Currently 8 elephants are being tracked by Dr. Chase and our team in a 50,000-square-mile study area so we can gain insight into their migration patterns. All elephants have amazing stories and we wanted to share the stories of 3 of those elephants.
Rainbow Spirit is the matriarch of a 15-member family herd that is the first recorded elephant group to return to Angola after the civil war. She is tall, with slender symmetrical tusks and was collared in August 2007 in the Vumbra area of the Okavango Delta. At the time, she had a small calf who would now be about three or four years old. The fitting of the collar around her neck was a challenge in that she showed incredible spirit and remained hidden in thick palm bushes even after she was tranquilized. Now she and her family are challenged with reclaiming their old homeland in southeastern Angola that was once the epicenter of operations for a rebel army.
Kachikau (pronounced catch-ee-cow) is a large female, who is likely the matriarch of her family herd of eight. We estimate her to be in her mid-to-late 20s. Her left tusk is long and slender, but the right tusk had been broken close to her lip. She was collared on Sept. 25, 2008, in the middle of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. The herd was hiding under the shade of a tree while they waited for the African sun to set so they could move under the cover of darkness to the Zambezi River to drink.
Naledi (pronounced naa-lei-dee, which means “Star” in SeTswana) is a young bull, estimated to be in his early 20s. From the base of his foot to the tip of his shoulder, Naledi measures nearly 10 feet tall. His tusks are thin, symmetrical, and a 1½ feet long. We collared him very recently on Aug 13, 2009, in the Makgadikgadi National Park of Botswana. He was first spotted resting under the shade of a small tree with an older bull elephant.
