Two years ago, I had the privilege of doing an elephant research program with Bring the Elephant Home at the Kariega Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. We spent 10 days living and (literally) breathing elephants. Suffice to say that I was hooked! The focus of that program was research on herd and individual behavior after dropping internal fences at the Kariega Game Reserve. I wrote about that first trip here.
A year later I was back. The focus on my 2nd trip was individual ID and data collection for an AI app we were beginning to develop. More on that later.
Year 3 of elephant ID
So now I’m back in South Africa for a 3rd volunteer expedition. I’m happy to report that the herds seem to be thriving. Here are some initial observations from this go-round:
More mingling.
We spent an hour watching 3+ herds come together and intermingle in a vibrant green valley one afternoon. Bukela, Beauty, Half Moon, their herds, the other minor matriarchs, and their herds socialized as Vula, in full musth, surveyed his new domain. It was an amazing sight to see 60+ of these magnificent beasts in one panorama.
So. Much. Joy.
Without anthropomorphizing too much, I’d say the individual eles look joyful. After the meet-and-greet in the valley, a parade of elephants marched from there to the nearby watering hole. We watched elephants of all sizes frolic, blow bubbles, roll in the mud, socialize, bob, spray, dunk, and splash. There is no doubt in my mind that elephants love a good mud wallow. And even Vula dunked and played, musth and all. All of us in the vehicle were ear-to-ear grinning; the joy, contagious!
Kambaku left a legacy. Or 6.
We spotted at least 5 new calves, born between Oct-Dec. Elephants have a 22-month gestation period, so it’s highly likely that these are Kambaku’s offspring. Elephant cows (females) prefer to mate with the most mature bull even if others are in musth. His legacy lives on.
Balu is growing into his own.
It’s no mystery that my favorite elephant here is Balu. He is an adult bull, about 25 years old, with wavy ears and a cute, almost mischievous smile to his face. That spunkiness may get him in trouble, though, as he was also in musth this week. When we spotted him in the valley at the herd convention, he was very interested in the females until Vula stormed in and pushed him out. It was a scary moment or two for Balu, but he got the message and left. Fingers crossed he stays out of Vula’s way until their musth is over.
Technology to the rescue
The other update is our new mobile app. My real job is as a Learning Strategist on Microsoft’s Healthcare Copilot products. After the first program I attended, I was convinced that there had to be a way to use AI for elephant identification. One hackathon and a couple of years later, a small (but mighty) team of colleagues and I are partnering with the Microsoft AI for Good Lab, Conservation X Labs/WildMe, and Bring The Elephant Home to create an AI-powered elephant re-ID mobile app. [Re-ID is the science of identifying and monitoring a species in its natural habitat]. We tested a prototype of the app in the field during this trip, and we’ll be iterating and building over the coming weeks and months to fine-tune and launch. We’re sure that a mobile re-ID app will help citizen scientists and researchers alike identify and learn about the individuals and herds at their reserve.
Stay tuned for more details!
Want to learn more about BTEH and their volunteer programs?
- Read about Bring the Elephant Home.
- Join their research program in Thailand in November 2026.
- Learn about the South Africa research program (next dates TBD).
And keep your eyes on my blog for more photos and stories from my adventures in South Africa.
And finally, RIP Kambaku.