by Fraizer Wasonga Onyango
Local Intern

THE SUCCESS STORY OF HARMADON - SAMBURU ELEPHANT

Harmadon (ID M56)   was born in 1964.  She is currently the matriarch of the family unit called Winds 1.This family unit is known to be one of the migrants group of the Samburu elephants.

Harmadon has given birth to five calves in her life. She has successfully taken care of four calves and losing one due to drought that led to the death of many animals in Samburu National Reserve. This is a factor that had made her to feature in the movie and the book by the title “The Secret life of Elephants”. In this book two of her female calves were identified as Upepo and Breeze respectively.

Harmadon also showed her experience as a matriarch, charged with the responsibility of protecting and guiding the family in every situation that arises. This was evident when she successfully natured Breeze and other family members throughout the dry spell that led to deaths of numerous elephants in Samburu National Reserve.

In the TV series “secret life of elephants” Dr.Lucy King did a pilot study on Winds 1 family to discover the behavior of elephants towards the sound of honey bees. This project aimed at finding new measures of controlling encroachment of elephants to the neighboring farms. It was discovered that Harmadon was very sensitive to the sound of the honey bees, and she immediately led the family away from danger. This was a positive result to the researcher and today the African honey bees are used as a barrier to protect the farms in Samburu from elephant invasion.

Find more about this elephant in the above mentioned series.

Table showing the list of Harmadon’s calves