The 2022 Africa Journals, Ch. 11: The Elephant and the Irony

 Chapter 11:

The Elephant and the Irony

"Of all African animals, the elephant is the most difficult for man to live with, yet its passing--if this must come--seems the most tragic of all."-Peter Matthiessen, author of "The Tree Where Man was Born"

An elephant died today.

While we were eating a hearty breakfast nearby, the young female lay down on her side and took her last breaths with her trunk thrown up between her tusks.  Most likely she died of starvation brought about by this horrid drought that has already killed so many.

I first saw her when we stopped to take photos of a zebra using a rock monument to scratch its hide.   That's unusual, I thought about the elephant, that she would stay on her side that long.

We drove about a quarter mile away to the Amboseli NP airstrip terminal and the drivers set out tables and chairs.

They used a colorful Maasai blanket as a tablecloth and laid out the breakfast tins.  As usual, the tins contain far  too much food for us, so we began stacking uneaten food on the lid of a tin.   In went the uneaten halves of sandwiches, fried sausages, pastries and muffins, bananas, apples, pancakes and hard mints.

L-R:   Marg, Virginia, camera-shy Shelly, and Cory.   The pile of uneaten food is in front of Cory.

I have never seen a square toilet before.   It is in the terminal restroom.

When we finish and drive out the same way, the elephant is still down.   I comment that it must be dead and the driver says, "Yes.   She was standing when I first saw her and I watched her go down."

My photos, shot before and after breakfast, show her with her trunk up between her tusks and its position did not change.

The irony assaults me.   That a precious beast would die of starvation while we were setting aside uneaten food was too much.   The death of this one elephant affects me more than the dozens and dozens of carcasses strewn across the grassland savannah--but a savannah with no grass.

There is another irony.  We asked to be brought back to this area today, our last full day at Tawi Lodge and Amboseli NP,  because it is teeming with life both in and around the lake.

We were saturated with death and wanted so much to see life.

And yet, an elephant died of starvation while we satiated ourselves with an abundance of food.

This evening, we sat around the fire at Tawi Lodge.   I thought about the elephant that died today.   I drank a silent toast to her.