Kenya - Elephants First

I know I'm not the first to say this, but I'll reinforce whatever you have heard: If you ever have the chance to go on safari in Kenya, do it.

The best thing about my trip to Kenya was seeing my friends Melissa and Tim, who took wonderful care of me and introduced me to a drink they designed themselves, which I took to calling The Smithereen. Among other things, the Brits brought Pimms to their colonies, a contribution for which all should be forever grateful.






For those who won't have the opportunity to take advantage of Tim & Melissa's friendship and hospitality, the best thing would undoubtedly be the three days we spent on safari in Samburu National Reserve.







My memory of Samburu will always be characterized by the elephants - there were so many, and they came so close to the car we could feel the breeze when the larger ones flapped their ears. We were barely inside the park when Melissa asked, "Do you have many elephants here?" Charles, our guide, had barely uttered his affirmative response when three elephants came into view munching some bushes to our right.


As we approached them, we saw about 25 more elephants frolicking - and I'm not trying to be dramatic here, they truly were frolicking, fighting, pushing, rolling around, and throwing water - in the river beyond.

Another family of elephants joined them and we watched almost 50 elephants play for about half an hour. I took the attached really shaky video of the elephants on my little handheld digital camera. It won't win any prizes for videography, but you can see the different ages and sizes of elephants and hear some of the sounds they made.



Back at camp, we played Scrabble, swam, and ate during the heat of midday, when the animals tend to hide out from the sun as well. As we wandered back from the pool toward our tents for a little siesta, Tim stopped and pointed out an elephant just on the other side of the fence. An old, solitary bull with damaged tusks seemed to enjoy grazing on the bushes just outside of our camp's swimming pool area. With damaged tusks, Charles told us, he probably would never be able to mate again, and was likely pushed out of his herd. Although elephants are social animals and like to stay in herds, the weakest and the ones who make life difficult for the rest are left behind or banished.

As I learned on the safari and at the elephant orphanage in Nairobi, elephants are extremely emotionally sensitive and have a highly developed social structure. This makes them incredibly fascinating to watch. It also makes raising elephants for re-introduction to the wild an extremely delicate process.







The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi takes on this exact task, rescuing babies whose mothers have died naturally or by human hand, and training to be well-behaved elephant citizens so wild elephants will accept them into their families once they become adults. The babies and adolescents at the orphanage were charming - how can something so big with such rough skin still seem so cuddly? - and playful, but their keepers confirmed they grow up to be truly wild animals once they leave the program.



I saw lots of animals on safari in Kenya, but the elephants really blew me away - they are huge, intelligent, and personable. I doubt anything will replace the tiger as my favorite animal, or the pink flamingo as my favorite animal rendered in plastic, but the elephant has rocketed to the top of the list behind those two.