Witnessing the Great Desert Elephants | Secrets of the Elephants

2m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Somehow these elephants are eking out a living in a landscape that anyone else would think is lifeless. Conservationist Dr. Paula Kahumbu has spent her career studying the elephants of Africa's lush savanna grasslands. But she's never laid eyes on a desert elephant. She wants to find out how these remarkable animals managed to survive in this unforgiving place.

African savanna elephants and desert elephants are the same species. But if you took a savanna elephant and brought it here, it wouldn't survive. I want to know how these desert elephants managed to live here. To find one of the constantly roaming elephant herds, Paula has turned to tracker Hendrik Moon in Bomi and his 25 years of studying the Desert Elephant.

"I think some walk through a soft, so it's possible we’ll find them today."

"Oh, this amazing, there’s two here."

"Oh, you mean there's a big family here? Yeah. These are the desert elephants we've been looking for."

"This family. I've been watching elephants my whole life, and I've never seen elephants like these."

They may be the same species as savanna elephants, but you can immediately see the differences. The legs have less fat in them, so they look taller and their skin is looser.

It's incredibly tough for an elephant here. Food and water are both scarce and it's only getting worse in the Namib desert. Climate change has brought with it a five-year drought. Everything depends on their ability to get from one waterhole to the next. There's no time to stop, to investigate, to explore how to play. It's just survive. Survive means keep going. Keep going.

Watches You Buy As You Get Richer

Peter Lynch: The Secret to “Buying the Dip"

View All

The social contract | Foundations of American democracy | US government and civics | Khan Academy

Before we dive deep into our study of government and politics, it’s worth asking a fundamental question, and that’s whether we even need government. Or why do we need government? I encourage you to pause this video and think about this. Do you think we ne…

Kevin O'Leary & Teddy Baldassarre Visit F.P. Journe

[Music] Hey, Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful. Where am I? In Los Angeles. Why? We’re shooting Shark Tank in the middle of it. We have a dark day; we have a day off. Where do I want to be when I’m in Los Angeles on a dark day? Inside of the FP Journe Bou…

Nuclear Power Generation| Fuel Types and Uses I| AP Environmental Science| Khan Academy

Hey there friends! Today we’re going to learn about nuclear power, and to do so, we’re going to visit my home state, Idaho. That’s right, land of the potatoes and also nuclear power! If you’ve driven through Idaho, there’s a good chance that you passed b…

15 Things You Should Spend Money On

Let’s imagine for a moment that you just got your first paycheck. It’s pretty exciting, isn’t it? Now you’ve got enough money to do whatever you want. But hold on a minute, that’s a dangerous mentality to live by. In fact, it’s even more concerning if you…

Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman's Secret 5-Step Investing Checklist

Go through that strategy and go through how it works. When you come, you know, maybe you’ll override that portfolio manager or not, but what’s the checklist you kind of go through? So we look for very high-quality businesses, what we describe as simple, …

Teaching a Fixated Dog to Focus | Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog

For me, it’s easier to rehabilitate an aggressive dog than a fixated dog. While working with fixated and overexcited kelpie Shadow, Caesar discovers the dog has forgotten how to behave like a dog. “That’s my girl! Let’s go swimming!” To prevent aggressio…

Witnessing the Great Desert Elephants | Secrets of the Elephants

More Articles