Doug Groves, an Oregon native, lives in the Okavango Delta with his wife Sandi, and their three elephant "children". In 1988, Doug adopted Jabu and Thembi when they were orphaned in Kruger National Park (South Africa) in a culling operation. Morula was orphaned by a Zimbabwean culling project, and after a rough childhood that included her bull "partner" being shot for having killed a man, seven white rhino, and flipping over a vehicle, Doug adopted her too. Doug, his wife, and the three elephants live in the bush, and make up an unusual "herd".
On our way to meet Doug, we run right into some warthogs:
We arrive at the spot where Doug starts his elephant experience. There is a large wild herd of elephants grazing right near our meeting point. Because mixing wild elephants and people on foot isn’t a good idea, Doug and the rest of the group walk to a clearing behind some trees to begin.
There are 3 other couples attending, one of whom was a peculiar woman from NJ/Florida…. She starts off by introducing herself to my mother, although they had sat next to one another at our dinner table the night before. She then proceeds to ask Doug, “How do I avoid getting hit by one of their tusks?”. [Um, don't stick your head where their tusks are...]. Someone else asks if the elephants just see us as one big blob. No, elephants are highly intelligent animals - when in our land rover, we are not seen as a threat to them, but as soon as we are on foot, they absolutely see each of us as an individual. Oy, this could be a long day.
Doug presents each elephant to us, one at a time. We spend a nice amount of time with each elephant and we are able to approach them, touch them, lift their trunks. Doug explains all kinds of information about elephants. He asks our group a number of questions about elephants and their biological classification, etc - boy, we are really a bunch of morons! We are given the opportunity for some photo ops.
The elephants wave hello to us:
Thembi performs her trick of lifting your hat off your head:
Trying it on for size:
And placing it back on your head:
In order to move onto our next spot, we need to pass the paths of the wild eles. A little bit of an adventure starts to unfold as Doug, Gavin and one of the guides with a rifle try to navigate how best for us to avoid the wild herd. Gavin ends up shuttling us behind some bushes while a plan is developed – then we shuffle over to another big set of bushes – and hide in wait. Finally, 2 of Doug’s assistants climb onto the two female elephants, Doug walks with Jabu, and we all proceed to sneak past the wild herd as quietly and quickly as possible.
We are given the chance to lead them by their trunks.
We get to look @ the eles teeth:
Marula demonstrates how she lays down on a termite mound to sleep.
Sorry Marula, but you need a pedicure worse than I do...
To end the day, we have lunch outside – with the elephants. They eat out of big buckets, and we have a sit-down lunch.
Doug then has them make a variety of their elephant noises – from blowing their trunks to their low rumbling elephants noises. You can go up to feel the vibrations as they make these noises.
He has us line up – and each of us get a BIG wet slobbery snotty kiss from an elephant!
Other creatures who joined us for lunch....
Mongoose
and
Our fearless and fabulours leader, Gavin Ford
Spending the day with Doug, Jabu, Marula and Thembi was an extraordinarily unique and special experience. Doug and his eles are truly a family. He has given these elephants a loving home and a stable upbringing. Even though they have human parents, these eles are not completely domesticated elephants. They still socialize with wild herds and a few years ago, Jabu went on a "walk-about" for 5 weeks to sow his wild elephant oats. In order for these eles to do their "tricks", Doug has taken their natural elephant behaviors that he observed and has reward trained them and added cue words - he literally speaks to them as if he is speaking just normally to a person. He does not distinguish his "cues" with a command as in telling a dog "SIT!".
A few more photos ops:
We are sad for our time with these eles to end, but they all wave goodbye as we depart.
All in all, I wasn't the biggest fan of Baines Camp, but the Groves family definitely made it worth the trip.
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