Andrea Turkalo has been living in a small camp at the Dzanga Bai clearing in the midst of a tropical rainforest in the south-west of the Central African Republic. It is a thirty-minute walk from her camp to the clearing. "I have walked 33 thousand kilometres along this path," says Andrea who left the comfort of the East Coast of the USA for her great passion - forest elephants.
The Dzanga Bai clearing is absolutely unique. Some say it is the only place in the world where you are always sure to see Forest Elephants. In any case, it is indisputably the absolutely best place place in the world to watch them. Elephants, Forest Buffaloes, and Bongo antelopes come to the clearing regularly to drink from springs that contain salt and other minerals.
You can hear countless times about the view of the Dzanga Bai clearing yet the reality will take you aback. Giant trees set the stage for an unbelievable elephant show. You can see dozens and dozens of elephant cows with calves of all ages, as well as some huge bulls with two-metre tusks; altogether fifty, seventy, or maybe a hundred forest elephants in one place.
"There are some four thousand Forest Elephants in this area," Andrea told us with a muted voice in her shelter, "and I meet around six hundred of them here".
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Andrea gave each of the six hundred elephants a name and keeps detailed records about them. Watching Forest Elephants in the clearing is one of few opportunities to learn something about them; it is impossible to track them in the forest... (By the way, the African Forest Elephant is a completely different species than the African Bush Elephant; one of the differences noticeable at first sight are orange to brown-coloured downward pointing tusks.)
Andrea introduced several of "her" six hundred elephants to us from her shelter at Dzanga Bai. While Khalil was recording a video, she commented on what was going on in the clearing. At this point I can only promise the same as I did in the previous article about Makumba's troop: you have definitely something to look forward to when we return and post videos and photos from Dzanga Bai on this website, together with an extensive interview with Andrea.
16.11.2009 Twiggs was born in the wild in Cameroon around the year 1997. She and another female gorilla, Brighter, was smuggled across the border to Nigeria as infants to be sold as pets on the locale pet marked.
09.11.2009 When Pitchou was very small, she was brought to Hotel Ilomba in Kribi to be sold, after her mother had been killed by hunters. She stayed there for three days, until the hotel owners could no longer bare to watch her suffer. The family donated her to the LWC.
02.11.2009 Chella came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when he was only two years old. He was found in the back of a bush-taxi sitting on his dead mother. Wildlife officials confiscated him and kept him three weeks before bringing him to the Wildlife Centre.
21.09.2009 Adjibolo came to Limbe Wildlife Centre when she was only about 6 months old. She was confiscated by senior civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Adjibolo, from a hunter who tried to sell her.
