THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER
By
Roy Watts
This is a
moving, intriguing tale about love across the species line. Roy Watts
explains, "It starts five years
ago when Lawrence Anthony, a passionate conservationist, jumped off the
commercial hamster wheel to develop Thula Thula, a most attractive game lodge
near The Umfolozi Reserve."
Situated a two hour drive north of Durban,
Thula Thula is
built on a giant lawn and has an ambience spawned by his perfectionism and the
French flair of his charming partner Françoise.
It is also a gourmet paradise. Roaming around the hills and valleys of this
pristine wilderness are impala, kudu, nyala, zebra, giraffe, rhino, warthog,
hyenas and the love interest of this tale, Nanna, matriarch to a band of
reformed elephant delinquents.
After watching a savage Carte Blanche documentary on the brutal taming of
the Tuli elephants. Lawrence made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire some of
these unfortunate animals, but they had already been placed in various game
reserves. The Elephant Manager and Owners association learned of his need and
came to light with a herd of seven jumbos from Mpumalanga, and they were darted,
loaded on trucks, sedated and sent on a nine hour road trip.
On arrival at Thula
Thula they were corralled into an electrically fenced boma to be acclimatised
prior to release. This didn’t suit them at all, and by 5am the next day they
had flattened the boundary fence with a huge Tamboti tree and started the long
walk to the freedom of the North. A frantic search ensued, lead by the
attractive blonde Françoise
asking all and sundry in her deep French accent whether they had seen a herd of
seven elephants go by.
In an area that hadn’t seen a jumbo for at least a century,
this must have seemed slightly south of surreal, to say the least. A helicopter
joined the search, located the animals, and in a skilful piece of flying the
pilot managed to herd them back to within 20 metres of Thula Thula. But night
was falling and the wily Nanna retreated into thick bush, and under the cover of
darkness they managed to reach and break into the Umfolozi Game reserve. Here
the truants really let rip. They broke into an anti poaching unit cabin,
scattering bedding, clothes, and rations all around the countryside. If that was
not enough, in a stunt akin to schoolboys debagging a headmaster, they then
charged and traumatised the senior manager of Umfolozi.
At this point KwaZulu
Natal Wildlife stepped in with a check into the history of the animals, coming
to the conclusion that they were incorrigible, and that permission should never
have been given to re-locate them to Thula Thula in the first place. Their
immediate inclination was to shoot Nanna and the adults, then return the rest of
the herd to the wild. Lawrence
Anthony meanwhile was offered R100, 000 for the herd by a Chinese Zoo agent, who
then mounted an assault on his initial reluctance by gradually upping the bid to
R300, 000.
Jumboed out as he was
after their high-jinks, it is a tribute to his resolve that he managed to walk
away from this offer to throw himself at the feet of the KZN Wildlife in a plea
for a second chance. Reluctantly they relented and under the threat of a death
sentence for a repeat performance, they were darted and returned to the Thula
Thula Boma, now wisely bereft of Tamboti trees.
Dawn
broke, and with it a hung-over and seriously ticked off herd of elephants put on
a full display of their restlessness. Mindful of the extermination threat,
Lawrence decided that he was going to stay close to them for as long as it took
to gain acceptance. For the next two weeks, 24 hours a day, he lived at the
boma, constantly patrolling the perimeter talking and singing whilst they
stomped around mad as hell, flapping their ears, trumpeting and showing all the
signs of great elephantine displeasure.
After a fortnight of chatting and
crooning, and close to being classified as a hoarse-whisperer, he decided to
take a coffee break up at the house. When he left the air was thick with malice
and resentment, but on his return a palpable calm had taken its place.
Cautiously he approached the fence, and stood face to face with Nana the
matriarch. In a scene that could have been culled from ‘The Taming of the
Shrew’, she tenderly put her trunk through the electrified wires and started
gently touching him. At this point Lawrence decided that it was now or never and
he released the herd into the Thula Thula reserve.
On
their release, their calm demeanour remained, and Lawrence followed them from a
distance of 50–100 metres in his doublecab bakkie to get them accustomed to
his car. Their first sortie followed the perimeter fence which they tested every
few meters by placing their trunks just below the middle strand to sense the
electrical field. They soon gave up on this, and settled into a normal routine.
Two
weeks later, Lawrence was woken up at
2am to find the herd serenely munching the
thatch outside his house. He continued talking to them, and he realised that he
was in a relationship with Nana as she proceeded to touch him through the open
door. This ritual continued for several nights as he and his roof continued to
host them between 2 and 5am each morning. But the biggest surprise of all was to
come several weeks later when Nana returned one night to introduce him to two
new members of the herd. It turned out that she and her sister Frankie had been
pregnant throughout the whole induction saga, and at a time when most elephants
would be protective and temperamental, she had chosen to present the babies to
him.
The
bond between Lawrence, Nana and the herd continued to increase. They got to
recognise the sound of his car, and when he stopped anywhere near them, he was
quickly surrounded by unbounded enthusiasm. We’re not talking Corps de Ballet
here, and this fervour has already cost him several dents, and a couple of
broken windows. And his popularity is such that he is now able to walk freely
amongst them. This all lead to the most amazing development of all, his ability
to summons them with a lengthy yell, just as Tarzan did in all those old-time
movies.
In a recent visit to Thula Thula
I was able to
witness this extraordinary phenomenon first hand. We stopped on an open plain
when we saw the herd some distance away. Lawrence gave his clarion call and
started a mini-stampede. In seconds we were in a grey forest of legs, trunks,
flapping ears and missionary zeal. This was truly one of my most memorable
experiences. But it must be remembered at all times that these are still wild
animals, and visitors to the lodge will see them in much the same way as
tourists do on game drives in similar reserves around the country. This is due
to the fact that Lawrence has gone to great lengths to keep his unique
relationship with the herd separate from mainstream Thula Thula activity.
