Our team of trained pilots crisscross the huge roadless expanse that is the Tsavo Conservation Area every day. As you can imagine, they have some pretty incredible stories to tell. Occurring underneath them is the never-ending tale of the African savannah.
At Tsavo Trust, we know a thing or two about elephants. You can learn a lot about elephants by observing them from your car, seeing them in a zoo, or reading about them in a textbook but when you observe them from above in a nippy Super Cub aircraft you see some incredible things. In this article, we explore the 7 most interesting things you learn about elephants when you observe them from above.
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How far they travel in a single day.
A lot of people will tell you that elephants usually walk around 25km each day, but this is an oversimplification. This is only true for Asian elephants who live in humid conditions with access to plentiful water and food.
African elephants in the savannahs of Tsavo need to walk much further to reach familiar watering holes and grazing spots. Some African elephants have been known to cover up to 200km in a single day! Our pilots estimate anywhere between 50km and 150km as the usual distance covered by a Tsavo elephant.
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Elephant herds can be enormous.
Whilst most elephant herds have between 10-20 members, most of which are older females and younger members, elephant herds have been known to be hundreds of members strong. Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is known for its ‘super herds’ of 350 elephants.
Tsavo itself has seen some enormous herds in its time. The largest herd over the last few years featured 189 elephants and was a truly mind-boggling spectacle to view from above.
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Elephants have extremely clever and complex social systems.
Elephant herds are matriarchal. One female acts as the leader and the guide and, using their very impressive memories, guides the rest of the herd to water and food. The females protect the younger, more vulnerable elephants by positioning themselves around them in a ring to prevent predators from harassing them. Male elephants begin to distance themselves from the herd at adolescence before eventually breaking off from the herd completely. They are frequently found in groups of other ‘bachelors’ who fight for the privilege of mating with herd females.
Our pilots have the opportunity to watch these dynastic narratives play out from above and it is impossible not to develop an emotional connection to the ever-changing lives of an African elephant.
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Elephants get sunburnt.
Elephants absolutely love to have mud baths. There is nothing more heart-warming than watching a baby elephant frolic in the mud from above. Interestingly, there is actually a very important health benefit of these fun mud baths. The mud sticks to the elephants’ skin and actually prevents them from getting sunburnt.
I’ll stick to sun cream thank you very much!
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Elephant tusks look even bigger from above.
When you are soaring over the plains of Tsavo, observing the wildlife from the clouds, the animals can look like tiny specks scattered across the savannah. This is true for most animals but for some reason the Tsavo elephants look even bigger!
Our pilots aren’t sure if it is the angle or the way the light catches the ivory, but elephant tusks look ginormous from above. It’s just another reason we need to do all we can to preserve Tsavo’s ‘big tuskers’. To ensure their genes stay in Tsavo for centuries to come.
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Some of Tsavo’s elephants don’t fear the Super Cub aircraft.
The work we do at Tsavo Trust, in conjunction with our brilliant colleagues at KWS, means we are always monitoring the remaining ‘big tuskers’ as they are most at risk from poaching. Remarkably, many of these big elephants are very calm when the aircraft is near them.
We like to think that they know we are here to protect them but who knows what goes on in an elephant’s big brain.
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Elephants produce a lot of dung.
Elephants are constantly grazing. It is estimated that an adult elephant needs to eat up to 150kg of food each day. Inevitably, a lot of this has to come out as waste. When our pilots fly low enough behind some of the larger elephant herds in Tsavo, this waste is clear to see.
Thankfully, elephant dung doesn’t smell because elephants are herbivores. Their dung is usually recycled by other creatures and returns to the sophisticated ecosystem in Tsavo.