Elephants in Diepwalle forest
I was in the Diepwalle forest doing a tour on the 22nd December. I received a call from a colleague who informed me he had just heard from the Diepwalle forest station to be on the look out for an elephant who had smashed a road sign and up-rooted a gate just off the R339 Uniondale road earlier that morning. On completing my tour I went to the sight of the wrecked road sign and found a number of tracks and a pile of dropping next to the up-rooted gate.
Interestingly on the 16th of December 2010 we had a similar experience about 5km away on the Petrus-se brand road where an elephant had pushed over a couple of trees across the road, with plenty of tracks on and around the road. I was in contact with a couple of knowledgeable elephant people in the area and they believe it to be a bull elephant in musth. They tend to be very moody and destructive when experiencing this condition.
Peter Collins