Africa Wild

Hi Aat,

Good to see you are still in the tusker business!
Saw on Fb this morning that some chief from Tembe is offering a R100 000 reward for the tusks of Isolo that have been stolen... supposed to have died in March. Do you know anything about it?

Thanks and God bless,

Friedrich von Hörsten

Friedrich

Welcome to Africa Wild forum

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Friedrich,
I haven't heard about Isilo has died, that's new for me.

and..... I haven't been away from the Tuskers for even an hour.... and no one will keep me away from them

Friedrich wrote:Hi Aat,

Good to see you are still in the tusker business!
Saw on Fb this morning that some chief from Tembe is offering a R100 000 reward for the tusks of Isolo that have been stolen... supposed to have died in March. Do you know anything about it?

Thanks and God bless,

Friedrich von Hörsten

Lisbeth,
It's may be not that easy to explain why elephant bulls will yes or no have big tusks.
Genetic is one important reason , but area / surface is another. If you look at areas where we can find big tuskers in africa we have to look at Tanzania (Ngorogoro) Kenya (several places) , Mozambique and South Africa (mainly Kruger and Tembe). Without borders the tuskers were migrating between Tembe EP and Mozambique. Because of poaching many big tuskers or emerging tuskers are not able to mate anymore so genetic "value" can't take care for next generations. It's known that in Gabon and Congo so many big bulls have been killed that many elephants today are growing up without tusks or just small ones.
Hunting organizations are also going after the big ones so the future is not that good.
Surface is important because bulls like to use their tusks for digging up roots. In kruger they don't damage their tusks that much, but in other countries or areas like Namibia the surface it rocky , stones etc... Most bulls have short tusks because of damaging.

Lisbeth wrote:Have I understood it right that some elephants are predestined to grow bigger tusks than others? Is it a genetic question?

Thank you Aat! Excellent understandable explanation

I have been searching for more information about Tembe's and South African's biggest tusker Isilo.

The sad news is that he has died at the age of 57 years. (same age as me , so born in 1957 and been around for so many years)
He died very recently and the additional sad , very sad news is that his tusks are stolen.

For the ones who never have seen Isilo, I will give a link to his pages at the tusker site. I was priviliged to see him some years ago in Tembe EP.

http://www.tuskersofafrica.com/tembe/isilo.htm

R.I.P. big boy !

I have seen him very often on the web cam, but of course it is not the same thing. At least he did not die prematurely.

magnificent pictures
so beautifull Tusker

me too "only" on the web cam... and now, no more

Isilu has died . . . . .

From Tembe's FB page :-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tembe Elephant Park
19 hours ago
R I P Isilo ( “1956” – 2014 ) ...........
It is with deep sadness and regret that we announce the death of Isilo in Tembe Elephant Park.
Isilo died a natural death of old age in the South West section of the park about the 10th January 2014 in an area known to be his home range.
His carcass was only discovered about two weeks ago and unfortunately his magnificent tusks had already been stolen by suspected rhino poachers.
This is the reason for the delay in announcing his passing. This is a very sad and tragic time for all. His presence will be deeply missed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

aat wrote:Surface is important because bulls like to use their tusks for digging up roots. In kruger they don't damage their tusks that much, but in other countries or areas like Namibia the surface it rocky , stones etc... Most bulls have short tusks because of damaging.

This definitely applies to the ellies in Pilanesberg. Most of them have broken tusks because the ground is hard and rocky.