Source: Nature: "Unforgettable Elephants"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
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In this video segment from Nature, Martyn Colbeck, an award-winning cinematographer, describes filming the tropical rainforest elephants of the Congo. When Colbeck finds the elephants, he describes them as creating a “party atmosphere.” The elephants show that they care for and protect each other in the ways they play and share food, water and minerals. There are signs of competition among the elephants, also. Colbeck is disappointed he won’t have the opportunity to know more about this elephant family. For more about elephants see "Desert Elephants" and "Grassland Elephants," two of three video segments in the series.
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for middle school students using this video in an English language arts or science lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) What do you know about cinematography?
Focus (ELA) There are different tools we can use to tell a story, such as film, photographs, computer-generated images, written words, and even comics. What tools does Colbeck use to research and tell his story about these elephants?
Follow Up (ELA) How do the tools used to tell a story influence our understanding of the story? How would this story be different if told using another tool?
Frame (SCI) What resources do humans need to produce energy and grow?
Focus (SCI) What resources do these forest elephants have access to in the Congo?
Follow Up (SCI) Discuss which resources are abundant for these elephants and which are not. Should humans interfere to help animals when they lack certain resources in the wild? What might be the advantages and disadvantages of human intervention?
MARTYN COLBECK: I had a rare opportunity to observe elephants facing challenges of a totally different kind.
I intended to film forest elephants in the Congo.But just to catch a glimpse these beasts would be extremely difficult.
Tropical rain forest is very demanding for a cameraman.
It’s hot and humid. Your lenses fog, the damp rots your kit and you never stop sweating. On the forest floor, you are in the dark. It’s difficult to see anything at all.
Creeping through this strange world, looking for the most dangerous animal in the forest is nerve-racking.
Thankfully, hidden clearings called bais have recently been discovered. I was surprised to learn elephants create the bais themselves.
I was equally surprised how much smaller forest elephants were - only two thirds the size of their savannah cousins. Their tusks pointed straight down to avoid catching the dense vegetation.
The families were small too - only three or four individuals in each. The mud they wallowed in turned them into pale ghosts.
Up to a hundred elephants can congregate in this bai - and there’s a party atmosphere.
They’ve created the clearings in their search for something missing from their diet.
Salt and other minerals.
There’s competition for the salt licks.
This female was only being allowed to use the best hole because she was sexually receptive.
I was amused to see the beautiful male guarding her, go into reverse gear to keep others away.
And this looked like taking their frustration out on the poor forest buffalos—a game all the family can play.
Reluctantly, it seemed to me, the elephants melted away into the trees. I felt disappointed I would never know them as I knew Echo and her family.
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