Murad R. Habib: An elephants tale

February 1979, Una one of the elephant cows in Amboseli gave birth to her first calf which turned out to be a male. Four years later, The Amboseli trust for elephants named him Ulysses. The trust always names the elephant calves four years after they are born, this is because their survival chances are higher after they turn four.

This is a short story of Ulysses, one of the big tusked bull elephants in Amboseli eco-system. Growing up, Ulysses stood out. He is unique and his personality was different. In the mid 90's, Ulysses was the first of his age group to leave his maternal herd to live the life of a bachelor and join the 'mens club'. He grew up to be a fighter, he is not known to back out of a challenge. He's even broken his left ear in a fight with another bull elephant. His broken ear is one of the ways to identify him these days, but he's not the only bull elephant with big tusks and a broken left ear - Palmer also has a broken ear. Now at the age of 42 years, he's become more calm. Last week, I had the privilege of spending almost an hour with this magnificent bull. I was blown away and at times I didn't even pick up my camera to take pictures. He is majestic. What made this sighting even more special was the fact that I was the only one there. It felt special and I could not help but imagine how the super-tuskers looked like when they roamed freely. The fact that such bulls still roam the Amboseli plains freely and as wild as they could be. This gives me some hope that the future generations will get to see, protect and photograph such amazing elephants.

Amboseli trust for elephants has been monitoring and researching on elephants since 1974. Founded by Dr Cynthia Moss and her colleague Harvey Croze. According to research by the research teams in Amboseli, Una was born in 1964 to the UA family. She died in the year 2006 from unknown causes, and she left five living off springs - four females (Undine, Usha, Utwo and Undo) and one male (Ulysses). Undine was born in September 1985, Usha was born in May 1990, Utwo was born in February 1997 and Undo was born in June 2000. Ulysses and his four sisters still live in Amboseli as wild and free elephants. You can get to see them when you visit the Amboseli National park.

Enjoy the pictures of Ulysses... Until next time, keep safe and take care!