Lessons From The Elephants!
2013-08-23
#Hands Off Our Elephants
Did you know that the African elephant weighs about 7000 kilograms? Did you know that the elephants use their tusks to fight, uproot trees in the forests and grasslands, fight so as to protect themselves? Today, I will share the stories of two elephants. A happy story and a sad story. The qualities of these elephants will go a long way to describe how interesting and admirable the elephant is.
The first story is about an elephant called Sadie. In the story, there is a mention of Amboseli. Amboseli is the name of a National Park in Kenya. The name Amboseli is a Masai term meaning "Salty Dust".
Sadie was born in 1964, and has been the matriarch of the Amboseli SB family since 1985. She is a wonderfully calm female and has been a very successful leader. When she became matriarch, the family was tiny, with only 5 family members. Under Sadie's leadership, there have been 24 births and a high survivorship. The family currently has 20 members, plus 4 independent males. They range across the south western part of the Amboseli ecosystem, along the Tanzanian border. The SB family use the Amboseli National Reserve as a secure refuge and Sadie keeps them in the park during periods of high risk. Special thanks goes to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants who take good care of the elephants in this area.
Can you identify the positive points about this elephant?
The second story is about an elephant called Winston. Winston lived between 1980 and 2010. Winston was born in January 1980 to Willa of the WA family. At that time, poaching was just slowing down in the Amboseli ecosystem but there had been many losses in the 1970's and so his family was cautious. Nevertheless his years with the family were relatively peaceful. He struck out on his own at 13 years old and eventually chose the western part of the ecosystem as his bull area. In August 2010, Winston was just reaching social maturity and was starting to compete with other males to father calves. Tragically, poachers struck him down before he could fulfill his goal. He was shot in Tanzania and managed to get back into Kenya to die.
Again, special thanks go the Amboseli Trust for Elephants for keeping the records for these elephants.
After reading the above stories, don't you agree that these elephants are marvelous and have qualities we can learn from? Next week, we will delve into deeper information about the elephants.
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