Undaunted ellie

QINGRID PASSIER from Roodepoort writes: This elephant cow is part of a breeding herd that ranges between the Kruger Park and the Klaserie area. I contacted the Elephants Alive foundation and apparently the injury to her trunk was first reported about six years ago, although nobody seems to know what exactly happened. When she drinks water, it spills through the hole, yet despite her disability she recently gave birth to a calf. It’s beautiful to see how she has survived against all odds, living a relatively normal life.

AWildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: The cause of the hole is indeed a mystery to the section rangers and veterinarians who work in that part of the Kruger and surrounds. Maybe, when she was a calf, two elephant bulls were fighting and she got in the way. It could also be a bullet or spear wound, a birth defect or even the result of an abscess. It looks like there is a scar running down from her right eye to the hole. It’s amazing how an elephant with a trunk injury can adapt. Trunk amputations are mostly caused by wires or cable snares set by poachers. The most famous elephant with a visible injury was probably Mafunyane, “The Irritable One”. He was one of the Kruger’s Magnificent Seven and had a fist-sized hole in his forehead. He lived in the Pafuri area and died of natural causes in 1984. their nests on the ground. None of the nests had been completed, however. Were they just practising?

AOrnithologist ULRICH OBERPRIELER says: These nests were built by red-billed queleas. With the information provided, it’s hard to say why they abandoned the building process, but clearly the habitat wasn’t suitable. The birds probably stopped building because the vegetation was too low and sparse. Redbilled queleas tend to nest in enormous colonies, which explains why there are so many half-finished nests.