Show Notes
In this special three part Elephants Among Us series of Our Wild World, we will explore the savannah elephants of Africa. In Part Two we will dig deeper into elephant communication, including the recent exciting discovery that elephants use unique names to identify each other, and its implications. I'll share the amazing account of a lone female elephant in South Africa apparently using infrasound to communicate with a blue whale just off the coast. Then, I'll also recount how Chris and I saw a large bull elephant bully a family at Amboseli National Park, and how they used infrasound to call for help from another large bull. We will also learn how ethologists have learned to identify individual elephants in the field. Finally, we will discuss the different lives bull elephants lead from matriarchal led families as well as elephant babies. I will share the amazing encounter I had with a family of elephants while hiking at Lake Manyara National Park, where the great elephant conservationist Dr. Iain Douglas Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants and the Elephant Crisis Fund, began his studies of elephant migration routes in 1965. I'll also share how patient and polite elephants are when it comes to queuing in line.
More from Our Wild World
Hyenas are amongst the most misunderstood and maligned animals, perhaps only rivaled by wolves, coyotes, and wild dogs. For too long, Africans and westerners have despised the hyena, viewing it as an ugly scavenger, when in fact, as we shall see, they are one of the most successful hunters in the animal kingdom. Hyenas possess many of the ethical principles that we admire most in the best human beings. Instead of fearing the hyena, and wanting to kill it, we need to develop a new ethos, based on factual knowledge, and give this amazing predator its due.
In this episode, you'll learn about the most feared animal in all of Africa. No, it isn't a lion, hippo, or crocodile. The Black Mamba, nicknamed Africa's Death Kisser, is legendary for being the world's deadliest snake. Its reputation is well deserved. Considered the world's deadliest snake, the black mamba is extremely fast and aggressive when threatened. It's bite is almost always fatal, and death occurs within 10 to 20 minutes. While effective black mamba antivenin does exist, it isn't widely available in rural Africa where most black mamba deaths occur. Because death can occur in as little as ten minutes after a black mamba bite, antivenom must be administered immediately for it to be effective. It seems that every veteran safari goer has a story or two about the black mamba. I'll share a few, as well as the extremely close encounter my wife and I had with a Black Mamba in 2022. It's one of the best black mamba stories I've ever heard, and we lived to tell it.
In this episode, we will learn all about the three species of zebras – the Plains, Mountain, and Grevy's zebras. We will explore the physical and behavioral similarities between the species. Their social organization, habitats, ranges, diets, and their threats to survival will all be discussed. Finally, no discussion of zebras can be complete without addressing the various theories as to the function of those incredible stripes which make the zebra so endearing.
Cheetahs have long captured our the imagination of humans, and were frequently depicted in the artwork of the ancient Egyptians and San Bushmen of the Kalahari. As the fastest mammal on earth, cheetahs have an athletic body – long legs, a small, round head, slim torso, flexible spine, and semi-retractable claws. They can run breathtakingly fast – up to 70 mph (113 kph) – a speed they can reach astonishingly fast, in just three seconds. Cheetahs are more successful at killing prey than any of the other African cats. They are second only to wild dogs as the most successful predators. Cheetahs are successful at killing their prey about 70 percent of the time, an astonishingly high success rate for predators. Because they most typically hunt alone, cheetahs rarely take down prey larger than themselves. In this podcast, listeners will learn all about this fascinating predator.
In this podcast, we will learn about African buffalo, a formidable animal with a well-deserved reputation for being grumpy and unpredictable. The nicknames given to African buffalo reflect their formidable strength, short-temper, and unpredictability: Black Death, Widow Maker, and the Mafia of the Bush. Some Pygmy groups in Cameroon avoid buffalo because of a commonly held belief that it is inhabited by powerful evil spirits. We will introduce the different species of buffalo, their social organization, behavior, range, physical attributes, and their current status in the wild.