restless spirits of the Text & photographs by Carlton Ward Jr

few hours south of Timbuktu, below a bend in the limited resources of the come under pressure from increasingly ARiver, lies an oasis called Banzena. Every year during the dry sedentary nomads, the elephants’ connection to this life-giving land is season, it forms the gathering point for the Sahel’s last remaining becoming tenuous. Photographer Carlton Ward Jr accompanied a elephants, which travel up to 500 kilometres to get there. As the team of researchers who are working to strengthen it. 

34 GEOGRAPHIC • july 2007 www.africageographic.com 35 and hung in the air like a fog, obscuring the sun, and The elephants that survive behind me the small Touareg here are sometimes called camp where I had slept for the previous week was hidden ‘the elephants of Timbuktu’, fromS view. A hundred-strong herd of elephants glided like a ghost train across and they are every bit as the horizon and, mesmerised by this mysterious as the centuries-old first fleeting glance, I stood alone on the sand, facing the wall of giants. Moments mosques perched on the edge passed, punctuated by the click of my of the shutter, then the herd vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The Sahel in May was the hottest place I had ever been. It hadn’t rained in months, temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius in the shade, goats and cattle were dying daily and ’s last remaining elephants were emerging from the desert to gather here, at an oasis called Banzena. At the peak of the dry season, it is the only standing body of water in the region. The elephants ABOVE At the peak of the dry that survive here are sometimes called season, shimmering Lake Banzena ‘the elephants of Timbuktu’, and forms the only body of water for they are every bit as mysterious as the many kilometres in Mali’s Gourma centuries-old mosques perched on the region. On a clear day, you can edge of the Sahara. see to the Douentza escarpment, Banzena is an expansive marsh located which rises between the lake and roughly halfway between Douentza and the elephants’ feeding grounds in Timbuktu in the Gourma region, about the south. The porte des elephants at 12 hours north-east of the country’s Boni, 70 kilometres to the south-east capital, . I had travelled there of Banzena, is the only break in this three years ago with a research team otherwise solid barrier. from Save the Elephants and The Wild Foundation, which is working LEFT A Fulani herdsman crosses the to understand and protect the Sahel’s Norahe Dune, following the same only elephant population. In the past, path used by the elephants, which elephants were found throughout Mali, had embarked on the southward leg but today those that cling to life are on of their migration. a constant search for food and water. To survive, they undertake a yearly previous spread Barely half an hour migration of almost 500 kilometres, the after rain signals the end of the dry longest annual migration of elephants season, elephants begin their trek to ever recorded.  feeding grounds in the south.

www.africageographic.com 37 Of the three collared elephants, one went The north During the dry season, the to the extreme north of the range, but her elephants stay around marshes such as , ➥ collar only recorded intermittently. Indamane and . They move along The lake used to be an watercourses and thickets that provide shade important permanent water source, and cover, and spend little time on the open but human activity has increased and plains or dunes. it is now used only by a few male ele- mali phants in the mid- to late dry season.

Gossi Bambara- Maounde Banzena

BAnzena As the dry season progresses, they Hamniganda move towards Banzena, the last permanent An important source marsh, where they remain until May or June. of salt and essential By this time there is very little food left and so, Hombori minerals. as soon as it rains, the elephants move south.

Hills

Douentza Boni Area of relatively Porte des elephants This is the high human activity. last remaining pass through the hills to the feeding grounds in the south. Other ancestral routes have been blocked by human settlement.

Boni This is an open grazing area Mondoro gps locations of prime elephant habitat, and is of elephants essential for replenishing nutritional As the rains diminish in September and likely migration route reserves, mating and giving birth. October, the elephants move through the quieter areas of the international border and the pastoral elephant reserve areas around Hamniganda, before heading north.

map Information kindly supplied by Save the Elephants/EDG/WILD

This map shows the GPS coordinates Back in February 2000, Save the most accurate population estimate to of three elephants over a period of Elephants provided GPS tracking collars date – nearly 500. 18 months between February 2000 on three elephants for 18 months to and July 2001. Based on this data and determine their migration route. The onflict between humans and photographic evidence, it would appear results showed that the elephants make elephants in the Gourma that the elephants move swiftly along a remarkable circular journey each year, region was not an issue ‘corridors’ to places of relative sanctuary, avoiding the towns and villages of the before the late 1980s. Most food and water, where they spend most busy central area and moving rapidly of the Touareg and Fulani of their time. This is the Sahel’s only along ‘corridors’ between critical areas whoC lived there were nomadic and, like remaining elephant population and for food and water. Although they spend the elephants, moved continually to blocking any part of this 500-kilometre a very small amount of time in these take advantage of seasonally abundant migration route could have disastrous corridor areas, blocking any one of them resources. At that time, elephants were consequences. could have disastrous consequences. able to fulfil their needs without coming I joined the research team at the peak into conflict with humans. of the dry season in April 2004 and The studies to date, however, indicate spent seven weeks pursuing photographs that we are at a critical point in elephant of elephants with Hemma Emmanuel, conservation. The drying climate and a a remarkable elephant ecologist from landscape degraded by growing numbers Burkina Faso who would lead the photo- of livestock, coupled with interventions ID fieldwork during the next two years. to speed up economic recovery after I helped Emmanuel to learn the nuances the drought of the 1980s and the of his new digital camera and also Touareg rebellion of the early ’90s, have contributed 3 000 of my own pictures led to increasing human settlement opposite A mature cow wallows to the identification project. Between and agriculture along the paths used in the mud in a depression west of 2004 and 2006, the research focused on by elephants. The creation of artificial Inadiatafane. As the marshes of the identifying individual elephants using water sources is also supporting activity north dry up, the elephants head west photographs of their ears. The digital in formerly waterless areas, and there to the permanent lake at Banzena, images were analysed by a team led is growing pressure on the woodlands where they remain until the rains come by well-known zoologist Iain Douglas- and lakes on which the elephants rely in May or June. Hamilton in Kenya, and resulted in the during the eight-month dry season. 

38 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • july 2007 www.africageographic.com 39 are partnering with the local NGO Sahel ECO, which is working with pastoralists towards community-based strategies for sustainable livelihoods. The NGOs are also working with Friends of the Elephants Association, which has branches in 26 villages dedicated to raising awareness about elephant- friendly behaviour. The key to the successful conservation of these elephants now lies in continuing to educate and inspire the people of Mali. Posters of elephants and their migration routes will be sent to The key to the successful The research has identified the trees so the leaves fell to the ground, the government, brochures about the ‘squeeze points’ and locations along allowing the other animals to survive.’ elephants will be distributed throughout conservation of these the elephants’ migration path where There is still an opportunity for a the country, elephant education will human activity, if allowed to continue win-win situation in the Sahel, where become part of the school curriculum elephants now lies in unchecked, threatens to block the route protecting the migration route for the and Tinariwen, Mali’s premier Touareg entirely. If this happens, we can expect elephants will also sustain and restore music group, has agreed to write continuing to educate and the incidences of conflict to rise sharply. the integrity of the ecosystem for the a song about the elephants. The inspire the people of Mali The good news is that there is still people. The current phase of research communications campaigns combined start of the rains had triggered a near- ABOVE Camera-trap images reveal how time to act. Human–elephant conflict focuses on land-use planning to ensure with continued funding for Malian instant response and all of the elephants, elephants move to water sources at in the Gourma region is much lower that elephants have access to water, organisations offer great hope for saving now free from their dependence on the night to avoid contact with herdsmen than in other parts of Africa, and the forage and unimpeded migration, as the elephants of the Sahel. marsh, were leaving. We packed our and livestock. formerly nomadic people still respect well as public awareness and education bags and set up an outpost on a high the elephants with which they have at both national and local levels. ack in Banzena, I was reaching dune looking south. Before the sun TOP A Touareg herdsman drives his shared the Sahel for centuries. The two Research results have been shared the end of my journey and had set, more than 100 elephants had goats towards a boma as a dust storm often moved through the landscape with Malian institutions, and the everything had changed passed before us, heading back to the preceding the first rains races in from together – elephants knew when there deployment of 10 new GPS tracking dramatically. The first major vast desert. Banzena is still one of the the east. was water in distant marshes and people collars is planned. The information rain since the previous wildest places on earth, but I couldn’t followed them. The elephants also led they gather is intended to guide the summerB had started to fall and, after help wondering how many elephants OPPOSITE A Touareg herdsman in people to high-quality forage for their GEF-World Bank-French Government spending time with the local people, would return in the coming years. an encampment near Banzena. For livestock. Projet pour la Conservation et Valorisation who were hurrying to secure their huts It all depends on that 500-kilometre centuries, the Toureg and Fulani The Touareg chief of the settlement de la Biodiversité du Gourma et les and protect their children, I turned to migration route – and the efforts of nomads of the Sahel have lived in Banzena told me how the elephants Éléphants (PCVBG-E), which supports the bush where I had photographed those organisations and people working alongside elephants, but as more had once saved them during an intense the establishment of conservation areas elephants earlier that morning. to keep it open.  people settle and raise livestock, the drought. ‘Many of the livestock were and community-based mechanisms It had been raining for less than potential for conflict increases. dying,’ he explained, ‘but the elephants for their management. Save the 20 minutes when I came across tracks To find out more, visit www.wild.org and came and shook the high branches of Elephants and The Wild Foundation heading south, away from the lake. The www.savetheelephants.org

40 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC • july 2007 www.africageographic.com 41