It's True -- They Like Yoyo Ma

How does one discover that elephant enjoy listening to Yoyo Ma?  The answer is -- quite by accident.

It all started when I was asked by Dr. Lucy King to help in her preliminary research to determine if bees could be an effective way to stop elephant from destroying trees and crop raiding. The study required working with a known population in order to avoid repeatedly sampling the same herd.  That is where I came in.

Lucy and I spent several days playing recordings of bee swarms to known groups of elephant on Lewa; as the control, we played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  We found that elephant frequently were uneasy and left at the sound of bees, but we also noticed that they sometimes came closer to the car to listen when we played the Vivaldi. 

Lire, from the Currency family,
using her trunk to pick up the
vibrations while listening 

A short time later, I had a large bull below my bathroom window.  When he heard my voice, he started to leave.  I quickly turned on Yoyo Ma performing Bach’s concertos for the cello.  To my delight and amazement, the bull returned and stood listening for over half an hour.

At first I could not believe what I was seeing, but when I began to think about it, it all made perfect sense.  Elephant are highly intelligent, very sensitive and emotional.  One of their primary senses is hearing, and they often communicate in very low tones that humans cannot even hear.  Of course, they like Yoyo Ma!

After this epiphany, I decided to further explore my hypothesis and began randomly playing Yoyo Ma for various groups of elephant – both on Lewa and in

Another example of leaning up against
dead wood to enhance listening to
Yoyo Ma

Samburu (a national reserve two hours north of Lewa).  Sometimes they were unsure of what was happening and moved off, but often, whole families would stop whatever they were doing and just listen – clearly savoring the experience.  I frequently observed them leaning their forehead up against some dead wood or laying their trunk on the ground in order to better pick up the vibrations.  They also sometimes moved closer to the car.

Elephant would also sometimes lay their
trunk on the ground to pick up the vibrations

Another interesting bit of information came to light.  While I thought  they would prefer the solo cello concertos, I discovered that, in fact, they prefer the cello in combination with an orchestra.

So, there you have it.  As strange as it may seem, elephant really do enjoy listening to the extraordinary music of Yoyo Ma.

How Do We Know

The question I am asked most often is how do we recognize elephant, in other words, how can we tell who is who.  The answer is there is no easy answer -- it can be any number of things.

In some instances, elephant have a very distinctive overall look.  Anyone, for example, could

Rangoon's unique appearance makes
her very recognizable

recognize Rangoon with her huge cuts, gnarly ears and single tusk.  A more subtle example is Gabriella.  While the uninitiated would have difficulty recognizing her, she is what I think of as a very pretty elephant and one whose overall appearance is, for me, easily identifiable.

Gabriella -- a very pretty elephant

More often, elephant are identified by a combination of features – ears, tusks, veins and family units.  That being said, one must bear in mind that these features can change – sometimes in a very dramatic way.  For example, Heron was very easy to identify because of her unique tusk configuration, as well as a flap of skin hanging down on the bottom of her left ear.   About a year ago, however, she broke both of her tusks, drastically changing her overall appearance.  But, because of her flap, we are still able to quickly recognize her.

Heron's distinctive tusks

Heron's new look

Others changes can be quite tricky until you put the whole picture together.  When I first got to know Magellan, her overall appearance was rather unremarkable except for a small hole in her left ear. In addition, she was a well known member of the Explorer family.  That is how I knew her for many years.  Then, one day, I came across a female resting in the shade with members of the Explorer family.  I was surprised that I did not recognize this female, but she had a cut in her left ear; no one in that family had a similar cut.  So, I took photographs of both ears and went back to check the database. 

The hole in Magellan's ear ripped and
became a cut

A young Magellan had a hole
in her left ear

  What I found was that it was Magellan, but the hole had ripped and was now a small cut which remains to this day.  As is often the case, I was able to positively identify her based on the veins in her right ear.

Like all elephant, Magellan has a
unique vein pattern on each of her ears

Veins play a very significant part in elephant identification.  Tusks break and/or grow and ears can change with time.  But, no two elephant have the same vein pattern in their ears.  It is the equivalent of the human fingerprint.  In some instances, veins provide a very quick fix.  For example, Spinach’s right ear has a very distinctive vein in the lower right quadrant.

The very distinctive vein in Spinach's
right ear, along with her overall
appearance, make her very recognizable

  That vein, combined with her overall appearance, enables us to identify her even on the rare instances when she is not with her mother.  The same is true of Gabriel.  The vein on his right ear and the unusual configuration on his forehead

Gabriel's unique veins make him
easy to recognize, as well

ensure easy recognition.  Once he is mature and leaves the family, we will still be able to identify him with little trouble.  

Sometimes two elephant will look remarkably alike, and only careful attention to veins enables us to correctly identify the elephant in question.

Singapore

A quick example is the left ears on Havarti and Singapore where even the folds are very similar (admittedly, in this example, Singapore’s tusks are a bit bigger but that could be an age factor).   However, if you look at the veins in the upper half of Havarti’s ear, there are two clusters of veins:  the upper is a trident configuration; the lower cluster is a similar pattern

Havarti

with two large veins attached at the bottom.  This pattern is missing in Singapore’s ear, so they cannot be the same elephant.

When the vein pattern is unremarkable, the presence of a family gives us a good place to start with those we do not recognize.  We then have to begin the process of carefully scrutinizing vein patterns.  As simple as that sounds, this can be very tricky and lengthy process.

Hope this helps those of you who are wondering, “how do we know.”

Exciting News/Unusual Behaviours

The Cheese and Vegetable families have been giving us some exciting news along with some very unusual behaviours.

I recently saw a young female coming up the driveway with a brand new baby – and she was all alone.   As I have previously mentioned, elephant seldom give birth alone, and the arrival of a new family member is usually cause for tremendous celebration. 

One day old Butternut stands in the shade of her mother, Spinach

So, needless to say, I was very curious to discover who this solitary new mother was. I could not believe my eyes when I realized that it was Artichoke’s daughter, Spinach!  I had suspected that she was pregnant but was shocked to see her alone with this tiny, little calf – clearly not more than a day old.

Because we were experiencing very, dry conditions with little forage for elephant, we gave Spinach some lucerne.   Then, knowing that her mother was at the feeding station, we hurried down in anticipation of filming the joyous reunion.  However, to my astonishment, Spinach never came down, and Artichoke headed up toward the forest along with the rest of the family.  This was particularly surprising as Spinach is one of those elephant that never strays far and has always been seen with her mother.

The next few times that I saw the Vegetable family, Spinach and her calf were not with them, and I grew increasingly concerned.  However, I am happy to report that Spinach and her little girl, who has been named Butternut, managed to survive, despite being on their own, and are now reunited with the family.

Although quite small for his age, Ricotta manages to keep
up with his mother, Stilton, and the rest of the Cheese family

As I wrote in the last blog, Mozzarella has had her first baby, a little girl named Emmental.   Stilton also has had her first calf during these difficult times.  She remains with the Cheeses lately, although Mozzarella still spends most of her time with the Vegetable family.  The dry spell has broken, and both Emmental and Ricotta survived the hard times.  I am sure that both first time mothers benefited from being part of strong families headed by wise matriarchs. 

I do, however, remain a bit concerned about Ricotta as he is still quite small for his age and, despite the fact that new, nutritious grass is abundant, Stilton still appears not to have much milk.  So, only time will tell if little Ricotta will grow to be the healthy young bull that we are hoping for.

In the meantime, Celery and the two boys remain with Camembert who has been coming to the feeding station on a regular basis.

Drought Tactics -- Ours and Theirs

Like all of northern Kenya, Lewa is experiencing drought conditions  -- very hot and very, very dry.  Meteorologists are saying that “better than average” rain is coming. But, in the meantime, elephant are struggling to find enough food.  

We are hoping that the supplemental feeding
will help Stilton's calf to survive

We are particularly concerned about two new babies of first time mothers in the Cheese family – a little girl named Emmental, born to Mozzarella in March, and Stilton’s baby boy who is only two months old.  Due to the lack of nutritious food, Stilton has very little milk.  It is heartbreaking to watch her tiny, new calf trying to suckle and giving up after only a few moments.  

As the saying goes, drastic times call for drastic measures.

Camembert stuffs her "snack" in between
her trunk and her tusks

So . . . .  at our feeding station that the Cheeses visit on a regular basis, we have upped our game and rather than using the usual cut grass with a bit of molasses, we are putting out high quality hay along with lots of tasty, sugary molasses.  From time to time, we are also supplementing their diet with lucerne which has a very high nutritional content.  We are hopeful that this additional food will help these precious little elephant survive.

Camembert often takes more than her
fair share

On a lighter note, it has been extremely entertaining to watch different elephants’ techniques for ensuring that they get their fair share (or, in some cases, much more than their fair share) of the treats.

Havarti has adopted her mother's
technique for storing food

Camembert, for example, has developed a clever method of stuffing as much hay or lucerne as possible between her trunk and her tusks.  She stores that bunch away for later and then, as quickly as possible, eats what is on the ground.  On one occasion, she actually stuffed both of her tusks, grabbed a big mouthful, took another big bail of molasses hay in her trunk and then walked far away from the others in hopes of eating undisturbed.  Camembert’s daughter, Havarti, has just recently started to copy her mother’s technique.

Asparagus grabs some food and runs as
quickly as possible away from the group

Asparagus’s strategy is to get in early, grab a big bunch and then run as quickly as possible away from the group – hoping to go unnoticed.  So far, he has been quite successful.  The other day, Mozzarella decided not to take any chances; she grabbed a bundle of lucerne and carried it all the way across the river so that no one could steal her breakfast.

From time to time, Camembert comes to the car to say "hello"

It has taken many, many years to slowly earn the trust of these elephant.  They still remain completely wild and make contact with us when and if they chose -- and always on their own terms.  But, as any friend would do, Camembert sometimes comes over to the car just to say “hello.” 

Despite this, I was utterly amazed the other day when Celery decided that she could not wait for us to off load the hay that was on top of the car.  So, she walked right up and helped herself!

Celery was too impatient to wait for us to off load the hay
and molasses, so, much to our surprise, she helped herself!