All who saw BBC 1’S ‘Secret Life of Elephants’ will remember Mohican, the matriarch of the Native Americans herd. She became a star of the show when she mated with intimidating, car-crusher, Rommel. On top of this she displayed exceptional motherly instincts when her calf was pushed over by a member of the Winds family. She rushed to the scene and chased away the aggressors before returning to sniff her calf and the area around him, apparently in an attempt to ascertain what happened.
During the wet season Mohican was a familiar face to the Save the Elephants team. Her family was relatively small, consisting mainly of her daughters and their offspring. Mohican was between thirty and thirty five years old, still in her prime as a matriarchal figure.
It is with great regret and sorrow that I must inform you that she was recently found dead. The team went to investigate a report of a dead elephant South of the Buffalo Springs airstrip. It was Mohican. She still had her tusks, so it was not poaching. The natural death of this much-loved regular was, however, deeply sad to discover. It seems likely that her death was as a result of disease.
We are unable to confirm how the rest of her family is doing, as they have not yet returned to the Reserve. We are, however, optimistic. Her daughters are of an age that renders them more than capable of surviving alone. Mohican’s youngest calf was about a year and a half old, which should be old enough to give him every chance of survival if cared for properly by his sisters. Everyone here is optimistic about the Native Americans chances. It will be tough but they will continue on without their much-loved matriarch Mohican.