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Why do these elephants pick on the rhinos? Evidently, because they're there. At least one human was killed by a rogue bull last year, but for an elephant looking to make trouble, a small, relatively helpless rhino is an easier target. Garai has often seen a young elephant grab a stick in its trunk and throw it at a rhino--seemingly playful behavior that in an unbalanced animal could easily turn violent. "Elephants are complex and intelligent creatures," she observes. "They aren't immune to stress." She suspects that other game parks with populations of orphan elephants may soon develop similar problems.
Park rangers are prescribing a little adult supervision for the bad-boy elephants. Indeed, when two adult female circus elephants were returned to Pilanesberg in 1979, shortly after the first orphans arrived, the nervous youngsters quickly settled down. Now officials hope something like that will work on rhino-bashing bulls. Early next year, a few 40-year-old bull elephants will be moved to Pilanesberg to help calm things down. Meanwhile, authorities are trying to get to the root of the problem. Two years ago, Kruger Park stopped its elephant-culling program and began moving entire families of elephants to their new homes.
It will be some time before the effects of these efforts are known. Until then, the white rhinos of South Africa had better watch their backs.
--Reported by Peter Hawthorne/Cape Town