Business Insider Edition
The African bush elephant is one of the most dangerous animals on the planet.
Around 500 people are killed by elephants annually, most of which are from trampling and goring. Despite its deadliness, however, far more elephants have been killed by people. Elephants have immense benefits ranging from supporting economies to saving other species and humans cannot thrive with them.
Business Insider recently had a conversation with Kenya’s elephant man, Jim Justus Nyamu who has literally walked the breath of this earth raising awareness on conservation of elephants through his famous #IvoryBelongstoElephants campaign.
“Generally I will say wild animals are not harmful they are very friendly for lack of a better word it all depends on how we behave around them” says Jim.
Mr. Nyamu is a trained research scientist with a specialty in Elephants’ and has worked previously for Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and Africa Conservation Center.
He is also the executive director and founder of Elephants Neighbors Center (ENC), an organization which seeks to raise awareness about conservation to communities adjacent to national parks.
“I have heard several sad cases of people killed by elephants and I try to empathized with the survivors but we try to do not as Elephants Neighbors Center (ENC) is not to deal too much on apathy but look for solutions on the way forward” said Jim.
So the next time you get lost in the wild and encounter an African bush elephant here are a few tricks you can use to survive to tell the encounter.
“It all depends on the wild animal you encounter and during my recent walk from Marsabit, we were just preparing for a walk for the day when we were told there is an elephant nearby and we managed to follow that elephant to a very close point”
#1. Stay away from the wind
Wild animals save for nocturnal animals have poor eyesight and therefore depend most of the time on the wind to pick up senses and when in the wild therefore it is advisable to stay away from where the wind is blowing.
“ If you see an animal particularly an elephant, first of all know the direction of the wind, animals don’t see very well but their ability to pick up scents is very high, if the wind is blowing towards that animal from your direction, they will detect you very fast and they will either run away or attack you” Jim explains.
“But if the wind is blowing from the animal’s direction towards you, you can get as close as thirty, twenty, ten meters from the animal”
#2. Know the direction of the wind
Jim says there are numerous easy ways to know which direction the wind is blowing and one of such ways is using your finger.
“You should first know the direction of the wind, how do you do that? You can either wet your finger by licking it and then raising it up to know the direction of the wind”
#3 your sock too can tell wind direction
You will be surprised how useful a pair of socks can be in the wild, you can use it as a strainer to sieve dirty water but you can also use it to know the direction of wind and stay away from wild animals scents.
“Another way is by removing your socks and filing it with ash or dirt and then as you go you keep squeezing it to see which direction the wind is blowing and act accordingly” says Jim.
