By Kyle Wright
We had just enough time to get a picture of the crocodile before night fell and the gates closed. That’s the way it works in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. If you’re not safely inside one of the park’s fenced compounds when the sun goes down, you’re on your own, and well, best of luck to you.
On our drive into the lodge where we were staying, we spotted the giant croc on a riverbed sandbar soaking up the last of the African sun. He was perfectly placed and practically posing for a picture, but we couldn’t pull over because of the traffic behind us. So, we had gone on to our guesthouse, stowed our gear, and then hopped right back in the truck with our cameras.
Driving too fast around a blind bend, we startled a bull elephant crossing the road. He ran up a little rise and then turned to face us. The elephant looked down from his vantage point, threw his ears forward and roared. Having been a loyal devotee of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom since childhood, I recognized that the elephant’s behavior didn’t even constitute a bluff charge, much less the real thing, but still, we threw it in reverse and sped out of there. Quick. The baake’s transmission got quite the workout that afternoon. So did my sphincter.
That bull elephant was mature, but he was of smallish size and only had a single broken tusk that couldn’t have been three-feet long. Still, the encounter left me trembling. There’s no telling how much adrenaline would have been dumped into my bloodstream had that bull elephant been one of the Magnificent Seven.
Kruger Park’s Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is the name Kruger’s Chief Warden at the time, Dr. Tol Pienaar, gave to the most majestic elephants that ever roamed the 7,500 square miles of his park. These pachyderms weren’t just textbook specimens; they were giants among their species. Named either for the regions they frequented or for a distinguishing physical characteristic, each one of the Seven was legendary in his own right.
Dzombo was the only one of the Seven killed by poachers. In fact, the criminals were still chopping the tusks from his skull when a park ranger intervened and chased them off.
Joao survived a poacher attack of AK-47s and eventually died of natural causes. Though he had broken both tusks off at the lip line, the ivory he carried is believed to have been the heaviest of the Seven.
Kambaku literally means great tusker. The elephant was actually euthanized after debilitating pain caused by an old bullet wound eventually just wore him down.
Mafunyane, most famous of the Seven and a smaller elephant, comparatively speaking, survived what was most likely an attack from a rival and was left with a gaping hole in his forehead.
Ndlulamithi translates as taller than the trees. As his name implies, he was the tallest of the Magnificent Seven, standing well over 11 feet at the shoulder.
Shawu means slow mover. The bull’s tusks were the longest to come out of Kruger National Park. His left tusk stretched the tape to nearly 10 1/2 feet.
Shingwedzi, a classic example of the master-servant tusk configuration, collapsed under a sycamore tree at the end of his life and buried his tusk in the ground.
Legacy of the Seven
Each member of the Magnificent Seven lived well into his 50s and 60s and died, except for Dzombo, of natural causes, which begs the question: Just how tough were these animals? What had they seen and survived? These elephants lived for decades among the most vicious predators found on earth. How many cape buffalo had they stared down? How many lions had they thrown off their backs? How many injuries and infections, brought on by thorn or fang or claw, had they tolerated? How many storms had they weathered? How many droughts had they endured? How many poachers had they outwitted? Better question, how many poachers had they killed? Their only real challenge, their peers. Their only true enemy, Father Time.
The skulls and tusks of the Magnificent Seven hang proudly in Kruger Park’s Letaba Elephant Hall, and rightfully so. The resilience and the grandeur these elephants displayed in life deserves every ooh and ahh and disbelieving shake of humanity’s heads in death.
