The elephant population was decimated back in the early 1900's after farmers had killed off the majority of the elephants natural predators, and the elephants became a problem, eating crops and drinking precious water supplies. Major P.J. Pretorius was hired to exterminate the elephants. He called the bush they lived in, hunter's hell. He described it as being so dense and thorny that you could only see 2 paces in front of you. It took him 3 months to kill his first elephant. Even with the conditions he was determined and managed to kill 114 elephants in 2 years and captured 2 calves to sell to a circus. They killing stopped when the 16 remaining elephants took refuge on the farm of 2 sympathetic farmers, but they had an intense fear and distrust of humans. In 1925 some land was set aside for an elephant park, but the elephants didn't want to move from their safe farm. Eventually, a plan was created to herd them with warning gunshots and fires (to prevent their retreat), to the new park, but it was hard to keep them there, creating a risk to the bordering farms and inhabitants. In 1933 park staff began feeding the elephants, the primary food source being oranges from a local co-operative, to keep them within the park boundaries. In 1954 an elephant proof fence was constructed out of railway ties sunk 1.8 metre into the ground and held together with 3 lengths of lift wire. Though the fence kept the elephants in the park area, they would not stray from the feeding spot and they decimated the vegetation in the feeding area so that there was nothing left to eat except what was provided for them. The elephants would approach the feeding truck screaming and roaring and grabbing oranges. The feeding was stopped in 1979 and the elephants left to eat their natural foods. Given the long life of the elephants (approximately 70 years), citrus fruits are prohibited from the park, for fear that the older elephants will revert to their aggressive behaviour to obtain the fruit from visitors vehicles.
It became apparent how dense and tricky hunting in this type of brush must have been when our vehicle turned a slight left around a bend and we just about ran smack into the back end of this young bull. The first elephant we saw that day.
We could neither hear, nor see him until we were just about on top of him. Elephants are very quiet creatures. The bottoms of their feet are thickly padded like cushions and they only lift one foot at a time to walk or run. Later, we came across two even younger bulls. They were play fighting. The only sound you could hear as they fought with each other was the clash of tusk hitting tusk. There was no other sound at all.
The landscape in the park is very hilly allowing for some pretty spectacular lookout points.
If you look closely, in the middle of the shot, there is a large grey elephant head. I had thought that it was just one dead tree in amongst all the green ones.
After lunch we visited the information centre at the park. This is Hapoor. Well a cast of him at least.
Hapoor was the dominant bull of the Addo elephants for 24 years. On the plaque next to the head it says that the name Hapoor is related to his nicked ear, though I'm not sure what exactly Hapoor means or from what language. It is believed that the nick was caused by a hunters bullet. It was well known that Hapoor had a deep seated hatred for humans. He was extremely aggressive. He fathered the majority of the calves from 1944 - 1968 and increased the population of the herd from 20 to 50. In 1959 he was challenged by another bull and killed his challenger in the fight.
In 1966 Hapoor killed one other elephant, a cow, this time. Park staff had noted that the cow had a large abscess and had tranquilized her to attend to the abscess. As the effects of the tranquilizer took effect Hapoor and another cow tried to keep her up and moving. When they were unsuccessful and the cow fell, unable to get up again, Hapoor stabbed the cow 4 times with his tusks, apparently all brain shots. No one knows why exactly, but I would like to think that it was a natural compassionate response that she not be left to suffer predators, which would speak volumes about the intelligence and social nature of elephants.
In 1968 at 44 years of age Hapoor was deposed of his patriarchal crown, by the son of the cow he had killed. Which makes me wonder about the phrase, elephants never forget, and whether they have the capacity for revenge or if was it just coincidence. Hapoor became a loner and before long broke out of the park through what was thought to be an elephant proof fence. Due to the inability to contain him and his aggressive nature towards humans, the Nature Conservator of the park had no choice but to shoot him. In his honour they named the largest watering hole in the park after him.
Though not aggressive by nature, bull elephants in musth (those looking for a lady elephant, if you know what I mean) can become a little bit crazy and aggressive.
As we were watching the two young bulls play fighting they moved closer and closer to our vehicle. At one point a much larger bull decided that our vehicle was too close and began to walk directly at us, with his head swinging back and forth and his ears flapping. Dh took that as an aggressive, back off behaviour and backed up the vehicle slowly until the older bull stopped, apparently we had reached an acceptable distance. It was a bit of a tense situation. To give you a sense of how big elephants are, here's another photo I took from the lookout.
Needless to say elephants have the right of way at Addo.
Addo Elephant National Park - The Circle of Life
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