The most interesting bit of news is regarding a new family identified in Buffalo Springs.
We have occasionally come across unknown, very wild groups on the southern border or outside the Buffalo boundary. It has been over 6 years, however, since we have had a new family move into the reserve and use the protected area for an extended period. The newly identified family contains a single breeding female and five immature individuals. The ages of the calves indicate that at least 2 of the calves are not born from the single breeding female, and that at least two breeding females (the mothers of the extra calves) are missing from the family.
We have seen similar group structure, where a surviving breeding female is together with numerous young calves that are not her own, with well known families in which multiple breeding females have been killed by humans. So it looks like this family recently got hit and has moved into the park for refuge. Such an event may be indicative of problems elephants are experiencing in outlying areas. Further, this incident demonstrates the utility of the long term monitoring project as an early warning system of problems elephants are encountering.
From their behavior, the family appears to be relatively calm in the presence of cars though more nervous than resident elephants. I would guess they have been in the park for at least 2 months. On July 17th 2005, we witnessed the new elephants greeting a young female from Cumulus’s family. The matriarch and Cumulus also exchanged contact calls indicating these two families are familiar with each other. This may be from recent interactions or possibly indicative of previous contact between the families in outlying areas.