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Update on Tusker
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF)
August 16, 2007

For several weeks, prior to the last long weekend, Tusker had not been seen in Charara. We were concerned however, that even though he had been keeping a low profile, if he was behaving true to his character, he might appear once all the campers started arriving in Charara for the long weekend in the hope of finding something more interesting than grass and leaves to eat. We decided to spend the weekend in Charara just in case he made a nuisance of himself again.

Upon our arrival on Friday afternoon, we were told by one of the campers that Tusker had been at his camp site the night before and had stolen his dinner so we prepared ourselves for a very interesting weekend.

On Saturday night, my wife and I were sleeping on the verandah of the cottage we had hired and we were woken up at around 1 in the morning by a bright set of head lights in our faces. It was Bertie Olsen, the same camper who had lost his dinner to Tusker on Thursday night. He demanded that I come immediately and sort out "my elephant" because he was destroying his next door neighbour's camp site.

My son, wife and I jumped in the car and drove to the scene of the crime. There were two caravans opposite each other with an awning stretched between them and Tusker was standing under the awning. Beside him, were the remains of a wooden kitchen cupboard and heavy duty fridge which looked as if it had been hit by a freight train and Tusker had helped himself to all the food from the cupboard and the fridge. We believe however that the reason Tusker targeted that particular site was because there were lemons there and elephants can smell citrus fruit from a long way off. People have been warned time and time again not to take citrus fruit into any area where elephants are present. The authorities are very strict about it in Mana Pools. Cars are searched for citrus before entering the area and any citrus found is confiscated.

Some of the men were banging tin cans and metal roasting trays together to try and frighten Tusker away but he just stood there, watching them through his long eyelashes, calmly refusing to budge. I went under the awning with him and said "Tusker, you're a naughty boy! Get out of here!" and to my surprise, he immediately walked out. I wondered if he remembered my voice from the time we tried to relocate him and I thought he may have been afraid I was going to try and do it again.

We spent the next two hours following him all over the camp, waiting for him to scavenge everything from the dustbins, all the time trying to coax him out of the area. He was joined by two other bull elephants with large tusks who were also scavenging from the dustbins. The three of them eventually left at about 4am.

The next day, I went into town and bought the ingredients to make up a batch of pepper spray. I gave some to the people whose fridge had been destroyed and instructed them to soak a rope in the solution and then lay the rope around their caravans. I hoped this would deter Tusker from going under their awning again.

By midnight that night, Tusker had not yet made an appearance so I decided to take a drive and see if I could find him. I drove out of the Charara gate and a few hundred metres down the road, I found him making his way towards the Charara camp site. I dashed back to the cottage to collect the pepper solution and went back to the main gate. Tusker arrived as I was approaching the gate so I went up to the boom on foot and sprayed the pepper solution into the air above his head in the hope that he would change his mind about coming in. My efforts were all in vain because he just looked at me in a condescending manner, opened his great ears out to make himself look bigger and walked purposefully straight past me into the camp.

I followed him as he made his way at a steady trot, directly to the same camp site where he had found the lemons and destroyed the fridge the previous night. This time, my pepper solution seemed to be successful because he felt the rope with his trunk and decided not to go under the awning. He tried his luck at another camp site instead but the owner of the site was waiting for him with a couple of roasting trays which he clanged together. Tusker responded by trumpeting at the camper and then made his way to the nearest dustbin.

In the meantime, a security guard had woken up the National Parks scout who was on duty in the camp site. The scout arrived with his gun and fired some shots into the air in an attempt to persuade the great beast to leave. After the fourth shot had been fired, Tusker finally complied and made his way back to the gate and out of the camp.

Tusker, through no fault of his own has become habituated to human beings and he has learnt that where humans are present, he will find food. We are extremely concerned about this because we have heard several stories of people feeding him and by feeding him, those people are inadvertently condemning him to death. Although he has never killed anyone, he has been classified as a "problem animal" and now with the new crocodile farm that is being built near Charara, elephants are going to be shot to feed the crocodiles. The first elephants to be shot will be the "problem animals".

Tusker is a great favourite of tourists and locals alike. He is a big tourist attraction and source of amusement and we don't want to lose him. We heard a story recently of a young woman who got married in the little chapel in front of Wild Heritage. All she wanted was for Tusker to appear during her wedding ceremony and sure enough, her day was made perfect because he came to the chapel, put his great head through the doorway, waved his trunk around and then left. She was delighted!

Anita is an elderly lady who is the caretaker of Nzou Lodges and Tusker pays regular visits to her. She told us that a couple of months ago, she found him eating the herbs in her garden. She engaged in a lengthy one-sided conversation with him, telling him he was a naughty boy and he shouldn't be eating her herbs because she needed them for cooking. He stood still, apparently listening to her voice for the best part of an hour, seeming to enjoy the attention. She was close enough to reach out and touch him. Anita finally became bored with her monologue and decided to go back inside her cottage to do something more constructive but Tusker was not happy about being "dumped" in such a manner. He went around to the back of her cottage where she had several empty bottles lined up against the wall. He picked the bottles up one by one with his trunk, held them in the air for a few seconds and then let go, smashing them onto the concrete below. The lesson to be learned from this is that if you ever engage in a conversation with Tusker, it is not over until HE says so.

My brother-in-law, Peter and his friend, Archie went to Charara last year to compete in the Kariba International Tiger Fishing Tournament. They pitched their one-man tents beside each other and turned in for, what they thought was going to be a good night's sleep. During the night, Tusker, who wouldn't miss the Tiger Tournament for the world, gently wedged his huge foot under Archie's tent and rolled it over onto Peter's tent, whilst the two were sleeping, hoping to find something to eat. Peter and Archie were naturally very confused and surprised, but escaped unscathed.

Finding nothing under Archie's tent, he then found the back window of my cousin Jamie's pick-up truck open. He stretched his long trunk through the window and started feeling around for something edible. Jamie, who was sleeping in there, woke up in horror to find he was being "felt" by an elephant and began swatting the trunk with his hat. Tusker then went to the front window of the truck, which was also open and somehow managed to open the cubby hole with his trunk. He pulled out a bunch of keys, a cell phone and an ipod and put all the items in his mouth. Not finding anything particularly tasty, he promptly spat everything out again.

But Tusker was determined to get something to eat from Peter, Archie and Jamie so the following evening, he joined them for dinner. The three fishermen were cooking peri-peri chicken on a braai (barbeque) and Tusker removed a whole chicken from the fire and put it in his mouth. It was understandably very hot and Tusker stamped his foot, flapped his ears, trumpeted and swallowed. He then took a second chicken off the fire but this time, he dropped it on the ground and rubbed in in the sand with his foot to cool it down and then ate it. He didn't hurt anyone. The only harm done was that Peter, Archie and Jamie went hungry that night.

Tusker and his compatriots have learnt over the years that when there are people in Charara, the dustbins will be full and there will be oranges and lemons in the camp, not to mention a wide variety of other food. If the dustbins are emptied in the evenings as opposed to the mornings and if people refrain from bring citrus fruit into the area, two of the main factors attracting the elephants will have been removed. To avoid any confusion, oranges, lemons, nartjies and grapefruit are all classified as citrus fruit. Cerruti Lodges empty their dustbins in the evenings and they don't have a problem with the elephants.

Please help us to keep Tusker alive by NOT BRINGING ANY CITRUS FRUIT INTO THE AREA, BY MAKING SURE YOUR DUSTBINS ARE EMPTIED IN THE EVENINGS and by NOT FEEDING THE ANIMALS.

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