Chimp & See Talk

Short trunk: Elephant dragging cable

  • Snorticus by Snorticus

    @Corcaroli spotted this odd cable here. Sadly, when I checked the earlier clip in the series ACP000ddx6 I found the cable is being somehow dragged along by an elephant with her trunk cut very short. So we are wondering if this long cable is a portion of some kind of trap device? I cannot tell how it is still connected to the ele that is dragging it. It's quite long. I'm going to need a big bottle of wine after this sad week of injured animal clips 😕

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I think that is a transect line used by the researcher for measuring (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transect). It does not look like a snare, the elephants can remove it easily and do not seem to be distressed.

    I thought, we had earlier a discussion about this, but I only can find the tag group collection for #transect_line: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/collections/CCPL0000ca

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to AnLand's comment.

    Discussion here: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000d/discussions/DCP000059i

    I didn't realize that transect lines were sometimes left in place. So probably the other end is tied to a tree? That extremely short trunk and oddly angled left tusk looks rather disturbing.

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  • NuriaM by NuriaM scientist, moderator

    OMG!! poor thing 😦

    I have shared this video with an ele. expert (Marion Garai -Chair of the Elephant Specialist Advisory Group, and this is what she told me:

    "[...] Yes I have seen photos of such elephants with missing and injured trunks and saw one in Botswana with a stump of a trunk, but she was coping very well, and the others were helping her, her Mom waited for her as she was slower and when she drank from the dam she knelt down and drank with her mouth like a baby!"

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator in response to Snorticus's comment.

    Yes, one end of the thread is tied to a tree and the other end to a researcher somewhere usually 😉 The topofil is really easily broken normally (in fact sometimes it breaks while we are measuring even) so it won't harm the animals at all. If an animal ran straight at it, it would break for sure.

    Thanks Nuria for the info on how eles can cope with short trunks. so sad 😦

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to NuriaM's comment.

    Thanks for the positive info on how resilient and considerate these animals are, Nuria.

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