by Mike Loomis
Page 3 : A Tragedy in the Forest
19 Nov 05
We left camp early this morning with an activated collar, hoping to collar a female elephant. After about an hour and a half of tracking, we found a female with a calf. Michael approached the elephants and was able to dart the adult female. The trackers were able to follow the tracks, and we found the female down in about 15 minutes. Even though she is an adult female with a calf, the collar was too large for her. We thought about modifying the collar and putting an automatic drop-off on the collar, but we still aren’t sure if the drop-offs are working correctly. The three drop-offs we have deployed do not appear to be moving and we are concerned that the collars have come off of the elephants.
I drew blood for sodium analysis, but the analyzer failed several times. It gave me an error code which was not in the manual I have with me in the field. The analyzer worked well the last time we tried it in the field in June. We reversed the elephant and she came up without problems, but without a collar and without having run sodium levels. This trip is becoming a bit frustrating. We looked for more tracks on our way back to camp, but did not find any.
When we returned to camp, I used the satellite telephone to call the laboratory at the Vet hospital at the NC Zoo. I talked to Gisela Wiggins, one of our vet technicians, who was able to determine that the problem with the analyzer was an electrical problem and I will have to hook the analyzer up to a computer to run diagnostics to figure what is wrong. I will not be able to fix the problem here in the field. No sodium levels this trip!!
This PM we decided to take a pirogue (a small boat) up the Sangha River to a swamp between the Sangha and series of hills. Elephants frequently use this area. We quickly found a large bull, but that was no good since (1) we cannot run sodium levels and (2) we are looking for a female to collar.
After about another 30 minutes of tracking, we found a female with a calf in very dense vegetation. Michael approached and fired a dart. The elephant ran about 100 meters and stopped.
It takes anywhere from 7 to 20 minutes for the drug, etorphine HCL, to immobilize an elephant. Since the elephant did not run far, we waited where we were for her to go down. After about 20 minutes, she was still very alert. Michael loaded another dart in the rifle, but could not get a shot at her. We decided to chase her off. It took several more minutes to get her to leave. When she did finally leave, we found her calf, which was dead. Michael had attempted to dart the female in the shoulder, but darted the calf in the chest. The dose was several times higher than would be required for an elephant this size. Also, the drug probably went into the lung and was absorbed very quickly.
Had we known that the calf was darted, we could have reversed the drug quickly, and maybe the calf would have lived. Michael and I had a long discussion about the event. With the powerful dart rifle, one can dart through vegetation, but you still have to be sure of the target. After almost nine years and around 40 elephant immobilizations, this is our first death.
This has been the most discouraging trip to Cameroon I have made. We returned to camp very dejected.
20 Nov 05
We decided to head up the Sangha again this morning to the same area we were in yesterday. We saw lots of elephant tracks, but did not catch up with any elephants. We did see lots of other wildlife, including a troop of chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, spot-nosed guenons, red-tailed guenons and black-backed duikers. We rested in camp in the afternoon. There was no elephant activity around camp in the late PM.
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