Kruger National Park boasts a large and robust population of elephants; however, many still die annually, mostly due to natural causes. Thankfully though, there are plenty of scavengers here to process such a large animal.
So far in this series we’ve been exploring elephant carcasses that are well… a bit… older than you might have expected. They’re often reduced to little more than bones which suits us just fine since we’re interested in the ecology that comes after death.
But we do sometimes happen across a… fresh… carcass. And with the carcass, of course, comes a plethora of wildlife.
The loud squawks you’re hearing are from a massive feeding frenzy of… I don’t even know how many… white-backed vultures that have gathered around a recently deceased bull elephant.
There’s so many of them they kick up plumes of dust as they feed and you can barely make out the form of the massive bull underneath them.
Around the periphery of the carcass there are smaller Hooded Vultures while in the trees Marabou storks, the “undertaker birds” watch from a safe distance.
And of course, within the horde of vultures are numerous spotted hyenas tearing through flesh and bone. You can hear them giggling if you listen closely.
And if you are listening closely, you’ve probably also noticed a human voice. And that voice belongs to Mirandah Mnisi, a student from the University of Mpumalanga.
“That day was so epic. That's all I can say,” said Mnisi who studies nature conservation in Kruger and vividly remembers the day we found that carcass.
“We were so tired coming back from Malelane, and it was hot. It was very hot. But then we came back and we went to that carcass, and we found vultures. So many vultures. That was our first time seeing that there. And also, there were so many hyenas there and there was also a lion,” she recalls.
It sounds a bit silly now, but we actually didn’t see the lion at first. He was sitting further back from the carcass. But then, as we watched, he rose and casually slunk towards the feeding frenzy.
“When the lion approached, like when it went to the carcass, all those vultures just flew away from the elephant carcass, and also the hyenas also ran away from the carcass,” said Mnisi.
You can even hear the moment he approaches. Everything just goes silent.
All the hyenas stepped back or fled to other side of the carcass. The vultures flew or turned to face him. Just watching him. Everything paused.
And it was like that for a while, until the lion, who had clearly already had his fill, simply turned back from the carcass.
“I was so happy to see all those animals, and also, also all those vultures eating there, and all that. I was just so happy. Then seeing the lion was everything in it, like it just concluded everything,” said Mnisi.
Such interactions likely alter the ecology of the carcass sites. For example, in Kruger, a massive national park with a large and growing elephant population and an intact scavenger community, such large animals play an important role in nutrient dispersal.
The same cannot be said in areas without such key players. But this is just one site out of many. In my time here, I’ve been to well over 100 carcass sites and will revisit them again later this year.
But that’s for another time. For now, there’s still a lot to explore.
