Spikey

Spikey. Female. Collared 26 January 2001 in Goubounga Bai, Dzanga National Park, Central African Republic.

We were walking across open ground in the Goubouga Bai when Spikey and her youngster ambled out of the trees, and settled in the river for an evening drink. She seemed completely oblivious of us (we being a team of 4 pygmies, 2 bantu guys, a WCS field vet, and myself - the coordinator of WCS' Forest Elephant Program). Skirmishing quickly around the edge of the bai like combat soldiers, the vet moved into darting range with out top pygmy tracker, and efficiently fired a dart into Spikey’s muscled rear end. She flinched, more in the indignity of the presumed insect bite, rather than fear, but prudently took her infant to the safety of the scrub at the edge of the bai. Ten minutes later she was sleeping soundly, with her baby standing guard along side. Gently working around the little guy, who was bemused and a obviously a little frightened, we fitted the collar and revived her quickly.

Spikey turned out to be a wanderer! The course of the next year and a half, she used a home range of nearly 2300km2, and made repeated long distance treks through both the Dzanga and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Parks, clocking up many hundreds of km. She has visited many bais in the region, with a particular preference for the Dzanga Bai – a magical meeting place for literally thousands of elephants – where a WCS elephant researcher, Andrea Turkalo, has been studying and protecting forest elephants for the last 15 years. It turned out that Andrea had known “Spikey” as a visitor to Dzanga for many years, though she had given her the name Romana. A jovial battle ensured over her “real” name, with neither side prepared to give an inch, so she remains a double-barrelled “Spikey-Romana”.

Spikey visited Dzanga Bai frequently, however she would most often visit between 9:00PM and 30:00AM, as a result of which Andrea saw her only every year or so. During the lifetime of the collar, she gave birth to a baby, but this did not seem to slow her down. It is likely that female forest elephants range over large areas continually in search of high quality foods, particularly sugar-rich fruits and succulent leaves. Unlike males, they probably need energy-rich food to cope with the demands of pregnancy and lactation. Both Spikey and her two youngsters were doing well the last time Andrea saw them

To see Spikey's ranging behavior click on the following link:  Spikey's Map