Thursday, 27 September 2012

Elephant No. 361: Rubin's Vase Illusion




I had always imagined that this kind of design would be a fairly easy thing to produce, so I thought I'd try it for today's elephant.

Rubin's Vase—also know as the Rubin Face or Figure-Ground Vase—is a famous image featuring a pair of two-dimensional forms, which can be viewed in two different ways. Developed sometime around 1915 by Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, a selection of these types of images was later published in his book Synsoplevede Figurer ("Visual Figures"). The most successful of these was the vase, which has since been widely reproduced and imitated.


The original Rubin's vase illusion on the left, with an edited version on the right to
make the border more obvious.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rubin2.jpg


The idea behind the vase illusion is this: when two shapes share a common border, the border becomes the thing that guides perception of the two shapes. This gives the viewer two possible interpretations of the image, although the brain can maintain only one at a time. This is because the border can only be seen as belonging to the central image or the side images, but not both at the same time.

Our brains instinctively classify what they see by assessing which object surrounds which. If a coin is lying on the ground, for example, you would likely pay more attention to the coin, and less attention to its surroundings. The brain thus naturally normally sees "figure" rather than "ground".

In a Rubin's vase image, however, there is no clear distinction between figure and ground, and both have equal validity. The brain must thus begin shaping what it sees. When the brain tries to see the entire design as a whole, without fully recognizing either image, it gets confused and starts discarding information until a pattern can be seen. In Rubin's day, images such as this were accordingly used as diagnostic tools.



Some people see simple columns in the photograph; others see pairs of
leaning figures.
Source: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/04/people-trapped-inside-wall.html


To produce an effective Rubin's vase picture, the composite images should be flat, with little or no texture. Most modern illusions of this sort involve the traditional vase, with matching faces on either side, although there are more elaborate versions which involve fully painted scenes.

For today's elephant, I thought I'd produce two versions: one with two elephants facing one another, and one with a bunch of interlocking elephant shapes.

I thought it would be easy to produce these, but neither one was particularly simple. The one with two elephants facing one another was nigh on impossible, as you can see from my final paltry attempt.

I tried every angle of elephants, every shape of elephants, and every section of elephants, to try and get something reasonable. Because of the tusks and relatively smooth shape of the trunk, the vase idea didn't work, and even the insertion of an abstract elephant in the negative space between two elephants took some doing.

I eventually got two sketches that I thought would do.





The image with two elephants facing one another was simple to colour in. The one with six stylized elephants required grey in addition to black and white.




I don't love either of these and, having exhausted every design I could think of to arrive at the version with two facing elephants, I don't think I'll be trying this again anytime soon. At least not with elephants.





Elephant Lore of the Day
Elephants like to swim, but tend to grow restless on sea voyages. In 1933, Princess Alice, a circus elephant in Australia, was being transported by steamer, along with a great many other animals. Swaying restlessly on deck, her feet chained, she was clearly bored out of her mind.

Feeling around with her trunk for something to do, Alice discovered an interesting tap. She played with it for a while, until she figured out how to turn it. It happened to be a tap controlling the supply of steam to one of the ship's winches, so when Alice turned it, it released the winch drum. The clatter of the spinning drum brought alarmed deckhands running to the scene.

The tap was quickly turned off, and order was restored. As soon as everyone had gone, however, Alice turned the tap on again. As one report said, "the wicked gleam in her eyes suggested that she was enjoying the commotion." Alice did this so many times that an engineer ultimately spoiled her fun by turning off the supply of steam from below.

Later, this same engineer was dozing in his cabin, when a snake-like object floated through the porthole, hovering near his head. Leaping out of his bunk in shock, he discovered that it was an elephant's trunk.


Alice at an amusement park known as Wonderland City, Sydney, Australia, ca. 1907.
Source: http://circuszooanimals.blogspot.ca/2011/04/princess-alice-
lady-of-wonderland-city.html


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Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Elephant No. 360: Marbles




When I was little, someone gave me a small worm made of marbles glued together with some kind of silicone. It even had tiny googly eyes. Even back then, I found it intriguing that something as slippery as glass could be stuck so firmly together with glue—as witnessed by my many attempts to pry the pieces apart—so I thought I'd try it for today's elephant.

Marbles are small spherical toys made usually of glass, although there are also marbles made of agate, clay, steel and plastic. The earliest known marbles were made of stone, and date to the Indus Valley civilization (ca. 3300–1300 B.C.). Games involving marbles made of stone, clay and glass were also played in Rome and Ancient Egypt.

In 1846, a German glassblower invented special "marble scissors" which could be used to clip off and form individual marbles. Mass-production of marbles began with ceramic marbles in the 1870s, followed by the first sets of mass-produced clay marbles, which were produced in the early 1890s.


Traditional marble scissors.
Source: http://dumpdiggers.blogspot.ca/2007_12_01_archive.html


In 1903, the first U.S. produced glass marbles were being mass-produced in Akron, Ohio on a machine patented by Martin Frederick Christensen. M.F. Christensen & Son manufactured millions of toy and industrial glass marbles until the company closed up shop in 1917.

For millennia, children and adults have played games with marbles. One of the most common games involves first drawing a circle in the sand. Players then take turns rolling their marbles into the circle, attempting to knock other marbles out. Other commonly played games involve shooting marbles at holes or at target marbles. In many of these games, the winner of each round keeps the other player's marble.

Most marble-related games involve rolling marbles along a surface; in others, players toss marbles from a standing position. Marbles are also used in board-style games such as Chinese Checkers, in which each player hops his or her marbles over those of other players.


Chinese Checkers board.
Source: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ChineseCheckers.html


There are many colourful terms in the world of marbles. One of my favourites is the move called the "elephant stomp". This is when a player gets to stomp his or her marble level with the surface of the ground, making it virtually impossible for other players to hit it.

Different types of marbles also have interesting names. Alleys, for example, are marbles made of marble or alabaster—"alley" being short for "alabaster". Toothpaste marbles are the ones with a little twist of coloured glass in the centre. Aggies look like agate; bumblebees are yellow with two black stripes on each side; catseyes have a central eye-shaped insert of coloured glass; and elephant eggs are a type of particularly large marble. For an exhaustive list of marble names and types, visit the Wikipedia page on marbles.


Different types of marbles.
Source: http://mariemillard.blogspot.ca/2007/12/i-havent-lost-my-marbles.html


When I was young, I had a small jar of marbles—some of which I had won away from my brothers and other neighbourhood boys, and some of which I bought because they were pretty. Today, a marble collection can range from a couple of handfuls contained in a jar or bowl, to elaborate displays grouped by maker, style, material, quality, age and rarity. Because of their relative fragility, even a tiny chip can have a major impact on value.

Marbles were originally made by hand. If made of stone, bone or ivory, they were carved and polished. If made of clay, ceramic or porcelain, they were rolled into balls then fired and usually glazed. Handmade glass marbles are produced by stacking glass rods together to form a pattern, which is then cut into marble-sized pieces with marble scissors and rounded while still molten. Mass-produced glass marbles are produced by dropping blobs of molten glass into a groove. As the glass passes along the groove and cools, it is shaped into spheres.

In the United States, many companies started in Akron, Ohio, where the original marble-making machine was located. Today, the world's largest maker of mass-produced marbles is Vacor de Mexico, which produces 90 per cent of the world's marbles, at the rate of more than 12 million per day.

Glass artists also produce art marbles for the collector market. Many of these are much larger than the average playing marble, and are meant solely for display.


Spectacular art marble by Mike Gong.
Source: http://www.marblesgalore.com/page/15/


For today's elephant, I bought a sort of hodge-podge bag of strange bumpy marbles for less than two dollars. I bought these particular marbles because there were weird-looking, and because there were twice as many marbles in this bag as in any of the nicely packaged sets.





To glue the marbles together, I bought a tube of clear silicone.




I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, nor if I was even going to be able to construct an elephant shape of glass marbles. The trunk was a particular concern, as there aren't teeny marbles anywhere to be found.

Accordingly, I started with the trunk, glueing three marbles together in a slight curve.




Next, I put four marbles together in a square to provide a place to hold the trunk. I then added another marble to the back of this head shape. My idea was that the extra marble at the back of the head would help to anchor any body shape I added.





I attached the trunk next, and left things to set for a while. Although this process is very, very easy, it takes at least 10–15 minutes for the silicone to set each time. It won't be completely cured within 15 minutes, but you can at least handle the piece enough to glue on something else. Because of this, making this small elephant took most of the day—although the total actual working time was probably about 45 minutes.




After this, I got a bit distracted with other work I had to do today, every so often wandering over to glue on another marble or two. I also forgot to photograph the various stages. To give you an idea of how I did it, however, I glued on the marbles approximately like this: four marbles between the existing head and the body; a ring of six marbles around a central marble for the main body; four single marbles glued to the bottom of the body for legs; two marbles at the back to fill out the body; and two marbles stuck to each side of the head for ears.



 



This was easy enough for a child to try—although it would have to be a child with considerable patience, unless he or she was making something like a simple worm or snake. For more complicated forms, they have to be built in a sort of modular fashion, reassessing the shape at each stage. In my experience, the shape can't really be laid out any other way.

In the end, I rather liked this process. It's not something you'd use if you were in a hurry, but the final piece is actually rather pretty, despite the strange mismatched marbles and my rather lackadaisical approach to a tidy glueing technique. It's also quite heavy, so I think it will probably end up on my desk as a rather fun paperweight.





Elephant Lore of the Day
Lawrence Anthony—who became known as "The Elephant Whisperer" for his ability to heal the psyches of traumatized adult elephants—writes about being out in the bush one day, watching the still-unfriendly herd. He was studying them to learn the locations of their favourite watering holes, as well as what they were eating and where.

When he thought the herd was a safe distance away, he got out of his landrover to make a call on his brand-new cellphone. Some instinct, however, made him look over his shoulder, just as he was about to complete his call. To his horror, he saw the herd's most dangerous elephant, Frankie, a mere twenty metres away, with the rest of her family herd in tow.

Anthony leapt into his landrover with, as he wrote, "an alacrity which surprised even me." In his haste, he dropped his new cellphone. Soon the herd had arrived at the very spot where he'd been, and were milling about the phone. Anthony had no choice but to wait until they left, before he could retrieve the hapless device.

Suddenly the phone rang, its sound piercing the quiet. The elephants stopped in their tracks, turned around and approached the source of the unusual noise. Frankie arrived first, sleeking her trunk over the small piece of plastic, trying to figure out what it was. The others soon followed suit, and Anthony watched as seven elephants swung their trunks around over a chirping cellphone in the African bush.

Frankie finally decided that she'd had enough. Raising one of her feet, she stomped on the cellphone. The ringing stopped. The herd then turned around and ambled off.

When the herd was finally out of sight, Anthony went to retrieve his phone. Although it was buried deep in the soil, it still worked.

In addition to becoming famous for helping to rescue animals from the Baghdad Zoo during the recent conflict in Iraq, Lawrence Anthony has also become known for an unusual tribute paid to him following his death in March 2012. As if knowing that their friend and rescuer had died, the herds of Thula Thula walked twelve hours from their home in the bush to visit Anthony's home, remaining there for a short time before turning around and walking back.


Lawrence Anthony with an unnamed member of the Thula Thula herd.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/what-
elephants-can-teach-us-about-love-20090617-chyi.html


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Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Elephant No. 359: Wooden Buttons




I was in a dollar store yesterday and happened across a package of rather nice wooden buttons, so I thought I'd try painting them for today's elephant.

Since I've already covered the history of buttons in a previous post, I'll just describe today's activity here.

This was the package of buttons I bought—40 buttons for a mere $1.29, which I thought was a pretty good deal.




It contained four different sizes—ranging from 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter to 0.6 cm (1/4 inch)—with the bulk of the buttons being in the smallest size.




At first, I didn't think I wanted to paint all of them today. Then I decided to at least cover each of in a basecoat of solid colour. I chose the three primary colours and the three secondary colours, and divided the buttons more or less equally into each colour.




Because of the size of some of these, I didn't bother to draw anything with a pencil, instead just winging it. I quickly discovered that the smallest buttons were just too small to paint any kind of recognizable elephant—mostly because of the holes—so I stopped painting those.




The holes were actually a bit of an issue, because it was too easy to think of them as eyes, and hard to remember that they would ultimately be filled in with thread. There are also four holes to each button, making them fairly intrusive. Once I sew these to something, I suppose I'll see how successful I was in thinking around the holes.

Once I'd painted all but the smallest buttons with grey elephant shapes of some sort, I left them to dry.




Because these looked awfully plain to me, and because it was virtually impossible for me to add shading or outlines with any kind of finesse, I decided to add gold. I added a little gold crown to each, then a gold dot for an eye. I also added gold dots all around the rim of each button.





To make the smallest buttons match, I added a few gold dots in the central area, and dots to the rim.




This was a pretty simple activity, although it was quite time-consuming to paint the underlying colours. There is a front, back and rim to each, as well as holes to jam paint into, so it takes a while to cover the entire surface.

As for the elephant shapes, those took no time at all. The gold dots were fairly quick as well, and not even as tedious as I expected.

If I ever decide to use these on actual clothing, I'll probably have to seal them with varnish. I'm not sure I want elephant buttons on my own clothing, but they'd probably be fun on kids' clothing or a bag of some sort.

It took me a few hours to make all of these, mostly because of the underpainting, but it's not a stressful or difficult activity. I also really liked the idea of painting my own buttons, so I'm sure I'll try a variation on this again sometime.






Elephant Lore of the Day
Elephants don't like to be teased. When people extend food towards an elephant, then pull it away at the last minute, the elephant will often suffer the indignity for a short time. When the elephant has had enough, however, it will usually retaliate with tactics that range from blasting the offender with muddy water, to a good smack with tusks or trunk. Even baby elephants will readily express their displeasure, as seen in the video below of a baby elephant being teased with tasty morsels of banana.




It's an even worse idea to tease a fully grown elephant. And if an elephant suspects you of trying to steal some of its food, the consequences can be quite serious. Elephants have been known to kill people for simply borrowing a bit of hay to use as a bed, and think nothing of tossing people against a wall if unduly irritated.

In the video below, a man appears to be trying to bond with an elephant by offering it palm fronds. He also looks at one point as though he might be trying to remove one of the fronds—at least, that's how the elephant probably viewed it. If you've ever wondered how far you'd fly if an elephant were to hit you with its trunk, this video will give you a pretty good idea.




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Monday, 24 September 2012

Elephant No. 358: The Disappearing Elephant




Today's elephant is based on a vintage optical illusion, colloquially called "The Disappearing Chinaman", invented by Sam Lloyd. First printed in 1896, the puzzle was revived in 1930 by Lloyd's son, Sam Lloyd, Jr.

The idea of this vanishing puzzle is simple in concept, but devilishly difficult to figure out at first glance. The puzzle involves a disc overlaying a larger scene. When the disc is rotated from NE to NW, it appears to make one of the small figures disappear. There are 13 figures when you start, and only 12 when the disc is rotated.

I had one of these in a box of reproduction vintage optical puzzles and illusions, so I used it to inspire today's elephant. For an explanation of the original puzzle, as well as a downloadable version you can assemble yourself, click here.


The Disappearing Chinaman, 1930.
Source: The Paradox Box, Julian Rothenstein,
Shambala, 1999.



I started by drawing a circle. Next, I drew a box measuring 12.5 x 17.5 cm (5 x 7 inches), to serve as the base. I then cut out both pieces, and linked them together with a small brad that allows them to freely rotate. I also drew the arrow that points to NE, and lines for both NE and NW.




Now came the part that was hard for me to wrap my mind around. Lining up one set of these lines, I began drawing elephants, overlapping them in various ways. The idea is to make it possible for adjacent elephants to line up in order to create a new elephant. One of them will need to be a "double" elephant to allow one of them to disappear when the disc is rotated.

This part literally took me hours. I played with the original puzzle, trying to figure out which figure disappears, and how to pose my elephants to make this happen. At first, it seemed easy: just make adjacent elephants work together. The problem arises when you get to the end of this process, and find that nothing matches. You end up with legs in the middle of nowhere, and no elephant with which to match them.

I tried elephants with all their legs facing into the middle. The bodies were outside the disc, and the legs were on the disc. I thought it might work if I made one set of four legs into two sets of two legs. While that works, it doesn't make anything disappear.

Next I tried circus elephants doing various things, with legs and arms all over the place. I ended up with the same problem: the elephants worked with their neighbours, but nothing disappeared.

I went back to the legs in the middle and bodies outside the disc. I actually thought I had it figured out, but discovered—just as I was about to ink everything in—that I again had elephants that worked with their neighbours, but no disappearing elephant.

In desperation, I referred to the original puzzle, and started drawing elephants in similar poses. I still ran into difficulties making some of the elephants match up, but I did finally make one of them disappear. From twelve elephants when the arrow points to NE, it dropped to eleven elephants when I moved the arrow to NW.




I still can't really explain how it works, and I'd never be able to reproduce this in different poses. But after three hours of drawing and erasing a dozen elephants, I was just happy it worked.

I inked everything in, and heat-set it with a hairdryer. I then painted everything with gouache.






When everything was dry, I assembled it and tested it again to be sure it worked. It did.

This is what it looked like with the arrow pointing to NE.




And this is what it looked like with the arrow pointing to NW.




Now that I know how to do this, I would be willing to redraw one exactly like this. But I'd never attempt adding extra elephants, and if anyone were to ask me how it works, I'd still have to say that I don't have a clue.






Elephant Lore of the Day
Over the past year, many people have asked me when I began liking elephants. Although I can't pinpoint the exact moment, it might have been when I lived in Africa as a child. We lived in Nigeria, and one day took a trip to the Waza Game Preserve in neighbouring Cameroon.

I have no idea what it's like there today, but back then it was probably like being on the Serengeti. I remember our landrover screeching to a halt as a herd of elephants thundered past, and the whiplike necks of giraffes running in the distance. I also remember how the ground vibrated as several rhinos hove into view. I was only five or six at the time, but I've never forgotten it.

Sadly, Cameroon—although thankfully not the Waza Game Preserve—was the site of one of the worst poaching episodes in recent memory. Earlier this year, within the space of a few hours, over 200 elephants were killed at Bouba N’Djida National Park in northeastern Cameroon. This is a full 50% of the elephants in the region, and it is suspected that poachers have moved into Cameroon as the next frontier, having already wiped out elephant populations in nearby Chad and the Central African Republic.

Over the past ten years, elephants have been disappearing at an astonishing rate. A passion for ivory in the Far East—and a growing ability to afford it—is driving demand for elephant tusks in every part of the world. Where people once saw the occasional poacher picking off an elephant or two, there are now well-equipped marauders in jeeps and helicopters, armed with high-powered rifles.

Not content with killing elephants, in some parts of Africa they have also taken to murdering those whose job it is to protect dwindling wildlife populations. Nor do they limit themselves to rifles. Some poachers simply lob grenades into herds of elephants, or leave out poison-laced fruit. In some parts of Africa, the illicit trade in ivory is even believed responsible for supporting military forces, such as the disgraced Joseph Kony's rebel army in Uganda, and warlords in Somalia.

Even more disturbingly, poaching now appears to be driven from outside Africa. Many of the most recent arrests for ivory poaching have been of Chinese middlemen, caught with large shipments of African ivory. According to several sources, the number of Chinese nationals now operating in Africa's illicit ivory trade is growing, with no end in sight. Nor are elephants the only animals affected. In 2011, more than 400 rhinos were killed in South Africa for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Africa is not alone. A number of elephant populations in Asia are also seriously endangered. At least one country's elephants are about to become extinct. Much of this is also due to poaching, although habitat loss is a significant factor in Asia as well.

This is not to say that no one cares. There are dedicated conservationists in China, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and even countries with tiny populations of elephants such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The same is true of Africa, where wildlife rangers and national military forces often put their lives on the line to protect elephants from the activities of poachers and even irate farmers.

A number of solutions have been proposed to try and stem the tide of illicit killing for the sake of ivory. Some say that worldwide stockpiles of ivory should be released onto the open market. This would likely cause a precipitous drop in price, and make poaching less profitable. Others say that more money should be put into elephant protection, forensic tracking of ivory, and more severe penalties for the perpetrators.

There are arguments to be made for all of these. However, I don't think anything will stop the killing of elephants—whether for their ivory, or because they've trampled a farmer's corn—unless and until human beings stop seeing elephants as disposable vermin, and start seeing them for the intelligent, sensitive creatures they truly are.


Family of African elephants.
Source: http://www.hedweb.com/animimag/elephant-family.htm


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Sunday, 23 September 2012

Elephant No. 357: Cardboard Chandelier




The package for this called it an "ice chandelier", but it's neither made of ice, nor strictly speaking a chandelier, since I think putting candles anywhere near this would cause a very interesting fire.

That being said, I could see making an elephant with this kit, and it was only three dollars, so I thought I'd give it a try.

A chandelier—derived from various words for "candle"—is a branched lighting fixture with arms that bear either candles or lightbulbs. Although we normally think of chandeliers as sparkling crystal constructions, any branched lighting fixture is technically a chandelier.

The earliest chandeliers often consisted of two wooden crosspieces, fitted with spikes to hold candles. First used among wealthy Europeans during the Middle Ages, chandeliers were lit near ground level, then hoisted aloft on a chain or rope.


Medieval chandelier from King René's
Tournament Book, 1460.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Medieval_
Illustration_of_Chandelier.jpg


Beginning in the fifteenth century, more elaborate forms were developed, often featuring large wheel-like designs. Because candles were expensive, the larger the chandelier, the higher the implied status of the homeowner.

By the eighteenth century, as metal-casting and glassmaking techniques improved, highly decorative chandeliers were produced, featuring long, curved arms, gilding, and—perhaps most importantly of all—large quantities of lead crystal. To make the most of the limited light available from candles, everything from gilded picture frames to the silver and gold in a woman's dress was designed to reflect light. Lead crystal was thus a major leap forward in evening illumination, and crystal chandeliers became all the rage.

In the nineteenth century, with the introduction of gaslight, many chandeliers were converted to piped gas. Others were designed specifically for this exciting new form of illumination. By the end of the century, as electricity became both more dependable and more widely available, chandeliers were converted yet again.

The world's largest chandelier is thought to be the one in the Hassan Sharbatley Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. The world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier is located in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul. Given to Turkey by Queen Victoria, it has 750 lamps and weighs 4.5 tonnes. The Dolmabahçe Palace, incidentally, has the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world.


Crystal chandelier in Dolmabahçe Palace,
Istanbul, Turkey: a gift from Queen Victoria.
Source: http://turkishtravelblog.com/dolmabahce-palace-
ottoman-empire/


For today's elephant, this is the kit I had.




And this is what it contained.




I started by putting the armature together.





I then realized that there was no way I was going to be able to visualize a three-dimensional floaty elephant if I didn't hang it up to work on it. After that, I completely forgot to photograph what I was doing. Essentially, however, each piece of foil-covered cardboard is linked with small plastic rings that lock into place.

To give you an idea of how this was constructed, I hung a couple of round discs from each of the rings closest to the core of the armature. I then linked these to one another by bridging the gaps with an additional disc.

I then constructed the trunk by linking discs and diamond shapes, sometimes using two plastic rings instead of one, in order to make it hang properly.




For the ears, I simply added a couple of discs and diamond shapes to two of the side branches.




I didn't use the ice markers. They were interesting, but I didn't like the way they looked on the discs. My original idea had been to write the names of elephants I've written about in this blog over the past year, as well as numerous words for "elephant" in different languages. But it looked ugly when I did that, so I decided to leave the whole thing grey and silver.

It took me about an hour to construct this, which seemed quite reasonable. It's a bit on the plain side, but it does catch the light quite nicely, so it might look interesting tucked away in a corner somewhere. It is definitely weighted towards the front, so I might add some kind of weight to the back, inside the central ring, just to balance things out.




It's definitely an abstract piece, but I was rather pleased with the look of it when I was finished. It looks a lot like an elephant in real life, and I may even add some more sparkle with a few beads at some point. Actually, if I ever get truly ambitious, I might redesign this as a functioning electrical fixture, using glass and crystal.





Elephant Lore of the Day
Elephants often die of a broken heart. This is usually due to the sudden loss of someone—either elephant, human, or even another animal—with whom they have bonded.

In a 2006 New York Times article, Charles Siebert related the story of an elephant that had been hand-raised by the du Zulueta family in Uganda. The family lived on the edge of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where Dr. Zulueta had established a malaria-eradication program.

Local villagers came across a baby elephant that had been orphaned by poachers, and gave the elephant to the doctor and his family, who housed it in the family garage. As the elephant grew, however, Dr. and Mrs. Zulueta wondered what they would do when it outgrew the garage. A decision was made to give the elephant to the Entebbe Zoo in Kampala.

Although the Zoo gave the growing elephant all he needed in the way of appropriate food and care, he died soon after. Having grown up with a close-knit "family group", he pined away for lack of companionship, and simply lost the will to live.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust tells a similar story. Years ago, she was hand-rearing a baby elephant named Aisha, and for six months rarely left the elephant's side. She left for a short time to attend her daughter's wedding, and when she returned, she discovered that Aisha passed away. Deprived of her closest companion, the elephant had essentially died of a broken heart. Since that time, elephants at the Wildlife Trust have never been left in the care of a single keeper.

And then there's the story of little Nyika, another resident of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Orphaned in July of this year near Kenya's border with Somalia—where poaching is now so rampant and so violent that even rangers are being killed—Nyika was terribly emaciated. He had been deprived of his mother's milk for some time, and was also severely traumatized.

Soon realizing that the ten-month-old elephant was failing to thrive, staff at the Trust drew blood and sent it away for analysis. His white blood cell count was normal, which meant he wasn't suffering from an infection. The vet recommended a B-vitamin supplement and tender loving care.

Despite the team's best efforts, however, Nyika was so unhappy that he couldn't be coaxed to bond with humans or other elephants. He spent a lot of time on his own, despite the attempts of several other elephants to befriend him. The team watched helplessly as little Nyika essentially gave up. He died this month, having never really recovered from the loss of his herd—under circumstances that can only have been horrific in the highly mechanized world of modern poaching.


Nyika (centre) being comforted by Balguda, 2012.
Source: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/
updates/updates.asp?ID=446


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