There's an Elephant in my Backyard!

Wanted to share these two interesting pictures with members here...

Now there's nothing special about the pictures itself - much better pictures have been taken of elephants.

But what is interesting about these pictures is "where" they were taken...

Our property is situated 12 miles South of a town called Lephalale (Ellisras) and the last free ranging elephants that roamed this area probably did so 200 years ago... The closest free ranging elephants one would find in our general vicinity would be North of us in the Tuli Block of Botswana - the border being the Limpopo River which is about 65 miles from here...

However; I didn't take these pictures in Botswana this past Sunday but right here - on our own property!

Apparently these two elephant bulls decided to follow the example set by thousands of Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Botswana illegal immigrants and trekked across the Limpopo River towards South Africa...

They've walked through agricultural farmland game ranches, crossed paved roads and destroyed fences and on Sunday afternoon found themselves in my "backyard"...


Picture of elephant taken on our property - 200 yards from my house.


Picture taken of the two bulls after they'd crossed my property and had fed on corn on my neighbor's.

This is Africa! Never a dull moment!

Hi Chris,

I was in the area with a Spanish Client this weekend and on the way back to camp, the radio call came through that the Elephants were 15Km's up the road on the neighboring farm!

Very interesting and without photos, I think people would say we were smoking some good stuff....

Regards

I wonder if these ele's are from Botswana and they've moved out to either find food or avoid poachers?

Hope they didn't do too much damage and that game officials can chase them to a more acceptable area.

Why are elephants there? Because they want to be!!!!

Just amazing....

That is just awesome to see. Did they do alot of damage to your fences getting on your place? I guess that is the only real down side to the whole thing.

As I understand it, something has to give up in Botswana!

Very interesting article, I think in last April's issue of Outfitter magazine?

Talks about how the first priority of conservation needs to be the soil, then the plants, and then the wildlife.... Seems to be common sense when you think about it. If animals are to have food, they need plants to eat and soil for the plants to grow in.... Also went on to discuss how the exploding elephant populations in certain areas, such as Botswana (and Kruger?) are devastating the other wildlife species. Elephants can walk much farther to eat and back to water than most any other species... So other species die out as the forage near the water sources is consumed... Then without cover to hold it, the soil erodes away. This is not sustainable and takes many thousands of years to correct, and may never be corrected.

It also had some very interesting graphical explanations to illustrate this overtime.

The author goes on to say it appears as though Botswana's elephant population is maxed out and to the point that the death rate in increasing, especially amongst the young, an that elephants are moving out into bordering areas... As in this case.

It comes down to maintaining a healthy balance. Hunting is the answer! To bad the politicians cannot understand this.

billc said:

That is just awesome to see. Did they do alot of damage to your fences getting on your place? I guess that is the only real down side to the whole thing.

Click to expand...

Hi Bill,

They damaged two fences on Sunday - one as they entered my property and another as they went out. We fixed these fences yesterday... And today the elephants came back the same way they came in and destroyed both fences again - almost in the exact same place.

It is an inconvenience and it is costly but hell... TIA...

Have you heard on what they plan to do with them? I would guess they are breaking alot of stuff and how many times do they think you should need to fix your fences.
Would there be a good chance more could come along following the two.

Chris;
Any chance you will be issued a permit to hunt them? Does the one have a broken tusk? Looks like the bigger bull but hard to tell in the photos.

Or will you just have to tolerate them?

During my Zimbabwe elephant hunt, all the hunting was along the Limpopo. Where the camp was we were right across from Kruger.. But the other area that had a herd of about 50 elephants living there was across from some large RSA crop farms... Specifically tomatoes. There was twine from the trellises and tomato pealings evident in the elephant dung. And the older stuff had little tomato shoots growing in it.

I'm sure that herd was driving those farmers bonkers trying to keep them out and from damaging things. I think they were going over there most every night!

By the looks of things the elephants are backtracking to Botswana following the same basic route they did when they came in. We will have to wait and see...

Our local Nature Conservation Dept is not keen to issue hunting permits. When I phoned today I was told they'll issue me with a permit to capture the eles and relocate them... This would be a costly exercise that I'm definitely not interested in.

The larger bull does have one broken tusk. They're both still relatively young bulls... No serious ivory there...

Very cool, hope they dont cause too much trouble. Enjoy them whilst they pass through.

That´s amazing Chris, I´ve heard about lions in your neighborhood, but never elephants !

CT Safaris said:

.............

Our local Nature Conservation Dept is not keen to issue hunting permits. When I phoned today I was told they'll issue me with a permit to capture the eles and relocate them... This would be a costly exercise that I'm definitely not interested in......

Click to expand...

Very cool to see the young guys out on a tour.

A few months back there was a Bull in Namibia that started causing some issues for farmers. MET let it go and let it go and people took it upon themselves to protect their property and irritated the bull until so much damage was caused that finally MET ended up "destroying" the Bull as a problem animal.

It's a tough position to be in. Great to see them but they sure can cause a lot of damage in a developed area.

Chris, Start a campaign asking for donations to save the Elephants and you can relocate them and pocket the difference or put the money away to save the next ones that come along.

CT Safaris said:

Wanted to share these two interesting pictures with members here...

Now there's nothing special about the pictures itself - much better pictures have been taken of elephants.

But what is interesting about these pictures is "where" they were taken...

Our property is situated 12 miles South of a town called Lephalale (Ellisras) and the last free ranging elephants that roamed this area probably did so 200 years ago... The closest free ranging elephants one would find in our general vicinity would be North of us in the Tuli Block of Botswana - the border being the Limpopo River which is about 65 miles from here...

However; I didn't take these pictures in Botswana this past Sunday but right here - on our own property!

Apparently these two elephant bulls decided to follow the example set by thousands of Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Botswana illegal immigrants and trekked across the Limpopo River towards South Africa...

They've walked through agricultural farmland game ranches, crossed paved roads and destroyed fences and on Sunday afternoon found themselves in my "backyard"...


Picture of elephant taken on our property - 200 yards from my house.


Picture taken of the two bulls after they'd crossed my property and had fed on corn on my neighbor's.

Click to expand...

This is interesting. Johan Moolman the man who owns Goedehoop safaris in Namibia posted a picture on facebook of an elephant on his property near Arnos. He lives in the kalahari and his farm borders Botswana. Must be a reason they are moving out of Botswana

Amazing story and nice pictures.
Witold

Chris, thanks for the pictures and the post!

Here in Anchorage, we sometimes have wild animals wandering through but, so far no elephants.

Wow Chris, how are Sabina's Horses and Dogs reacting to the Visitors

What fun. And, here in the states I get excited if a bobcat, deer, black bear or turkey is sighted.