Identity…

Wait! What?

Immediately I slammed the Landy into reverse and backed up, thinking that my eyes deceived me!

We were along the ephemeral pans on the Limpopo River in Pafuri, Northern Kruger. Being on the boundary between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique with no physical structures to inhibit wildlife (and human) movement is a double-edged sword. As much disdain as I have for fences, they do reduce human wildlife conflict.

With extreme poverty amplified by political despotism and viral pandemic, the community across the Limpopo resort to snaring for meat. Most of the time it’s smaller antelope or occasionally buffalo, but often the evidence of unintended targets like elephant, is glaringly visible, like in this case.

As however can be seen, this is a very old injury, all healed up.

Sitting quietly, observing the little herd as they peacefully browsed on the pan’s periphery, we all wondered how the hell an elephant sans trunk can survive. Is it not the trunk that MAKE the elephant? I’ve seen many eles with varying degrees of trunk severed due to snares, but this one had lost the entire length!

How does it drink or eat? 

It obviously succeeds as there’s no sign of malnutrition.

Pretty soon our question was answered…the young ele ambled up to a low shrub and provided us with an incongruous sight as it opened its mouth, leant forward and took a massive bite! Retreating a step resulted in the severance of the leafy twigs and a hearty mouthful of sustenance…easily done.

After some time a few siblings engaged in a bit of jousting and shoving, without any hesitation the trunkless calf joined the fun and frolicked along sans any anomalous behaviour by anyone…this then made me wonder why I thought there should have been. Did the fact that this calf looked different (disfigured) alter WHO it was? Did it change its relationships with the rest of the herd? Why did I expect it to be shunned? Is it only a human trait to regard external aesthetics disproportionately when felling judgement of those different to ourselves?   

So…if it does not have a trunk, is it still an elephant?

What do you think?

Yours in certainty,