On March 1 1968, the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Society of Southern Africa met to discuss the status and fate of the Knysna elephants at a Knysna Elephant Symposium.
This was the first time a serious look was given to the conservation of the elephants. It was unanimously agreed that before any conservation plan could be discussed, more information was required on the subject, and a long-term survey should be conducted under the leadership of a person experienced with elephants.
In late January 1969, the local Wildlife Protection and Conservation Society commissioned game warden Nick Carter, who had worked in both Kenya and the Kruger National Park, to make a thorough study of the Knysna elephants. The survey began on February 1 1969 and ended in January 1970. In May 1969, Carter photographed a pregnant cow with a large bull (the largest of the Knysna group, with a shoulder height of about 3.4m) in the Harkerville area. Carter counted 10 elephants during his survey. Two months after the survey, in March 1970, the pregnant cow gave birth to a calf.
Carter recommended that:
- First, a resident game warden with assistants be appointed.
- Second, small private properties that adjoin the forests to the east be protected by an elephant resistant fence about 8km long.
- The Harkerville forest be totally enclosed to form a special reserve about 5,000 morgen in extent.
A scheduled wildlife society symposium was held on November 25 1970 and the wildlife society recommended the fencing of a section of the Harkerville Forest for the elephants. The forestry department let it be known that the 48,000ha of indigenous forests of Knysna area under its care had been classed as a nature reserve to be managed as an ecological whole.
The officials stated that they accepted responsibility for the elephants while on state-owned land, and would act as guardians for their conservation. Society members were delighted at this evidence of departmental enthusiasm for the conservation cause and dropped the demand for a fenced elephant reserve. Thus the old status quo was safely maintained, and Carter’s report and recommendations were ignored.
Between the early 1960s and late 1970s the Knysna elephants migrated regularly between the northern parts of the forest and the sea coast in the Harkerville area (the last remaining coastal area accessible to them), moving down to the sweeter veld at the coast during winter. During the 1970s, the large bull (nicknamed Champion), the cow (Elderberry), and the calf were regularly seen along the N2, near Garden of Eden. Since 1977, the Knysna elephants stopped crossing the national road and became completely absent from the Harkerville forest. The last definite sighting of elephants in the vicinity of the Garden of Eden may have been at the end of 1977.
Aftand, also known as Adam, was an old and lone bull elephant with a broken left tusk, and considered a problem animal. The elephant became a threat to forest workers because his age had forced him to look for soft plants that did not need a lot of chewing. The animal had caused about R500 worth of damage to vegetable gardens and fruit trees at Edinburgh and Springfield. Aftand was shot and killed in secret by employees of the forestry department on April 4 1971. After a long investigation and court case, both the officer and the official instructed to shoot the animal were found not guilty.
By March 1981, it was determined that there were at least three Knysna elephants left: an old bull, an adult cow, and the animal born in 1970. This means that the elephant population decreased from 11 animals in 1970 to only three in 1981. The drastic decline may have been due to a population crash, as most of the 11 animals were old and died shortly after one another due to old age.
The elephants were confined to the forest as human settlement and agricultural development limited the historical range of the southern Cape elephant population to the southern Cape forests. As a result, they were denied access to the rich food resources of the coastal plateau outside the forest.
Analyses performed from 1979 by Julius Koen, senior research officer at the Saasveld Forestry Research Station, revealed that the major food plants available to the elephants had a phosphorus deficiency and an imbalance between calcium and phosphorus, with excess calcium further inhibiting the uptake of phosphorus. Since phosphorus is crucial for reproduction and lactation, the low levels of phosphorus in the food plants in Knysna may have contributed to the herd’s inability to increase.
Human activity restricted the Knysna elephants to indigenous forest and exotic plantation areas, limiting their access to the adjoining fynbos. Compared with the forest, the fynbos plant species used by other herbivores contain lower levels of macro and micro minerals. According to the late Dr Armin Seydack, a scientist from the forestry department, the diet of the Knysna elephants contains an excess of carbon compounds and a relative lack of proteins and minerals. This imbalance leads to a reduced metabolic turnover, which results in a low reproduction rate.
In September 1983, the skeleton of an old bull was found about 2km south of Garden of Eden. Dave Reynell, a former forester, linked this skeleton to Carter’s reference to the largest bull he saw during his year-long survey, nicknamed Champion. According to Theo Stehle, a former Knysna District Forest officer, the bull must have died shortly after 1977, as the skeleton was overgrown with ferns and covered in green moss, indicating it had been there a long time. This skeleton was cleaned and restored by a taxidermist in Pretoria before being assembled and displayed in the tea room of the former Saasveld Forestry College (which is now part of the campus of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) from the end of 1984.
In February 1985, the moss-covered skeleton of a large bull elephant was found 700m-900m down Kootjieshoek Road, in a deep kloof next to a small stream on the northern side of the road. The location was within dense indigenous forest, about 15km north of Knysna, on Geo Parkes & Sons property. According to experts, the elephant was well over 60 years old and had died about 15 years earlier.
In 1986, hope was rekindled when local author Dalene Matthee published a book, Circles in a Forest, which became a best-seller both locally and internationally, as well as being prescribed as a set book for schools. In addition, the TV show 50/50 screened a segment on the elephants. The book and TV coverage reawakened interest in the elephants, allowing the local wildlife society to mobilise its members and the public, which resulted in the environmental affairs and forestry minister in 1987 announcing in parliament that he would agree to the introduction of young elephants should it prove feasible and realistic.
In March 1987, a group of hikers on the Outeniqua trail left the Rondebossie hut and walked for about 30 minutes when they saw two elephants in a plantation area — an adult cow (Elderberry) and her younger companion (the calf born in 1970).
The introduction of young elephants was turned down in November 1988 after further investigations revealed that the operation would be disproportionately costly. The minister released a statement indicating that due to the changing and inadequate habitat it would be unwise to increase the elephant population in the area.
In February 1989, the environmental affairs minister Gert Kotzé, confirmed that another Knysna elephant had been born. A third set of tracks belonging to an elephant calf was discovered near Diepwalle. These tracks were clear enough to convince the forestry department’s zoologist, Julius Koen, of their authenticity.
According to the late William Cooper (forester in charge at Diepwalle), Trish Cooper (widow of William Cooper), and Stehle, tracks of a calf were seen in 1989 and 1990. Plaster casts were made of the tracks. According to the width of the plaster casts and by consulting publications, I calculated that the calf was between six months and one year old.
At the end of August 1989, the skeleton of an old elephant cow was found in Gouna. The carcass was dated with carbon-14 isotope testing by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which determined that the animal died around 1987. These were most likely the remains of Elderberry, the cow seen with the younger animal in March 1987.
This suggests that there may have been three elephants left after 1989: the old bull, the younger animal and the calf. The old bull was last seen in 1988, and could have died soon after, as it or signs of it have not been seen again. Signs of the calf were not seen again after 1990, and it most likely died of natural causes.
So, what animal could have been the mother of the calf born around 1988?
From my in-depth research, I determined that Oupoot was the calf born in March 1970. This means that she is 54 years old. Joyce Poole, an elephant expert, says Oupoot must have had a calf before. An elephant cow’s mammary glands develop only when she is pregnant. Once they have mammary glands, they will remain so as long as they are either pregnant or lactating. If they don’t fall pregnant again, their mammary glands eventually shrivel. Oupoot has mammary glands, and they are shrivelled. The fact that Oupoot has mammary glands means that she was the mother of the calf born around 1988. This also means that a bull was present in Knysna until at least 1986, as an elephant cow is pregnant for about 22 months.
The decline in elephant numbers caused increasing public concern. There was growing support for the idea of introducing elephants from elsewhere to establish a viable breeding population. This resulted in the Publicity Association of Knysna, the wildlife society and the forestry branch of water affairs and forestry department asking the Rhino and Elephant Foundation to become involved.
The foundation asked the water affairs and forestry minister in August 1990 to reconsider the decision not to reintroduce elephants. In April 1991, Kotzé, who was the minister, announced the approval of the project as long as his department did not have to cover the insurance claims from private landowners.
On July 15 1994, three young female elephants, aged between seven and nine, were released into a boma at Diepwalle after more than 13 years of debate, discussion and research. The period after the arrival of the young elephants brought some severe weather and the bitter cold caused misery to the young cows.
On September 20, the gates of the boma were opened. Slowly and cautiously, the three Kruger elephants moved out into the surrounding forest, fynbos, rivers and streams. The three young elephants joined a Knysna elephant for only two limited periods: October 8 to November 25 1994 and June 21-28 1995.
The youngest of the three died on October 1994 12 due to exhaustion and stress-related pneumonia. The remaining two young elephants moved to and foraged in the fynbos island Petrus se Brand on fynbos and black wattle for a while, and due to no boundary fence, there was nothing to stop the elephants from wandering off state land on to private property, and this is just what they did. They crossed the forest boundary, the Bitou River, and found a cultivated field. This field became a restaurant for the two elephants, and they returned to it again and again. Fortunately, the farmer concerned had no objection to their visitations. In fact, most farmers in the area were tolerant of the young elephants.
Some uncaring people harassed and frightened the youngsters, causing them to wander far from their known territory, northwards into the mountains east of De Vlugt. Interestingly, during their extensive wanderings on the pasture lands east of Diepwalle the young elephants rarely damaged fences until June 1996 when damage to a fence was reported, which was enough to scare insurance companies, which said claims would not be accommodated if the issue was not addressed.
The two introduced elephants left the mountain area east of De Vlugt and wandered to the Wittedrift Valley where they started causing considerable damage to infrastructure in citrus orchards. Plans were made together with SANParks to capture and relocate the elephants on the farm, but as soon as these plans had been made, the elephants took off north again and started to cause havoc in vegetable lands on a farm adjacent to the Kransbos Plantation. Plans were again put into place to capture and relocate the elephants. They were captured and relocated to Shamwari Game Reserve in July 1999 where elephants were already established.
In 1992, footage of a Knysna elephant cow was captured for the first time since 1987 by Len Du Plessis, a forester at Diepwalle. He recorded a video at Grooteiland, in the Gouna area.
In October 1994, an inquiry was directed to the water affairs and forestry department regarding the number of Knysna elephants that elicited the same response: the three observed in 1981 plus a calf born circa 1988. Doubts arose, however, within the department about the true state of affairs. In December 1994, the department mounted an intensive elephant search by 16 forest guards walking 200m apart through the core area of the usual home range. This produced the alarming conclusion that there was only one elephant left — a cow, thought to be about 45 years old.
By examining the wrinkles on the forehead in a photograph taken by Johan Huisamen in 1994, and the ragged edge of the elephant’s ears in a video taken in 1995, it was determined that it was the same elephant.
These observations were compared with photos and videos taken in 2023. The elephant is known as Oupoot. Poole agrees that it is the same elephant, which means that the cow estimated to be about 45 in 1994 was actually only 24 years old, as I consider it very likely that this elephant is the calf born in March 1970.
Hylton Herd, a former SANParks Knysna elephant project co-ordinator, conducted a photography census between 2006 and 2009 and is also convinced that only one elephant has remained since the 1990s. He came to this conclusion by studying the ragged edge at the exterior of the elephant’s ears and comparing the pattern to that on the other photographs. The ear-edge pattern of the elephant photographed matched a photo taken in 1994.
According to Stehle, during the 1990s, there were two elephants left, not just one. He says the 1994 survey was the most thorough one that could be done in the state forest. However, this excluded a significant portion (2,800ha) of native forest within the Geo Parkes & Sons property.
This omission constitutes a flaw in the survey. The then forester in charge at Diepwalle, Martin Lucas, the Diepwalle forest guard trackers and Stehle were convinced that there were at least two animals during the 1990s. At that time, there were two sets of information: one from the survey organised and carried out by the regional office planning department, and the other from the forester at Diepwalle, who reported sightings from the two forest guard trackers almost daily for at least two to three years. There have been numerous sightings of one Knysna elephant and even two Knysna elephants together.
Unfortunately, there was never any video or photo evidence to confirm the existence of the second Knysna elephant mentioned by Lucas, Stehle and the two forest guards. According to Stehle, the reason for this was because the forest guards were not familiar with the technology of a camera and did not know how to handle cameras and take pictures. They were given a camera later only after being taught the ropes, but experience proved that it was extremely difficult to take pictures in the forest. The two animals that were seen together were also not close enough to appear in one photo.
During a thorough survey using camera traps over 15 months from July 2016 to October 2017 in the 185km² Knysna elephant range, researchers identified a lone adult female elephant.
In May of this year, Oupoot was seen and photographed on the farm of Oubaas Fourie, situated in the Karatara area. All video and photo evidence since 1992 points to the same animal, Oupoot.
• Joubert, a teacher, freelance writer and researcher, has conducted in-depth research on the Knysna elephants.
In 1992, footage of a Knysna elephant cow was captured for the first time since 1987 by Len Du Plessis, a forester at Diepwalle. He recorded a video at Grooteiland, in the Gouna area.
In October 1994, the water affairs and forestry department inquired about the number of Knysna elephants, raising doubts about the size of the current population as only one elephant was seen regularly at this time. This was when the department was about to bring three Kruger elephants into the forest.
The department launched an intensive elephant search by forest workers who walked about 200m apart through the entire core area of the elephants’ home. This led to the alarming conclusion that there was only one elephant left — a cow, thought to be about 45 years old. By examining the wrinkles on the forehead in a photograph taken by Johan Huisamen in 1994, and the ragged edge of the elephant’s ears in a video taken in 1995, it was determined that it was the same elephant.
These observations were compared with photos and videos taken in 2023. The elephant is known as Oupoot. Poole agrees that it is the same elephant, which means that the cow estimated to be about 45 in 1994 was actually only 24 years old, as I consider it very likely that this elephant is the calf born in March 1970.
Hylton Herd, a former SANParks Knysna elephant project co-ordinator, conducted a photography census between 2006 and 2009 and is also convinced that only one elephant has remained since the 1990s. He came to this conclusion by studying the ragged edge at the exterior of the elephant’s ears and comparing the pattern to that on the other photographs. The ear-edge pattern of the elephant photographed matched a photo taken in 1994.
According to Stehle, during the 1990s, there were two elephants left, not just one. He says the 1994 survey was the most thorough one that could be done in the state forest. However, this excluded a significant portion (2,800ha) of native forest within the Geo Parkes & Sons property.
This omission constitutes a flaw in the survey. The then forester in charge at Diepwalle, Martin Lucas, the Diepwalle forest guard trackers and Stehle were convinced that there were at least two animals during the 1990s. At that time, there were two sets of information: one from the survey organised and carried out by the regional office planning department, and the other from the forester at Diepwalle, who reported sightings from the two forest guard trackers almost daily for at least two to three years. There have been numerous sightings of one Knysna elephant and even two Knysna elephants together.
Unfortunately, there was never any video or photo evidence to confirm the existence of the second Knysna elephant mentioned by Lucas, Stehle and the two forest guards. According to Stehle, the reason for this was because the forest guards were not familiar with the technology of a camera and did not know how to handle cameras and take pictures. They were given a camera later only after being taught the ropes, but experience proved that it was extremely difficult to take pictures in the forest. The two animals that were seen together were also not close enough to appear in one photo.
During a thorough survey using camera traps over 15 months from July 2016 to October 2017 in the 185km² Knysna elephant range, researchers identified a lone adult female elephant.
In May of this year, Oupoot was seen and photographed on the farm of Oubaas Fourie, situated in the Karatara area. All video and photo evidence since 1992 points to the same animal, Oupoot.
• Joubert, a teacher, freelance writer and researcher, has conducted in-depth research on the Knysna elephants.
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