Meet the "Vegetable" Family

One of the families most frequently seen here on Lewa is the “Vegetable” family.  I have logged many, many hours with these elephant, and they have taught me a great deal about elephant behavior.

Garbanza when we first met many years ago

For over a decade, the matriarch of the family was Garbanza.  When I first encountered her, she was already an impressive female sporting a rather large set of tusks.  We did not strike up an immediate friendship!  In fact, it was Garbanza who taught me that not all Lewa elephant are “chilled” or approachable.  However, over the years, she became far more trusting and, to her credit, quite tolerant of both vehicles and my frequent presence.

Garbanza shortly after breaking her right tusk 

During the drought of 2007, Garbanza broke her right tusk.  This is not an uncommon occurrence during droughts because as grass and other vegetation become scarce, elephant use their tusks both to strip bark off of trees and to dig up roots and tubers.  As you can see in this photograph, the tusk was broken quite high up, and, as tusks are nothing more than large teeth, there is a good chance that the nerve was exposed which would have caused her a great deal of pain.

The family consisted of 4 females – Garbanza, Celery, Artichoke and Carrot along with their offspring -- and was most often seen on the southwestern side of Lewa. From time to time, the family would head up into the Ngare Ndare forest, located on Lewa’s southern boundary, but, for the most part, they roamed secure within the confines of Lewa.

But, in December of 2011, disaster struck.  When I returned from Christmas holiday in the States, I quickly noticed that Garbanza was missing.  At first, I was hopeful that the family had split up for a bit which will sometimes happen when food is scarce.   But, then I saw her two calves – a clear indication that she was dead.  Elephant are devoted and fiercely protective mothers; so, if a female is absent and her calves are gone as well, it is a fairly safe assumption that she has done a walk about and will return to the family in the near future.  However, if a female is missing and her calves are with the family, it is almost certain that she is dead.

 I do not know how Garbanza died. Hopefully, she was not gunned down by a poacher’s bullet – or, worse yet, forced to endure a slow and agonizing death from a bullet wound gone septic.  She was not a young elephant, so it is possible that she died of natural causes – we will never know.

Loss of a matriarch is devastating for an elephant family under any circumstances.  If it is due to poaching, the entire family is further traumatized in much the same way that humans would be if a family member was gunned down in front of them.  Regardless of the cause, the death of a matriarch is the loss of the decision maker and the individual who guides the family to water, food and safety – in good times and in bad.

Artichoke, seen here with her calf, Pumpkin, has
taken over as head of the family

Fortunately for the Vegetable family, Artichoke has stepped up and assumed the role of matriarch.  Thus far, she has successfully held the family together – which does not always happen – and appears to be a competent leader. 

Next time, Celery comes to the rescue in an interesting twist of fate, and Carrot is a mother, at last.