Some might enjoy some exquisite shots here.Indeed Africa is beautiful in it's variety.
Suddenly SA is not such a bad place to be.
https://africageographic.com/stories/photographer-of-the-year-2022-weekly-selection-week-7/
Stunning images...
Seeing that Elephant pic reminds me of those video clips of the Elephants and Baboons that get drunk and stumble all over the place after eating from the Amarula fruit tree
Africa has its own natural wildlife beauty and this is clearly another series of photographs illustrating that fact.
I was fortunate to have had the opportunity of experiencing many of these natural wonders by being born on the African continent and spending many years travelling and visiting such areas and observing animals in their natural habitat.
Forever thankful.
But have you seen a Knysna elephant roaming free AJ ? By chance I did. We were traveling from Plet to Buffalo Bay to surf. And took some of the back roads. Suddenly in the middle of a dirt road…a Knysna elephant. We had a cine with us to record the surfing…so we recorded the elephant.
The resultant movie was weird….surfing, an elephant, more surfing. Sadly on one of my many moves, I lost the reel.
Mozart
I worked for Forestry Department for ten years and there were many elephant stories in the 1960's. During one of the holidays I visited Harkerville forest and came across some of the elephants - they always followed fixed routes when they move along and Harkerville was part of the route. Forestry in the 1960's decided to build wooden homes on plantations and afforested areas. The elephants loved to rub themselves against those and that caused limiless hysteria by the residents. They never actually destroyed a house - but the rubbing was enough to give residents the fear of their lives.
During an official visit to the Knysna area we were taken to one forest area and their came across a destroyed gate leading to a yard where harvested wood were kept. The local forester told us the gate thus far were destroyed three times and it would be better to move the yard away from the elephant walk. Not easy since the yard had to have access through roads handling heavy duty traffic.
My father one night was travelling at night near the Garden of Eden when suddenly there was an elephant in the road. I can lay a bet - a reverse gear speed record was set that evening.
One of the local elephants was called "Aftand" was really troublesome and in the end shot illegally by Saasveld College officials. They did not have permission and five of them were reprimanded and away from the Southern Cape area. Aftand was one of the last remaining elephants in the Knysna area and after 1974 there were no sightings and assumedly no live elephants in the area anymore. In the 1990's a few elephants were moved from the Addo Elephant Park to the area and they are thriving in the forest areas around Knys na.
You may find the following interesting:-
"The Knysna Elephant Park (est. 1994) was the first facility in South Africa to house and care for orphaned African elephants. Over the last twenty years, the park has cared for and raised more than forty elephants. These animals include relocated animals, orphaned calves, and elephants rescued from culls. Some have become part of the resident herd, others have moved onto other reserves and facilities in the Western and Eastern Cape, depending on their personalities, bonds with other animals and welfare needs."
Duplication
No I never encountered a wild Knysna elephant.
But I did have a chance to be involved with the Natal Parks Board crews on Rhino captures and transfer operations up in Northern Zululand in the mid 60"s.
Without doubt the most personal rewarding events that I ever had the honor to contribute and work on.
These Rhino's have been hunted down in other parts of Africa for their "Horn" that the Chinese pay vast amounts of money for and this program was aimed at restocking some parks around Southern and Central Africa.
An interesting point is that this "Rhino Horn" is in fact a "Horn of Hair" and unfortunately for the Rhino the folks in China claim that this "Horn" when treated and rendered to a powder is a great sex aid.
So killing Rhino for the Horn was really profitable for the local population. But with education and creating work for the local people has helped to greatly reduce the slaughter.
The sad side of this is that with the number of Chinese people inhabiting the earth the last thing they would require is a sex stimulant!
Killing Rhino for a HUMP.
Sad but True.
My step brother lived in Knysna and was involved in nature conservation and he saw elephant in forest on a few times. A very rare event as these elephant are extremely shy to man...a forest specie.
On White Rhino, Ian Player, Gary's older boet, saved the species by allowing professional hunting under licence which he initially opposed but came down ruthlessly on poaching for rhino horn.
He reasoned the revenue at R900,000 per trophy was revenue to be ploughed back to conserve them and he indeed saved them and they multiplied under profitable game farming. In early 1900's there were estimated only 50 - 100 left. Today they are close on 20,000.
Lovely old man he was, had the privilege of chatting to him once.
He left a legacy.
Thank you for mentioning Ian Player.
Forgive me for not mentioning him in my comment as he was the ambassador for Rhino conservation plus his many other less know conservation achievements.
Yes, credit to the man for what he accomplished for nature plus he was a gentlemen and an officer of great standing.
I did have the opportunity of meeting him at a fund raiser and yes it was a privilege to have met and chatted with him.
Men with similar qualities such as Ian Player had are few and far between.
Unfortunately.
Ja, Arthur, Dr Ian Player was one of the very best left and as you correctly say none left.
He would have saved the Knysna Forest Elephants if he was with the Cape Division.
An indictment to our new National Parks. To save these elephants. It is too late now, even to cross breed these with Addo stock is NOT the solution.Forest elephants are totally different.
On Knysna elephants, there is supposed to be only one left, she is an estimated 45 year old cow.
This is totally unacceptable, in an around 1985 to about 1991 there was an estimate of about 10 to 14, including a young calf.
How this was allowed to happen, God forbid. How can we be so irresponsible with God's wonderful creatures given to us.. It is very disturbing.
The Knysna elephants - Knysna Museums
Interesting and thanks.