Chad: Zakouma NP – Elephant Superherd

Zakouma’s elephants are the heart and soul of the park – partly because they represent one of the greatest conservation comeback stories in African history. In the early 2000s, Zakouma was a primary target for ivory poachers. The population plummeted from over 4,000 to just 250 by 2010. Since African Parks took over management, the poaching has been virtually halted, and the population recovered to over 600 now. But elephants at Zakouma are different – unlike in virtually all other parks in Africa, elephants here don’t break up into small family groups, but remain in one massive superherd. And that’s exactly what we were after and it required an exhausting and brutal drive to the deep south of the park of extremely rough roads to the remote Sakina Pan. But it was all worth – seeing 500+ elephants moving as one giant unit across the open pan is a sight you won’t find anywhere else in Africa. This behavior started as a defense mechanism against poachers (safety in numbers), and even though the threat is largely gone, the social bond remains. Seeing these elephants was one of the most insane wildlife experience we’ve ever had (and we’ve had quite insane ones).