An elephant cow passed away just south of the Londolozi Camps in mid 2019 from natural causes.
Once a wildlife veterinarian from the Sabi Sand Game Reserve had established that the carcass would not cause scavengers any harm from disease, it was moved away from the camp to mitigate against the foul smell that would follow in the weeks to come.
Amazingly, I witnessed a whole parade of elephants following the scent of the carcass right from outside camp soon after the death. The herd was led by the oldest female – the matriarch. Every single elephant reached their trunk softly to the white sandy track, analysing the scent left behind. Their heads were held low and their massive ears slightly outward. A cloud of pale dust was kicked up around them, creating an incredibly mystical feel about them. It was almost as if they were mourning the loss, but it is impossible to decipher what emotions were being experienced.
An elephant herd being led by the matriarch.
There is a widespread belief that elephants will mourn the loss of other elephants. Many people have reported seeing elephants investigating bones of their own species through touching, sniffing and kicking remains about – sometimes for seemingly long periods of time. For such large and intelligent creatures with phenomenal memories and a sense of self, this is not too farfetched.
An elephant’s face always has a calming feel about it, possibly because of the long eyelashes that droop over the eye itself.
The remains of the elephant cow that I spoke of earlier were quite quickly consumed by a wide variety of animals from jackal, hyena and lion down to vultures and eventually insects. What remained fairly intact nearby is the massive skull. It somehow made its way to the edge of a small waterhole. The odd ranger and tracker has turned it over during an explanation of events to guests but this does not account for the 200 odd yards that it has been moved in total. Each time we drive past it, it seems to move position, again and again. Even now with no guests around, it has been moved.
So, we decided to put up a trail camera to get the evidence we are looking for.
Who has been moving the skull?
A porcupine walks past the elephant skull. We hardly ever see porcupine so this was an exciting capture. Definitely not the culprit for moving the skull though.
A Birmingham male lion makes a surprise appearance.
An elephant cow is caught on camera! Elephants are what we suspected may have moved the skull. But look carefully between the hind legs and notice that the skull has already moved away several feet. Not the clear evidence we had hoped for.
There were no other images or videos on the trail camera other than us retrieving it. Thus we are left with our question unanswered: who or what is responsible for moving it?
Based on these images, one can not rule out the male lion. Unlikely though.
We will have to put the camera back up again to gather more evidence.
The mystery remains…
W have seen many skulls lying around in the bush, and sometimes getting to the same spot we can see that it has moved. Maybe from one side of a road to the other side, or deaper into the veld. We always thought it was hyena that moved it. Definetely not jackal as it will be too heavy.
I would have guessed hyena as the suspect.
Given the down time, Peter, how about a short story!
These skulls are pretty heavy so the suspect must be other elephants , I can’t see lions moving it.
As you say the smell of a naturally deceased elephant is pretty ghastly
I love a good mystery. My Rational, logical, human self wants to know the animal(s?) responsible, but the mystic in me wants to believe the Spirit of the elephant cow herself is moving it. ✨🐘✨
How mysterious! It really gets the imagination working. Yes, put out the camera again to answer the question!
Sometimes nature’s mysteries are best left, just that….. oftentimes, the mysteries will reveal their secrets when the time is right. Until then, we can all fathom a guess as to why the skull moves.
Pete, wonderful blog today – skulls lying around in the bush – who is moving them?
We wait in anticipation for the next exciting episode of the mystery moving skull! Nice hidden camera pics. Thank you
Pete, that is so strange, but I like that it makes our minds work hard to figure it out! I also really believe that Elephants are so intelligent that I have no doubt they mourn their dead. Animals have so much more depth and intelligence than we give them credit for.
This is all very interesting and mysterious indeed. Please keep us posted on your findings!
What a mystery. Who will solve it first?
Can you set that camera model to take a video when it detects movement instead of stills? Probably wouldn’t helped in this case though if it was false negative…most trail cameras have a surprisingly high rate of failure to detect movement. Not sure about those cameras but some I was using recently had about 30% rate of misses.
Hi Lachlan,
We subsequently set up a different model that takes video both during the day and at night. The results so far have been fantastic. Yes I have noticed in the past how cameras have failed to trigger when an animal is directly in front of the sensor. However, I have been incredibly impressed with the clarity of images when capturing a fast moving subject. Trail cameras have definitely revolutionised our ability to investigate the natural world.
How stranger. “Curiouser and curiouser” as Alice in Wonderland said. Look forward to seeing the answer! IS there an answer? Wendy M
I would probably say it was a young bull elephant?