The Story of Lonesome George the Chobe Elephant
We sat dead still. Nobody moved, not even to raise a camera and take a photo. A massive bull elephant was standing only a few metres away. He stretched his trunk out inquisitively, smelling the large obstacle that was parked adjacent to his path. When he carried on towards the water, the Land Rover and all its occupants breathed a huge sigh of relief.
This particular bull elephant was in musth. The secretions from his temporal gland, the dribbling between the back of his legs and the overpowering pungent odour gave away the fact that he had an excess of testosterone and other male hormones coursing through his body. This male was looking to mate - and fortunately for us, he decided that the Land Rover was not in oestrus. The fact that he was on his own and looking for female company meant that he quickly earnt the nickname of lonesome George.
We drove down to the Chobe River in Botswana and waited for George at a point on the river where elephants often gather to drink. Sure enough after a few minutes he came trundling along with the hurried but enthusiastic gait of a thirsty elephant. We watched him drink, slurping the cool clean water from the very surface. He then began to bathe and splash. His enjoyment clearly showed that cool clean water of the Chobe was definitely more than just something to drink.
We were just about to move on and have a look at some lions which we had found that morning when we saw a large breeding herd of elephants moving down to the spot where George was drinking. We all seemed to feel a connection to George - he was part of only a half finished story yet to be written. A collective decision was made see if George might possibly "get lucky" with the any of the female elephants in the breeding herd. The lions would have to wait!
Sure enough George stopped his aquatic cavorting and moved on to the more serious business of finding a willing female. As the herd drank, George methodically approached all the adult females, again using his trunk to try and detect any excessive levels of oestrogen.
As we watched, two more breeding herds came down, one after the other. There were now, close to a hundred elephants of varying ages all drinking and cavorting (already used cavorting). We felt sure that George would find a mate amongst this lot. He was easy to pick out from the rest of the scrum as he was truly gigantic, standing at least three feet taller than any of the other elephants.
We were parked in the same spot for over two hours, watching not only George but the rest of the elephants, drink, play, mud, dust and some of the younger ones just lay down and sleep. Slowly, the different herds began to dissipate, some heading north across the vast floodplains, some moving back to the teak woodlands. As the sun hit the horizon one elephant remained at the drinking spot on the river - Lonesome George.
He slowly moved off, displaying none of the enthusiasm that we had seen earlier in the afternoon. Using the same elephant path, he moved back up the sand ridge in the direction of our campsite. As it was getting dark we also had to move in that direction.
Whilst fortune had not favoured George, we felt fortunate to have been able to spend an afternoon with him. We had all gained a small insight into the trials and tribulations that are part of daily elephant life.
More than likely George is probably still lonesome - that is often the way with bull elephants. However he will certainly not be forgotten, at least by those of us on the vehicle him that afternoon.
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