It's a boy!

30/03/2009 02:33:03 PM

8 March, PM Game Drive :

This afternoon’s game drive started in much the same fashion as most of our Game Drives have done for the past 2 months. The big herd of Elephants were grazing on Mphofu (Eland) Plains, below the lodge on the fresh, green Couch-grass shoots that have shot up after the February rains.

We were busy watching the Elephants as they kicked up tufts of grass, slapped off the excess dirt left on the roots, and gently placed it into their mouths, before kicking up the next tuft.

One of the cows was not feeding and on close inspection was secreting a strange fluid from between her hind legs. I had never seen this in elephants before and while trying to rack my brain, I remembered where I had seen it before. Buffalo, Wildebeest, Impala, Giraffe, Hippo, Zebra. All animals I have seen give birth always had this secretion just minutes before giving birth. But could this be, I thought. Was I going to witness one of the most uncommon events in nature? Next we saw her water break which sparked some interest from some elephants in the immediate vicinity. We stayed with the cow for another 15 minutes before she moved into some bush just off the clearing.

Not wanting to disturb her, we gave her enough room to relax and waited. We didn’t see the calf actually drop, but at the moment it did, the elephants that had been grazing peacefully on the plain lifted their trunks and started running in the direction of the cow and calf.

One of them was a young bull who ran straight in and mounted the cow who had just given birth. The other elephants ran straight to the young calf and it was then we got our first view of the new born calf. It was a boy!  Still soaking wet and full of hair, he was walking around within five minutes of birth.(Very impressive as some impala and buffalo I’ve seen born have taken at least 30 minutes to stand.)

After a further 10 minutes of elephants huddling and herding around the newborn and the mother still being pestered by the young bull, she brought her newborn onto the clearing where we were able to get a good look at him.

It was amazing to witness this event and we all felt honoured that the relaxed and trusting nature of the Addo Elephants had once again allowed us into their world and enabled us to witness an event very few people will ever do.