Ampie Muller spoke with Gareth Patterson, the author of
the book,
The Secret Elephants which tells the story of the
mythical Knysna elephants.
I have seen elephants in many places in Southern Africa
– naturally in the Kruger National Park and the Addo
Elephant National Park and when I was a child,at the
Pagel or Boswell-Wilkie circuses.
Later, there was also the dramatic search for the desert
elephants in Northern-Namibia. We seldom saw them nearby
and so there was always a scramble to make sure you had
the best binoculars in hand when something appeared on
the horizon.
Then, there was the pleasure to see them when they came
with their calves to the lagoon of the Chobe River, or
they would pose motionless under a ilalapalm in the
Moremi Game Reserve, or suddenly, surprisingly and
noisily come out of the bushes and walk across the path,
only for 5 minutes, and then disappear into the Etosha
Game Reserve, without a trace.
The Knysna elephant's story was actually always a little
bit different – just like the children's rhyme of “He's
here, he's there, where's he?”
In the late 70's, when I first walked the Outeniqua hiking trail
(in those days were the routes 145km long and the first
two days were very exhausting) we were walking on the 7th
day and were very tired, walking towards Diepwalle,
where the route ended, and here we came across elephant
dung.
We were aware that our paths had crossed with the
legendary forest legends.
The legends, namely Grootvoet and his family, was first
brought into our homes when the author, Dalene Mathee
released “Kringe in n Bos'' ( Circles in a Forest) in
1984.
Since 1994 there has been uncertainty as to if there are
still elephants in the Knysna forests and if there is,
how many are there?
Rumor would like us to believe that they were so
exterminated by people, that there were maybe only one
or two elephants remaining. The one of the elephants
being named the Matriach.
Three young elephants were then, as an experiment,
transferred from the Kruger National Park to the Knysna
forests. However in 1999 the decision was made to remove
the Kruger orphans from the forests, and it was thought
that only the Matriach had survived, as there were three
elephant cows in the herd, leaving no future for the
Knysna elephants. The
orphans were tracked, captured and taken away.
Practically, this would have been the end of the Knysna
elephants.
It was then that the wildlife researcher and author,
Gareth Patterson appeared on the scene.
Patterson is a wildlife researcher who is known for his
work with African lions. He is most well known for his
work with George Adamson of Born Free fame. (Adamson as
a game warden in Kenya gained fame for his life with
lions. The most well known lion – Elsa, an orphaned cub
which he had reared.)
I had the opportunity to meet with Patterson to discuss
his new book, The Secret Elephants, which was published
last year by Penguin Books.
“The Secret Elephants” contains an enormous amount of
information on a variety of topics pertaining to the
Knysna elephants, including information about their
diet, including a medicinal fungi that they eat, as well
as a subspecies of Restio known colloquially as
'olifantsgras'.
Patterson walks with long strides. His cap, a
combination of something Desmond Tutu and Glade Nzimande
would wear never came off his head, even during dinner!
Behind the cap there is a shy pony tail which sticks
out. He looks you straight in the eyes, and talks
easily.
I asked him what he thought of the document, in which
committee members of the SANParks claim that there is no
valid evidence that exists to accept that there is more
than one elephant in the Knysna Forests.
He thought for a moment...
“It is difficult for them to say anything else, as they
were responsible for the decision to capture the two
young elephants and take them out of the forests. Should
there be more elephants remaining, including at
least two bulls, then that decision of theirs was an
ecological blunder. To make it worse, some of the photos
in my book are taken by two forest guards, namely
Wilfred Oraai and Karel Maswatie. But, we work very well
together on this cause.”
For Patterson, it is very important that the youngest
South-African National Park, namely, the Garden Route
National Park, was proclaimed in March 2009.
The park consists of the Tsitsikamma and Wilderness
National Parks and the Knysna National Lakes Area.
The elephants that are remaining are in a protected
area.
While Patterson spent more than 6 years doing his
scientific research for his book, he made sure not to
infringe upon the elephant's privacy.
For example, he has tried to estimate the height of the
elephants judging by the amount of mud that was left
rubbed off onto tree trunks and bushes while they
brushed past.
He has also measured the size of their tracks, comparing
them with elephant herds tracks in Kenya.
DNA samples were gathered from samples of their dung and
sent to America, where a young scientist began analysing
the dung.
She found that the DNA belonged to five elephant cows
that were related to each other.
As there are so few elephants remaining, there is
the danger of inbreeding, and the eventual reduction of
reproduction. This situation must be avoided and one
possible solution exists, which is a civil
society project called the Eden-to-Addo conservation
corridor initiative (www.edentoaddo.co.za)
It is an initiative that aims at creating a habitat
between the areas inhabited by the Knysna elephants and
the Addo Elephant population.
The idea is that these corridors will ensure ecological
connectivity and will contribute to the future survival
of the Knysna elephant herd.
When I asked Patterson what the most important lesson he
has learned in his six years in the knysna forests, his
response was “Hope!”
“If the small group of elephants, against such huge
adversity, could survive, there is a chance for us as
inhabitants of earth to survive against global
warming''.
What are you planning for the future?
“I am currently busy with a new project, namely –
investigating the habits of the coastal leopard. I have
permanent infrared cameras set up in the forests, where
I know the leopard is moving. The camera automatically
takes photographs of anything that moves in front of it,
and I already have images of other animals which have
also moved in front of the camera. I am trying to
determine what, in the terms of animal life, is going on
in the forest. A friend of mine who set up a similar
camera in the Noetsie conservancy, has captured
beautiful images of a leopard.
Ampie Muller is the editor of the Afrikaans book talk
show on Fine Music Radio.
