The Perchyderms

Elephant Diary!

I never thought in a million years I would be blogging and talking about elephants. They are supposed to be brutes and if you talk about small holder farmers, they are devil incarnate.But have you ever wondered where a seven tonne creature would be getting food from if we continued to encroach on where for generations he has reigned? There are no easy answers to the issue of human elephant conflict anywhere in the world but we must recognise the right to exist for the beasts and for us.

No tourist will come to any elephant hosting country and resist the urge to see the King. Tourist revenues are more likely build on elephant than any other animal.So why am praising the elephant? Confession first! No other animal has ever given me fright like the elephant. I was a newly recruited researcher on a field trip to see elephant scouts and am riding at 60KPH with no care in the world when out of blues emerges the biggest creature I ever saw. I cant slow down beacuse aunties and sisters (elephants are matriachal) are right behind me. I zooomed off to the delight of a more experienced colleague who took his time, put the bike in neutral mode and enjoyed the spectacle for 30 minutes while i was on my cellphone trying to confirm whether he had been trampled.Next time i rode there I enjoyed a sight that probably most of you only conceptualize -mating of the pachyderms.and that is a story for another day.