongst the other guests – who had by now picked up the buzz that something had happened. He quietly took the foreign tourists aside and some distance from the other guests.
His words could not be heard, but his face and hands said it all. The foreigners then walked back to their chalet and did not appear again until the evening game drive. Their behaviour from then until they left was restrained and quiet. They had learned their lesson!
A day later, I caught up with the ranger on his own, and asked him if he had seen the elephant again. He looked at me quizzically, and I could see he did not want to respond. After a moment, he said to me, “We had to track him down after the last incident, and sadly, we were forced to shoot him. We did not want him to kill a human, and so we had to take him out. He died humanely – please don’t think he suffered.” It was not quite the response I had expected, but when I saw his face – and the deep sadness etched on it – I knew that what they had done was absolutely right. The elephant would have killed a human, whether sooner or later – and they simply could not allow that to happen. I felt a lump in my throat and as I turned to walk back to my chalet I said to him, “Thank you for being so caring”.
An elephant whisperer? Who knows!
(Story and images - copyrighted to Toni Hasler. All rights reserved.)
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