[BITList] Fwd: [snippets] Elephant migration trail

[John Feltham]

Elephant migration trail
Elephants march through hotel lobby after it was built on their  
migration trail!

The Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia happens to have been built next to a mango  
grove that one family of elephants have always visited when the fruit  
ripens. When they returned one year and found the luxury accommodation  
in the way, they simply walked through the lobby to reach their  
beloved grove of trees.


The animals come in two-by-two.  Hotel staff and visitors have gotten  
used to the elephants' impromptu strolls through the lobby.  Now the  
family group, headed by matriarch Wonky Tusk, return every November  
and stay for four to six weeks to gorge on mangos - up to four times a  
day.  Andy Hogg, 44, the lodge director, has lived in South Luangwa  
National Park since 1982.  But in all his years of dealing with wild  
animals he has never seen such intimate interaction between humans and  
wild animals. "This is the only place in the world where elephants  
freely get so close to humans," says Andy. "The elephants start coming  
through base camp in late November each year to eat the ripe mangos  
from our trees."

Living in the 5,000 square mile national park, the ten-strong elephant  
herd is led to the lodge each day by Wonky Tusk. The hotel was built  
directly in the path of the elephants' route to one of their favorite  
foods .... mangos.

"The most interesting thing about these wild animals," explains Andy,  
"is that this is the only herd that comes through, and they come and  
go as they please."
Mfuwe Lodge consists of seven camps and the base camp where the  
elephants walk through.  Employing 150 staff, the management of the  
lodge report that there have been no incidents involving the wild  
elephants to date. "The elephants  get reasonably close to the staff,  
as you can see in the pictures of the elephants near the reception  
area," Andy explains. "But we do not allow the guests to get that  
close."


"Guests can stand in the lounge but only as long as there is a barrier  
between the elephants and the guests," he added.
"The elephants are not aggressive but you wouldn't want to tempt  
them.  It is the elephant's choice to be here and they have been  
coming here for the last ten years.  There are other wild mango trees  
around, but they prefer ours.  The lodge was unwittingly built upon  
their path," Andy says, "so we had no idea they would do this.  It  
wasn't a design error, we just didn't know.  The lodge was built and  
the elephants started walking through afterward."

"We keep people at a safe distance, but allow them close enough to see  
what is going on.  These are still wild and dangerous animals, so  
there must be enough time for people to get away."
The hotel is set in an idyllic national parkland. Naturally, the lodge  
becomes busier for both elephants and guests during November. "We find  
that we get more people visiting us during the elephant migration  
because of the unique experience of being so close to wild animals in  
an unusual environment," says Andy. "But as I said this is a totally  
natural phenomenon, as the elephants come here of their own accord. It  
is certainly a rare but magnificent sight."



ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0001.shtml 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 65264 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0007.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 82434 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0008.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 3.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 93308 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0009.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 4.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 77817 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0010.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 5.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 54565 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0011.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 6.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 53913 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0012.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 7.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 102787 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090627/267b5d19/attachment-0013.jpg