Month: November 2015

Posted in Africa, Elephants, Nature, Photography

Monuments

Posted on by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill

As we make our way down the two-rut road, a mob of Helmeted guineafowl runs ahead of us.  They dart from one side of the road to the other, a bunch of silly old biddies, with shrunken featherless heads, thick bodies covered in spotted dark gray plumage and large rumps that bounce when they run.  Blue jowls on their necks flap back and forth under their beaks.  They never once consider flying to get out of our path.

The guineafowl call excitedly to each other as we flush them: Keck, keck, keck, keck, keck, keck, KECK!!!!!!!  Eventually they dash to the side of the road and disappear into the bush.

Ignoring them, the elephant in front of us steadily treads down the right rut of the road.  His pace is unhurried, measured, constant.  A shoulder lifts, a leg straightens, accepts weight, and the foot splays out.  A back leg moves forward, toenails scraping sand, straightens, accepts weight, and the foot splays out.  A creature bigger than most monuments is on the move.

photograph by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
Posted in Africa, Elephants, Nature, Writing

Listen Live to Elephants, Again

Posted on by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill

 

If you missed it the first time, my radio interview will be broadcast again this evening, Tuesday, November 10th, from 10-11 p.m., P.S.T., United States.  Heres the live feed link: https://kptz.org

Posted in Africa, Elephants, Nature, Photography, Travel

Listen Live to Elephants!

Posted on by Cheryl Merrill
Photograph by Cheryl Merrill
Photograph by Cheryl Merrill

 

I’ll be speaking on our local radio station, KPTZ 91.9, on Friday, Nov. 6th, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, U.S. and answering questions about all things elephant.  For my friends all over the world, you can live-stream by clicking on the link below, and send in email questions.  Plus we’ll be broadcasting examples of elephant sounds.  See you then!

You can click here to listen!

Listen Live

Posted in Africa, Nature, Nonfiction, Photography, Travel

Symbiosis

Posted on by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
photograph by Cheryl Merrill

 

For most of the morning a group of female giraffes has followed closely behind us. Whenever we stop, they stop, too, and the spotted derricks of their necks swivel in all directions to get a better look at us. At the end of each neck, a head is cocked sideways: the universal body language that says, “Huh?”

As the giraffes become more relaxed in our presence, they feed more closely and don’t look up at us quite as often.

I stop and take a photograph, of a graceful giraffe with an oxpecker on her neck, as she bends down to browse.

Red-billed oxpeckers use their bills to comb through the fur of large mammals both wild and domestic for ticks and bloodsucking flies, clinging to their hosts with sharp claws. They also feed on earwax and dandruff, and have been observed opening small wounds, as well as enhancing existing wounds, in order to feed on blood. Oxpecker courtship and copulation occurs on their hosts while they ride along, and they cushion their nests with hair from their host.

Living together in the animal kingdom.