I have worked with captive wild animals for the last 30 years in some capacity, first as a gorilla keeper, then as the field conservation coordinator for the Columbus Zoo then the Brevard Zoo. The best part of working with animals is just being able to observe their behaviors - always fascinating. For the last week I have been in Africa, first in Zimbabwe and now Zambia. It is both surreal and magical to watch elephants come to drink, to hear lions at night, to watch a giraffe at full gallop. A repetitive theme in my life is the absolute astounding beauty of the natural world that surrounds us. There are miracles in the sensitive trunk of an elephant, in their ability to hear one another over long distances through vibrations they can "read" through their feet, in their highly complicated social lives. Miracles abound in the memory of an elephant matriarch who knows where to go to feed and for water during this long hot (and deadly) dry season.
Elephants Observations: At a watering hole in Zimbabwe -near Hwange National Park: A small sub-group of 5 to 10 individuals would come to the water source, stay for a while drinking and cooling off. After a bit, one of the members would break off to stand well away from the water, watching intensely in the distance from which they had come, she would become quite still, scanning the horizon, trunk in the air , then lift one of her front feet and appeared to be “listening”. Sure enough shortly thereafter another small sub-group of elephants would appear on the horizon - heading towards the watering hole. The sentinel would then return to her group and they would move off in the opposite direction - just passing through. I saw this countless times with each new group that came to drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment