By Sunel Craythorne | Donor Care Officer
With hearts full of gratitude and hope, we share this heartfelt update from our HERD, letting you into the journey our elephants are walking this season.
The elephants are spending a lot of time out in the bush, and recently there has been quite a few incidents where wild elephant bulls have been seen circling around our herd.
One late afternoon, in February 2026 Pisa had an encounter with one such bull and chased after the younger wild bull. She stayed away the whole night, returning only in the early morning hours the following day.
A few days later, Mambo too left the herd to join a young bull, but fortunately he came back at around 7 p.m. the same day.
While elephants are not strictly territorial, our Jabulani herd considers themselves the “owners” of the homestead and the surrounding reserve area.
During February we saw the elephants moving around a lot while searching for delicious marula fruit to eat. They even ventured close to the main roads in search of marulas, which makes it extremely dangerous to drive on these roads at night.
As our herd was making their way home one afternoon a wild bull suddenly appeared. The bull is one of the older bulls on the reserve. Jabulani immediately turned around and approached the wild bull. It seemed that the bull’s mere presence annoyed Jabulani and he wanted to drive him away. This whole confrontation between the two bulls was witnessed by a group of very surprised Jabulani Safari guests who were there for one of our unique elephant experiences.
Even though the other bull may have been slightly older, Jabulani won the confrontation without so much as a scratch and honestly, what chance would you have against Jabulani? It’s better to be his friend! Interestingly, Somopane, our bull known for his peaceful nature ran away when the bull arrived. While Sebakwe, who is the largest bull on the whole resort did absolutely nothing. We assume Sebakwe did not view the intruder as a threat and is perhaps calmly waiting for a bigger challenge.
When these interactions between the Jabulani herd and the wild elephants take place, our carers do not interfere. They allow the elephants the freedom to display natural elephant behaviour and stake their claim to their home.
Since then, the wild bulls have moved to the northern side of the reserve and have not yet returned.
Thank you, as always, for your unwavering support. Your generosity makes every moment of joy, healing, and connection in the HERD possible.
Don’t forget to check our social media for daily updates and news!
With gratitude,
The HERD Team
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