Mature cow the last Knysna forest elephant (South Africa)

Katherine Wilkinson, The Herald

December 9. 2008

THE last surviving Knysna forest elephant is probably a cow between 35 and 50 years old, according to SANParks scientist Hylton Herd, who recently captured clear photographs of the shy beast.

Herd has been monitoring elephant activity in the Knysna forest and has collated data from the time when SANParks started recording sightings in 1987.

“Since April 1987 she has been spotted 124 times and as far apart as Bergplaas in George to Kransbos near Plettenberg Bay.

“We realised that she had moved to the Diepwalle area when the elephant trackers in September started to notice considerable amounts of dung on the forest edge, as well as signs that she was foraging extensively in the Peerbos forest in the same area.”

A timber truck driver spotted the elephant on November 26 and got word to Herd, who was nearby with forest guard Paulus Makriga.

They rushed to the area and waited for the perfect photo opportunity. The resulting photographs which Herd captured were said by SANParks to be the “best pictures on file”.

Careful comparisons of the distinctive shapes of the ragged edges of both ears had proved beyond doubt that all the pictures were of the same cow. “The patterns clearly matched on both ears,” said Herd.