by Mike Loomis
June 15, 2010
Yesterday's reconnaisance team came back with bad news. Team members were unable to find any elephant sign in the region around the road maintenance site in southern Korup National Park. They also interviewed several passers-by, including some people who had been hiking through the park. In each case, they were told that no elephants, or elephant sign, was evident.
All this leads us to believe that the elephants are in the northern region of Korup—if indeed they are near Korup at all. With that in mind, we decided to leave Korup and head back to Limbe, where we will re-stock our supplies before heading to Mount Cameroon. We are in Mundembe right now.
We are cautiously optimistic about our chances on Mount Cameroon. My colleague Eno told me that a recent recon team located three distinct elephant herds in the region we'll be exploring. If we are have some quick success on Mt. Cameroon, we'll try to return to Korup National Park, though this time we'll focus our efforts on the northern region.
As a side note, I wanted to mention that we had a very interesting encounter with the road crew mentioned above. When we stopped to interview them about any possible elephants in the area, we noticed that they had the World Cup soccer match between Cameroon and Japan playing on a satellite television. We watched some of the match, even though the TV kept fading in and out. Unfortunately, Cameroon lost, though it was a thrilling game.
About the author:Dr. Mike Loomis is Chief Veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoological Park.
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