The Mystery Orphan Part 4 – The Mother Appears

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By Ashoka Ranjeewa

— January 31st, 2011 —

From left to right: the teenaged ‘babysitter’ from the previous week, the newborn (no longer a mystery) and Raka.

Three days later we entered the park determined to find Fat-tail. I was overcome with curiosity to know what had happened, and the team went in prepared to stay the whole day and comb through every inch of the park if necessary.

Fortunately, we managed to find the group toward mid-day. This time, it contained several more of its members – Fat-tail, Right-hole, Rani, Ramani, Rita, and five other adults. I searched for the newborn anxiously.

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The Mystery Orphan, Part 3 – Unexpected aid

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By Ashoka Ranjeewa

– January 28 2011, 6:00PM –

Once again Fat-tail, the teenager, and two juveniles rushed to the newborn who had just collapsed. It was after 6:00 pm and getting dark too. The calf had not had any food for more than 3 hours. During this same period Fat-tail and Right-hole’s own calves nursed more than 10 times. Despite their apparent concern and protectiveness, we had never seen an adult nurse any calves other than their own during the five years of the study. Possibly this was because the physical demand of nursing two calves was just too high. On very rare occasions, we had seen a female nurse two calves simultaneously, but it was very likely to be two of her own calves.

After a few minutes the newborn managed to stand and move about10m, trying to nurse continuously from her caretaker. Evidently, the calf was very weak. But before long the baby again fell to the ground. As before, the teenager and two younger juveniles gathered around her. They touched her with their trunks and tried to raise her on her feet, but it didn’t work. The baby was feebly reaching out, trying to nurse.

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The Mystery Orphan, Part 2 – Desperate Measures

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By Ashoka Ranjeewa

– January 28th 2011, 3:45 PM –

Top photo shows Rani and her calf in 2007, while the bottom shows the same calf in 2009. We wondered if Rani might be the mother of the newborn since her last calf was getting quite big.

The distance between Rani & the calf narrowed to 20m and soon they were moving parallel to each other. The calf was trying to nurse from the subadult female while continuing to vocalize loudly. But Rani didn’t come to the calf, nor did the subadult female take the calf to Rani. With time, the distance between Rani & the newborn increased again. Meanwhile Rani, Fat-tail & Right-hole all fed their own  calves. The group was now moving quite briskly, possibly because the grass was very short in that area. The calf was still keeping up, but shakily.

The group then reached an open area where lots of fresh grass was available.  They stopped moving and fanned out 80m while grazing. The most peripheral individual was Rani. While everyone was busy grazing, Right-hole’s calf, who was about 4 months old, came up to the newborn and started trying to play with her. The latter was so weak, she fell on the ground and was trampled by other youngster. Suddenly, Fat-tail and a juvenile rushed over.  Fat-tail gently separated the two by bending her head down. The little newborn went to the juvenile while Right-hole’s calf slowly moved toward its mother.

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The Mystery Orphan, Part 1

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By Ashoka Ranjeewa

– January 28 2011, 3:00 PM –

The newborn calf stayed close to a subadult female, who was very attentive to her.

It was a rainy afternoon. I met Fat-tail with a group at the crest of the Teak waterhole. Amidst the heavy downpour, they were grazing and moving towards Old Mau-Ara Road which is located on the North-east side of the park. When we neared them, Fat-tail came over and stood right next to the jeep.  She was watching us, but it was a friendly look. Fat-tail and Right-hole were part of one of the largest social units we had documented in the past five years – the Rs, named after the oldest female among them, Ragged Ear.  This unit had quite a few adults in it, but the split up during wet seasons.  Fat-tail and Right-hole were a pair that were nearly always seen together and that day was no exception, they were both together along with the calves.

Fat-tail with her juvenile calf.

After few minutes I saw a newborn female calf who was being nursed by a subadult female. Lacking milk, the teenager was unable to actually feed calf. The calf was very tiny, still having the red skin and eyes characteristic of newborns, though covered by lots of hair. It was very active and always moved under the belly of the subadult, though she was definitely too young to be the mother of the calf. I wondered who the mother was. Neither Right-hole nor Fat-tail could be the mother – Right-hole had her own small calf with her.  Fat-tail had had a newborn calf, but sadly, it had died a few months ago though she still had her older calf. She couldn’t give birth to a new calf yet since its takes 22 moths for a pregnancy so the interval between calves is usually at least four to five years. I got  very curious about who the newborn could belong to.
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Lending A Helping Trunk

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Natural selection generally promotes the success of individuals who look out for themselves – that is, selfishly.  But, there are also lots of examples of cooperative behavior in nature: for instance, the care of offspring, hunting, and sometimes, even problem solving.  This is because cooperation can be beneficial as well – being able to raise young successfully and leave more descendants, or simply enhance one’s own survival by working together to obtain food or other resources.

The experimental set up, from Plotnik et al. 2011

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A ConVersation About ConServation

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As part of an initiative to encourage young people to think about elephants, environment and conservation issues, we’re launching a new project called “A ConVersation about ConServation.”  The first high school to participate was the Cambridge Ringe and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts thanks to biology teacher Paul McGuinness and other enthusiastic teachers.  CRSL is one of those rare schools to offer courses on environmental science and ecology as well, and the students, aged 15-17, were very interested in hearing about elephants.
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Water For Elephants…In The Wild

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Figure from Pastorini et al. 2010 - A 'rare' daytime visit to a reservoir by a male elephant.

Water is something that all living things require, to varying degrees.  Elephants require a great deal.  Researchers in Southern Sri Lanka from the Center for Conservation Research have recently found that this dependence on water may be the key to determining whether elephants inhabit an area [1].

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Pink Elephants Do Exist

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This amazing image is a computer generated composite based on ultrasound scans of an elephant in the womb, taken for a BBC documentary (They also show a baby dolphin and dog, linked HERE). Here is what an actual ultrasound-based photograph looks like, taken at the Whipsnade Zoo.  At just three months into the pregnancy, his little trunk is already visible! (Article linked HERE.)

The Elephant’s Chirp

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Given the previous post about what shall now infamously be known as the incident of 2011, I thought it would be nice to lighten things up by sharing our other experiences with males in musth. Moreover, this is about one of those moments every scientist lives for: discovery.

First of all what is ‘musth’?  Musth is a condition that male elephants undergo after their teens which is similar to rutting in sheep and deer, in which males spend most of their time trying to find reproductive females and battling other males for dominance.  Hormonally, it means they are pumped full of testosterone.  Typically a male has to be in very good body condition to enter musth, and the older he is the longer it can last – several months in some cases – and during that time he eats very little.  You know a male is in musth when he shows reddish wet patches on the sides of his temples (just behind the eyes), and dribbles urine.  Oh yes – and he also smells to high heaven (some of us happen to think it smells rather good, musky sweet and thick…but then again, some of us also like the smell of Durian).
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Narrow Escape

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Today we (Sameera & I) had a narrow escape from two big bulls who were in peak musth. It was the Kiral Ara road where the area is totally covered by large bushes, particularly Lantana. While we searching for elephants as usual, I smelled musth and was trying to find the musth males. There were lots of foot prints by a group of elephants and lots of broken branches by the road.

AVOID this elephant if you come across him.

At a bend in the road I saw a big male was crossing and I managed to identify it quickly. He was in peak musth & it was [M038], one who was attacking safari jeeps in 2008. I have seen him several times close to the jeep, but he was only aggressive one time.

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