Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 21.05.2011

Today was a tree planting day at Nkoilale School and the staff of Mara Bushtops joined pupils, teachers and parents in planting over 550 indigenous tree seedlings. A total of 900 seedlings were donated by Orion Hotels to the school to be planted by the pupils at the school. The remaining 250 seedlings were to be planted later in the week. Under the tree planting project with the school, each child is to plant at least one seedling which they plant and take care of until they leave school at class 8. The project aims to instil environmental awareness in the pupils. It also aims to educate them on the value of trees to our environment.

Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 06.05.2011

The scouts team while on patrol sighted a family of elephants running as if they were in danger. On a closer look they noticed three bull trailing them at a distance. Two of the bulls were much larger. The younger bull led the two other larger male in pursuit of the oestrus female. Onn noticing that the younger bull was a head the other two bull increased their paces out running the young bull. The two large bulls joined together then chased away him away. They ensured that he was kept at bay from the females.

Bull elephants spend much a lot of time fighting for dominance with each other. Only the most dominant males will be permitted to breed with cycling females. The less dominant ones must wait their turns. It is usually the older bulls, forty to fifty years old, that do most of the breeding. The dominance battles between males can look very fierce, but typically they inflict very little injury. Most of the bouts are in the form of aggressive displays and bluffs. Ordinarily, the smaller, younger, and less confident animal will back off before any real damage can be done. Moreover, during the breeding season, the battles can get extremely aggressive, and the occasional elephant is injured. During this season, known as musth, a bull will fight with almost any other male it encounters, and it will spend most of its time hovering around the female herds, trying to find a receptive mate. 

http://youtu.be/ONWPyTfGh0o

Head Scout’s daily report

Reporting date: 04.05.2011

Two days earlier, our scouts while on patrol noticed a huge lone bull elephant resting in one of the bushes in the conservancy. Earlier, they received reports from some young herders that the elephant had been seen resting in one of the wooded areas outside the conservancy for 7 days without leaving the area. When our scout got the message, they monitored its movement to ascertain whether it was ill or just resting. For 2 days the elephant did not leave the area where it was. Sensing that it might be ill, we notified the Kenya Wildlife service (KWS) and the Narok County Council (NCC) Wardens as well as the police who responded quickly by sending vets on the scene. Our scouts joined the KWS team and we tracked the elephant to assess any injuries before bringing him down for treatment. The bull kept us at bay by hiding in the bush. For over 2 hours we struggled to get it into an open area to enable us get closer for assessment. At some point the KWS ranger had to shoot in the air to prevent it from charging at us. We were almost giving up thinking that it would hide for the whole day when one of the memebrs of staff observed it from a distance as it came out of the bush into an open area away from where we were. He phoned us. We immediately swung into action, pursued it and caught up with it before it went into the bush. The vet quickly darted it and after 10 minutes it was overpowered by the tranquilizer. It fell and immediately the vets went to work, searching for wounds, picking pests like tick as specimens. It was found with wounds on the lower left leg and ear which was treated with antibiotics. Therebeing no major injury, it was "woken up" by an injection. In 2 minutes, he rose and walked away as if nothing had happened. The bull met its match, a doze that sent him tumbling down in the bush.