Resilience, Enthusiasm, and Philo 3 Elephants Killed in Samburu, Kenya: Bloody Ivory

Samburu Elephants

Elephant in Samburu 2003 (Samburu, Kenya. 2003. Photo:KESDonahue)

We've been to Samburu Reserve in Northern Kenya twice, once in 1999 and then again in 2003.  It is one of my favorite places in the world. The thorn scrub forest with its scattered acacia trees, rare branching palms and open vistas has a primeval appeal. Many different species live here and as we drove the dirt tracks wending through the Reserve, we saw most of them, including the marvelous Gerenuk, feeding completely upright on the overhead leaves. The most marvelous of all are the elephants; frequently in small groups, they amble and eat, they lounge in the shade, they enjoy a late afternoon bath or drink of water, often touching each other, clumping together reassuringly. They are easy to see and wonderful to just watch. I would return, if I could, hoping to see elephants.

Elephants in Ewaso Ng'iro River in the late afternoon, Samburu, Kenya. (Photo:KES Donahue)

Enjoying the river. Samburu. (Photo:KESDonahue)

After the Bath, Mother & Baby Elephant. Samburu (photo:KESDonahue)

Elephants, Samburu (Photo: KESDonahue)

Elephants in Samburu (Photo:KESDonahue)

Blood Ivory

Three elephants from Sanburu were  profiled on March 13, 2013 in the New York Times (See the link below for the article). They had names and were recognized by the people, the researchers, who studied them and loved them.  Two females, Resilience, aged 41, and her niece, Enthusiasm, aged 16, riddled with bullets by poachers, died last year; one young male, Philo, aged 15, was killed in January.  So now they are dead and somebody in China or some other Far Eastern country (Thailand excluded as of this moment) gets some bit of a gory carving for their shelf.  We condemned blood diamonds and we should howl and condemn blood ivory since it really is drenched in blood. 

 

Even on Reserves, Scant Protection for Elephants:

Three Stories From One Region. By Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/17/sunday-review/even-on-reserves-scant-protection-for-elephants.html?_r=0

After reading this article, I recognized in myself a self-serving, anthropocentric idea that all the individuals of different species of mammals (and others as well) are interchangeable; they are automatons in a way. I did not recognize them as individuals, as sentient beings, with thoughts and feelings.  Seeing one was just as good as seeing another. I couldn't tell them apart, so I supposed that they couldn't tell each other apart or miss each other. Research has disabused me of these ideas. Individuals of other species are just that--individuals; when they die, they are mourned and missed, by others of that species. 

When I looked at my photographs of elephants in Samburu, Kenya, I saw elephants, not recognizable individuals -- interchangeable pieces to be taken for granted living in this Reserve and there for me to see--for all human tourists to see and enjoy. Now, after reading the article in the New York Times, I am mourning individuals I may have met and, given their age and longevity, I could have met in future visits if they had not been slaughtered for their ivory.

The elephants I "met" and photographed may still be there; they may be fine, but there is every chance that that is not so and that they have been butchered for their ivory.

Elephants with Ivory, Samburu. (Photo:KESDonahue)