I have now completed one of my three weeks at camp and I can’t believe where time is going. I hope the next two weeks don’t go as quick. The weekend has flown by as we have been out carrying out the long term monitoring of the elephants around the park. My first few days in the camp were a little worrying as I heard a lot of comments that the elephants had left as the rains had arrived. Just my luck I thought, and then low and behold….I have seen elephants, elephants and more elephants. It is almost like Samburu National Reserve has become an elephant empire, let’s hope the population here can continue to thrive. I now maybe have over 50 different elephant sightings with over 300 individual elephants. Although I am trying to learn how to identify them, the team here can tell almost straight away from identifying the matriarch by their size, ears and tusks and the group composition. I managed to get one sighting right today, but the fact that she had a very tiny two week old calf almost gave her away. Still it’s a good start.
This morning we went out to drive the Samburu East route of the mammal census and what started to be a re-run of the ‘Great dik dik safari’ became a ‘great elephant viewing’, with two warthog marching 13 piglets down to the river. A few families including the First Ladies, Ol Donyos and Butterflies were by the river gathered under trees sheltering from the midday sun. They were joined by various young bulls trying to attract their attention. This provided a great opportunity for gathering new ear and tusk shots of the young bulls to update the elephant ID files. Following this, we continued on the mammal census and came across a group of 28 elephants who were then joined by 26 others. This was an absolutely amazing sight which I won’t forget in a hurry. 54 elephants from various families, young and old, heading away from the river in one ceremonial herd. We sat and watched them trying to take it all in. Although I have approx 30 photos and three videos you simply cannot explain the beauty of these majestic animals.