Ivor Markman

Addo Elephants

 

The threatened Addo elephants, once hunted almost to the extent of extinction, are flourishing.

From 15 in 1919, their numbers have increased to over 600 today.

It’s a rather sad tale that led to the founding of the park but we today are fortunate that public opinion put an end to an 11-month killing spree that almost wiped out all of Addo’s elephants.

By 1919 the elephants were causing so much damage to crops and fences that farmers considered them to be vermin.

They complained bitterly to the Government and a decision was taken to engage a professional hunter to eradicate these proud animals.

Its believed the Addo elephants once roamed with the Knysna elephants all over the densely wooded area of the south and south-eastern Cape.

There are signs of elephant habitation all along the coast, and the early settlers wrote stories about the wallowing holes which they found in the Swartkops and Baakens Rivers in Port Elizabeth.

A group of elephants sought refuge in the dense Addo bush and developed the characteristics which today distinguishes them from their Knysna cousins.

Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese navigator, wrote in 1497:

“It appears that elephants are plentiful in this country. We actually found their droppings near the watering place where they had gone to drink.”

The first written mention of elephants in the Sundays River Valley was in 1702 when elephant hunters crossed the Sundays River.

Again in 1779 they were mentioned by Patterson and in 1818 by Latrobe, who wrote:

"The immense forests of Plettenberg Bay are not without inhabitants.

"Elephants, buffaloes, tygers, (sic) wolves, and wild boars having little to dread from that grand destroyer, Man, find here shelter.

"They seem all to have chosen their ground, some preferring the coast, and others the mountains.

"Thus, if not followed into their haunts, they are not often seen by the traveller, especially during the day, and we were never amused by the gambols of tygers (sic) or leopards, near the road."

For a century, starting in 1790, a lively ivory trade was to be the main factor in the virtual extermination of elephants in the sub-continent.

Before the Sundays River was extensively developed, the elephants had over 160 square kilometres of free grazing.

This gradually diminished as farmers encroached on their territory, developed the land and fenced the boundaries.

Farmer’s complaints against the elephants increased in intensity and bitterness.

The herd was considered to be of such a threat to life and property that there was an almost unanimous call for their extermination.

In 1869, one Hillson, of J A Hollard’s farm, shot a large female elephant that had been causing enormous crop damage.

The Port Elizabeth Advertiser wrote, “in killing it, Mr Hillson has rid the neighbourhood of a great nuisance.”

In 1919 Major Sellick, a member of the Uitenhage Town Council, under whose jurisdiction a large area of valuable land near Addo lay, travelled to Nylstroom to ask the world famous hunter, Major P J Pretorius, to rid the community of a bunch of rogue elephants taking a toll of life and property.

Sellick said the area was a death trap and that several other hunters, including F C Selous, Captain Maguire and Sir Harry Johnson, had visited the area and because of the thick bush had complained it would be impossible to eradicate the beasts.

Sellick sought the consent of the Administrator of the Cape, Sir Frederick de Waal to eradicate the herd.

Permission was granted, and Sir Frederick ordered the destruction of the entire herd.

Pretorius came to investigate, but when he saw the nature of the bush, four metres high in places and with thick undergrowth consisting of thorny shrubs of every description, he wasn’t at all keen to accept the assignment.

“If ever there was a hunter’s hell, here it was,” he said.

Sir Frederick attempted to obtain the services of other hunters, but without success.

He went back to persuade Pretorius to take the job.

Pretorius finally agreed but ignored advice from the locals not to camp alone in the bush with only his dog for company.

He scouted the land in all directions in order to establish a fleeting vision of the country and ascertained where the water holes were - essential knowledge in an elephant war.

Finally, with his .475 double-barreled rifle and the help of three unemployed “gaolbirds” from Uitenhage, he established a camp in the Addo bush.

On the very first morning, after he had gone three miles, the vegetation became so thick that he could proceed no further in any direction.

Suddenly he saw an elephant standing within four paces of him, broadside on and fast asleep.

The rifle spat out its load of lead and number one fell dead.

Pretorius carried a folding ladder with him when he was hunting and laid it against a bush to provide a rather wobbly observation post.

From the top of the ladder, he was able, through watching for movements of the bush, to establish where the elephants were.

On one occasion two men, recorded only as Norton and Bloomfield, came along to witness his exploits.

Pretorius took them to a spot about 10 to 15 metres from where some elephants were grazing.

Before Pretorius moved forward, Bloomfield said he was going to time him from the time of the first shot.

He moved forward and found an elephant fast asleep in front of him.

He fired and the elephant dropped dead.

The rest of the herd turned and stampeded towards him.

He dropped five more in quick succession and another a few seconds later.

Bloomberg was heard screaming at the top of his voice “Thirty seconds!”

The elephants soon learned to recognise Pretorius and became panic-stricken whenever they saw him.

This made his job more difficult and his assignment became increasingly hazardous.

All told, Pretorius shot 120 elephants over the next 11 months - sometimes as many as five in one day.

Pretorius did not kill all the elephants he saw.

He had a soft spot for babies and spared them.

At least two babies adopted him, Coerney and Addo, both named after nearby railway stations.

An outcry arose as the public finally realised what was happening and popular opinion turned towards compassion for the elephants.

Protests for their protection arose not only in South Africa but also overseas.

When a decision was taken to spare the remainder of the herd, only 11 panic-stricken and bewildered animals were left.

These animals formed the nucleus of the present herd now protected in the Addo Elephant National Park.

In 1925 complaints against the elephants started again after they crossed the boundaries and caused damage to adjacent farms.

The completion of the Lake Mentz scheme and the subsequent development of great tracts of land helped to further diminish the grazing land.

When Denys Reitz was Minister of Lands in the early 1920s, he set aside 5,000 morgens of land unsuitable for farming, as a reserve for the elephants.

But they were not to be confined to the area and roamed the surrounding farms, enjoying the prickly pear season and damaging the oat crop.

On July 3, 1931, PG W Grobler, Minister of Lands and promulgator of the National Parks Act, proclaimed a number of farms in the Addo area, comprising 9 000 morgens, as the Addo Elephant National Park.

The problem now was how to drive the elephants out of the thick bush surrounding Harvey’s farm and into the proclaimed area.

A ranger from the Kruger National Park, Harold Trollope, was transferred to Addo.

He was made warden and commissioned to move the elephants.

Once in the park, Trollope proposed to keep them there by lighting fires at night every 35 metres along the boundaries of the reserve.

Trollope wrote a sympathetic report and described the plight of the animals.

“They were without a single place of refuge. Farmers were tired of them and not without reason, as their presence made farming at times dangerous and difficult.

"Fences were destroyed and stock strayed in all directions.

"Farmhands refused to enter the bush to collect cattle if the elephants were around . . .”

In 1943 Graham Armstrong was appointed warden of the park.

He realised that a strong fence was needed to contain the elephants.

Experiments were tried with electric fences, but the elephants soon found out that the wooden fencing standards were not electrified and pushed the poles over.

Also in 1943, a herd of young oxen found their way into the Addo reserve and straight away struck up a friendship with the elephants, pairing up with them and sharing the grazing.

The animals mingled so closely together in the thick bush that when they were finally rounded up in October 1948, it took three days to find them all.

On March 22, 1947, for the first time in nine years, two baby elephants were born.

During 1948 and 1949, a number of elephants were killed after they broke out of the reserve and once again seriously damaged the farmer’s oats and prickly pear crops.

Farmers petitioned the Minister of Lands, and after talks with the CSIR and the National Parks Advisory Board, Armstrong was approached for a detailed report for a proposed fence made out of old tramway rails.

The City Council of Port Elizabeth donated the strips of rails while Waygood-Otis contributed lengths of used elevator cables.

With the completion of the famous Armstrong fence, the elephants were at last safely kept within the confines of the park.

Only one elephant has escaped since the fence was constructed. Hapoor (“hap” as in bite and “oor” as in ear) who, as a young elephant was shot in the ear during the time when elephants were still being hunted, became the dominant bull in the herd.

He reigned for 24 years until another elephant ousted him in 1968.

Hapoor was driven out of the herd and became an outcast.

He climbed over the Armstrong fence and escaped.

Nature conservation officers realised that he was dangerous and would not be contained by any fence, so they had no option but to shoot him.

Hapoor’s head can be seen mounted on the wall in the Addo visitor's centre at the same height at which he stood (see photo).

By 1974, 20 years after the completion of the Armstrong fence, there were 75 elephants in the park.

The population today stands at 600.