Stan
The whole thing hinges on water & food supply. Adult Ellies consume
plenty - at least 50L water & 50Kg food per day. The family groups are
all matriarchal. The adult, breeding bulls live separately & only join
the herds when in musth. In former years wind pumps were erected all
over the park to feed artificial water holes from boreholes. The Ellie
herds could then roam between them in the dry season. The downside was
that Lions (who live in prides to defend a water supply) moved into
areas where they could not normally survive. They decimated the rare
Roan antelope in the drier northern part of the Park. So, all the pumps
were closed down. The Lions left & the Roan have begun to recover. The
Ellies are forced to live near permanent water supplies in the drier
time of the year. During this period the big herds split into smaller
groups (high efficiency with apprentice matriarchs?) which forage for
food (mostly Mopani scrub) over a wide area around the dam. So, yes,
they will merge when the rainy season arrives because water & food will
be available over a bigger area & we won't see much of them until the
next dry season.
The small herds have become very tolerant of motor vehicles. Some days
there are many vehicles trapped at the North end for a couple of hours
while the Ellies do their thing. They wander unconcerned between them &
even peer inside! Bulls in Musth are another thing altogether - very
dangerous & should be avoided. Many vehicles have been damaged, even
rolled over, because stupid tourists got too close.
Alan C
P.S. Some Roan Bulls were imported from Zimbabwe to increase the gene
pool & a herd of about 30 has recently been spotted at Tsendze about
100Km north of here which is good news. The biggest headache in the Park
today is poaching. In spite of all their efforts, they are still losing
a lot of Rhinos. People in Oriental countries believe powdered horn is
an aphrodisiac & will pay a lot to get it. The poachers are now
targeting Big Tusker Ellie Bulls too. There are only about 2000 Rhinos
and 12000 Ellies left in Kruger now.
On 06-Sep-23 05:53 PM, Stanley Halpin wrote:
Alan - nice image!
But, just idle curiosity… Since you merged the images for a pano, will this
inspire the two herds to merge as well? Or are they determined to remain
separate from one another??
Stan
On Sep 6, 2023, at 7:01 AM, Alan C <c...@lantic.net> wrote:
As you may have gathered from previous posts, there are several smallish herds
of Elephants in the area of Sable Dam in the Kruger Park about 15Km from
Phalaborwa primarily because it is the only permanent water in the area. It is
accessed by many other species too. It is big enough to last through the dry
season until the next rains. On Saturday, I was sitting in my car at the North
end when 2 herds arrived simultaneously on opposite sides to drink. I took 5
shots to make a Pano.
Now, frames 2 & 3 wouldn't merge so my first effort was two shorter Panos combined into
a strip. Yesterday I examined the corresponding edges of the offending frames & could
not understand why they wouldn't merge. I cropped thin slivers from each which then merged
so I tried again using the original 5 & the newly created one - success!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wisselstroom/53168126899/
K5 & HD 55-300 WR
Alan C
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