As I was telling locals in Victoria Falls about my encounters with elephants, they all had different solutions on how you could chase the elephants out of your yard and you would be safe. Below is a list of the different ways you can get the elephants on the run.
01 Fire
This was the first method I heard about where you light fires at strategic places in your yard so the elephants do not come in. The only catch is that you have to keep that fire going through out the whole night! I have to say I didn’t see this being very effective.
02 Chillies
Chillies are sure to be a deterrent. Ad these to a fire. But the garden that was devoured had chillies in it and it didn’t seem to work. Maybe it only applies to powdered chillies
03 Elephant Dung
Take fresh elephant dung and mix with chillies and mould into brinks. Place these at strategic points around the yard. We never got to try this one out though.
04 Clap your hands
A pilot with the local helicopter company told me that, he was told by a safari guide that if you clap your hands in a certain way the elephants would RUN. He had seen it happening. Though he was not sure if this worked at night as it did in the day!
05 Camera Flash
A designer friend said that if you take out your camera and flash them continuously they would go. I was too afraid to grab my camera cos I certainly didn’t what to provoke the jumbos and attract any attention to myself.
He went on to tell me that an elephant will not charge until it has given you three warnings. I was like I will not even need three warnings to tell me its time to get out of there. I don’t know how credible that is.
He also said that I was safe in the cottage as an elephant would not breakdown a wall if it could not put its tusks over it. I was not so sure about that, and that surely was not going to comfort me.
All very interesting and would invite anyone who has other ideas and experiences to let me know to prepare me for my next trip!
[…] So we started to make a racket as this was one of the may ways we could chase the elephant away. We were banging on pans and whistling, dogs barking. Jumbo was having none of that he continued to feed at his hearts content. In the […]
[…] So we started to make a racket as this was one of the may ways we could chase the elephant away. We were banging on pans and whistling, dogs barking. Jumbo was having none of that he continued to feed at his hearts content. In the […]