SIGHTING SUNDAY Insight, foresight and blind-sight -an elephant named Matambu What a privilege! Another field day with the objective to find specific collared animals and to check up on their associations, body condition, reproductive status and reaction indices. The whole exercise can best be described as detective work! Honing in on a GPS coordinate of the latest collared elephant’s position and then using the VHF antenna and receiver to narrow down the search when at close quarters. The anticipation always mounts as you get closer because you never know what you will find. Although other elephants were sighted, we would like to focus on one of today’s target animals: Matambu. We have known Matambu, who means ‘long legs’ in Shangaan, for more than 10 years. We first collared him in 2005. When we recollared him in 2013 the veterinarian in charge (Dr. Cobus Raath) told us that he had a sight impediment and was probably blind. We have kept a close watch on him and have noticed that his disability has not lead to a loss of body condition or social status. However, it has made him one of the most placid souls to chance upon in the field! May be this gentle giant has learnt to compensate for his loss of sight with a heightened sense of smell and hearing which somehow always seems to leave him calm and unfettered when he meets people. In March of last year he got trapped inside a large fenced-off area when he crossed a river section that had washed away the fence during the floods. We rallied to organise a helicopter and loading truck to dart him and move him out of the camp. When all was organised for 5h00 the next morning, Matambu surprised us all by walking out where he had entered the camp a couple of weeks before and a few hours before the designated tranquilising operation! Although Matambu may be blind, he has shown us that he doesn’t lack insight, foresight and probably has blind-sight too with the medical definition being that you never lose the ability to sense the presence of light despite being blind! We salute you Matambu and wish you great blind-sight on your journey through the African bush!
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 10:30:58 +0000
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