We know elephants are capable of impressive teamwork when one of their own is in trouble, but not all herds cope well in a crisis. When a young calf had a mishap in the mud recently at a waterhole in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve, the rest of its herd launched an equally muddled rescue mission.
With the mother elephant trying desperately to scoop her calf to safety, most of the other herd members stood by without coming to her aid. “They were very inexperienced in the situation and didn’t really offer any help as breeding herds would normally do,” he notes.
Wildlife rehabilitator Karen Trendler, who has also witnessed similar scenarios, agrees that inexperience seems to blame here. “There is surprisingly little communication. The mother doesn’t give distress calls that would have alerted other females for assistance. This could be due to inexperience, age or position within herd hierarchy,” she explains.
With the herd adopting a back-and-forth strategy of retreat and hapless milling around, the calf’s fate looked increasingly precarious. Struggling to free itself from the slippery mud, it became agitated and exhausted – and the ordeal clearly had an effect on the other elephants. “It’s interesting to note the distress shown by the other calves – note their tails and heads are up, and their ears are forward,” says Trendler.
For Verster, watching events unfold from the sidelines was extremely difficult, but his experience told him not to interfere. “The hardest thing was watching the calf struggle and possibly face drowning. My immediate instinct was to get involved, but in these situations it’s important not to intervene. This was an important lesson for both the herd and the young calf,” he says.
Image: Rodney Steyn