Lost in Botswana, Conservation Biologist Dr. Tempe Adams

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Over a Cuppa with Dilhan Fernando. Hi everyone, I'm with Tempe Adams today. Tempe is an Australian who apparently lost her way and ended up in Botswana. Now she lives with the world's largest population of African elephants. Tempe, welcome, thrilled to meet you and welcome to Sri Lanka. Thank you so much, I'm very honored to be here. The honor is ours. Now, over a cup of tea, I would like to ask you four questions and they must inevitably start with what made you and Aussie love elephants like you do? Yeah, that's a great question, yeah. I always joke that I just got lost in Botswana and couldn't find my way out.

But I actually started off as a marine scientist in Australia and I was studying blue whales of the largest obviously charismatic animal that we have. But when you study an animal like that, when you conserve a big animal like that, you conserve everything underneath. They're called ecological umbrella species, right? So the top of an umbrella, everything underneath gets protected. And elephants are the same for the terrestrial systems. And I, throughout my undergraduate, was completing a lot of different internships with different research projects and one of them was in Northern Kenya. And there I was working interning for Save the Elephants, the most famous elephant NGO debatably, but on the continent.

And there I got a really good dose of what really impactful conservation looks like. And when you focus on an umbrella species like the elephant, it has this huge flow on effect for the whole ecosystem. And I think I thought, wow, this can have a big impact. And I think that's where I really understood in the sort of power of focusing on a species like that. So that's where the elephant sort of love started. And then I think elephants just obviously are just pretty special, very special animals. And I think I've always had a fascination from watching documentaries as a kid. And it's always just flowed on from there.

We have our own little elephant called Baby Dilmah. And also more than anything, an ambassador and a spokesperson for our own passion, my family's passion and my colleague's passion for the environment and for conservation, also restoration. But so Baby Dilmah is going to be released back into the wild this year. And I think you're visiting the elephant transit home where Baby Dilmah lives. But one of the things that I'm amazed at is how emotional, how relatable elephants and their relationships with each other is, I mean, is that something that you've seen also in African elephants? Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I think what is so, and one of the many reasons why I love them, but I think they're just so emotive.

They really express their feelings. They have a plethora of feelings, all these different emotions, and they, you can see. And people often ask, how do you know how the elephants are feeling today? And I'm like, they'll let you know. They'll let you know if they've had a good day, bad day, if they're happy to have you in a vehicle close by, that, you know, they're so expressive. And I think that's one of the many things that makes them pretty phenomenal, to be around and in the presence of, yeah. Especially youngsters, just like, you know, human babies. They'll let you know. They have their tantrums, they have their good days, they get jealous of their siblings.

So I think, yeah, just like that. I love it when the young ones get playful, but what gets a bit annoying for the team at the ETH is when they start jumping the queue and sometimes coming back for more when milk is served. But, you know, people, we all talk about having a memory like an elephant. Is that true? Does an elephant have an incredible memory? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely. A large proportion of their brain is all about orientation and memory. And in fact, you know, you think about, especially, I mean, here as well, throughout the elephant range, matriarchs, the leaders of the herds, have to know exactly where the good resources are at different times of the year.

So they have these incredible mental maps of their landscapes, which they were obviously probably taught, you know, as they were young calves themselves. And I think that's really one of the most amazing things, the way they can navigate through the landscape in different seasons, different years, really knowing what resources their family needs to get by. So when there's a drought, they know, they can remember exactly where the best water is and the best leaves and grass. I think that's really pretty phenomenal and still something we don't completely understand.

I think lots of us have seen the video of the dominoes showing how our natural environment is interconnected and how we, at the end of it now, you talked about how elephants impact their ecosystem. And we've seen how the reintroduction of certain species has improved, enhanced the ecosystem through biodiversity and so on. What specifically do you feel that elephants with African or Asian, how do they impact their ecosystem? I mean, they call them ecosystem engineers, as in they really can shape the land and the place that you're in. I mean, a small example, in Botswana, we have an amazing place called the Okavango Delta and it's littered with palm trees.

These incredible palms that do grow there, they naturally grow there. And sometimes you'll see these palm trees in a perfect line and it looks like someone has gone and planted them. Someone has gone and planted them, elephants have gone and planted them because the only way that they can grow is after they pass through the digestive system of an elephant. So an elephant will be walking his nice path from his waterhole to waterhole or his favorite browsing places and they literally are planting trees along the way. So I think if that doesn't show a testament to how impactful they are, then I'm not really sure what does, but it's quite an amazing thing to see.

We're active in trying to help people understand the importance of biodiversity. And one of the most significant aspects of that is to value nature, value the environment. You're obviously familiar with the concept and what I would like to know is in context of Botswana and its huge population of African elephants, what do you believe is the economic value and how is it expressed the economic value of elephants? Yeah, it's an interesting question. I did a study a number of years ago and it was literally just asking people of Botswana what they think of elephants. Their opinions of elephants, is there a love there? Because obviously it is a very large elephant population which in conservation terms is an amazing thing.

But to live in a population like that, especially if you're a farmer, can be obviously incredibly difficult and very challenging because an elephant, just the same as here in Sri Lanka, is a big pest. It can be something that can eat your entire crop that you work so many months to grow and it can be gone in one evening or 30 minutes depending on how big your field is. So I think sometimes the connection of understanding and still appreciating the value of them can be lost sometimes. But overarching after I did this survey, people came back were saying that they absolutely loved elephants still. There's a deep love.

There's a deep heritage of the country's identity associated with elephants in Botswana and I think it's very similar here. So I think that heritage and the national pride is really big. But I think obviously the tourism impact is sort of key, especially in Botswana. So in the north of the country, there's a huge amount of jobs from tourism and the tourists come because of this incredible elephant population that Botswana can boast. And I think that direct connection is really vital. I'm really keen and it provides not just guiding jobs and national park jobs, but it's also the whole hospitality industry. So pretty much the whole north country is there because of these protected areas and the elephants are the ambassadors.

We've seen in Sri Lanka, a few highly publicised elephant attacks recently. Clearly to those who are enlightened, it is the result of humans encroaching on elephant behaviour patterns and so on. And as much a misunderstanding and as anything else, elephants naturally aren't aggressive, are they? No, not from what I've seen. I think understanding elephant behaviour is really important. That's something we're really passionate about, the NGO I work for. We really try and increase knowledge, basic knowledge about elephants and elephant behaviour. And I think no one can completely know how an animal is feeling, although we're saying they're very emotive. But I think seeing and understanding just key behavioural traits to see an elephant, to acknowledge if an elephant's a bit annoyed is really important so then you can give, then you can react and adapt to what they're feeling.

But I think what's really important is it can be an animal that you've seen for many years, many months, many, whatever your timeframe is, but you never know what's happened to them that day. So if they've had a fight with another bull elephant, for example, if they've suddenly a path that they've always followed through their whole life is now suddenly blocked and they're being pushed into an area they never previously... There's so many different factors that can aggravate and frustrate an animal. And I think just, that's often usually the trigger of why we have these bursts of attacks and when they can happen. But it's only when they're absolutely stressed and they feel like they have no other option that they'll react and either protect their family from something or feel like they have to protect themselves from something.

So only at their most threatened would they create and have such a horrible incident like this happen. What's it like to live amongst elephants as you do? It's an honor. It's such an honor. It really is. I mean, I literally have wild elephant herds that pass outside my garden almost every night. I can hear them rumbling. So I live in a town, but we're a town that is a very big tourist town. And we have thousands of elephants living in and around our area. So elephant, I've got a wildlife corridor just next to my house. So it is classified as residential. So they do pass by our town and through the town that we live in to come and drink at the Chobie River and then they pass back out.

That's also why wildlife corridors are very important to allow them to do it. What are some of your most memorable elephant encounters? I literally was just telling the story. It's such a great question because I feel like I've had so many very different ones over the years. But I think one that really stands out to me was a number of years ago, we helped the local department of wildlife with wildlife rescue when they can't get to the scene because we have a vet in our team. And we were called out because an elephant was stuck in a well, a man made well. And no one knows how long it had been there, but it had definitely been at least a few days.

It was a big adult female elephant. And her herd was nowhere to be seen. They clearly had left. So we were asked to come and assist, but we had very little resources available. So it took us really quite some time to get her out two days to dig her out. And then at one point we were in the dark and we had hyenas all around us trying to come near her. And we were keeping hyenas away from her. And it was quite an ordeal. Eventually we got her out and then it took us a long time to hydrate her enough to be able to get up on her feet because obviously she hadn't eaten.

She hadn't drunk anything. She was very, very traumatized. So after many liters of drips, we had saline drips in her ears and rehydrate. We got her on her feet after pulling her up with ropes with using vehicles. It was massive, massive thing. And once she got up, we all got back in the cars to give her space and she's a wild elephant. And she didn't get up and walk away. She came straight over to our cars and she went and arrested her trunk on the bonnet of the car. And then she slowly just put her trunk along the car, put her trunk in the window. And it was almost, the only thing we could think of was a thank you ceremony.

It was unbelievable. And she was there with us for a number of hours. And then finally she just walked off into the bush. That's fantastic. It was- They are so human. So human. Beautiful nature. The fact that we had that level of connection where she really could acknowledge how much time I think, and the effort we put into doing what we did to get her out. Yeah. So that was incredibly special. We all hear that one of the most beautiful aspects of elephant behavior is the matriarch. It's how it reacts and relates to the rest of the herd. Any matriarch stories that you might help us to understand this phenomenon?

Oh gosh. I think the way the matriarch is so protective of her family is really incredible. And she has to think about all the members of the family. I think that must, I think we can all relate to that with big families. I think it's, you know, it's, there's a lot to worry about. And I think that is truly amazing. And again, we've had another, we've had an incident where we had a, we had an elephant calf that had a snare. So a wire snare somehow around its, the middle of its body. I have no idea how on earth it could have gotten there. And again, you know, we had to, we got called in to come and assist and we, to remove the snare.

But to dart a young wild calf is really, really stressful because obviously you can't explain to the mother that you're tranquilizing your calf to help her.

But one day we were called out to do it. And usually you have to tranquilize the mother as well. And she, and we did, we had to tranquilize the calf and who we thought was the mother, but it turns out it wasn't the mother. It was the, a sister, an aunt. And mum was still very much awake. And she viciously defended, obviously her calf that had gone to sleep because you have to put them to sleep and her sister who had gone to sleep, who we thought was the mother. But then it suddenly, she, it's a fascinating thing. But again, she sort of reached a point where I think she thought, she realized there was an issue with her calf.

She realized her calf had this foreign thing and she, she stood back. And allowed you to. And allowed us to take off. Oh, fantastic. So I think that again, you know, these phenomenal things and, you know, very honored to be able to witness them and seeing just how they can recognize what's happening in a situation and have the trust in people. And often, you know, we don't place that same trust in them. We always hope that one day we'll be able to coexist with nature in a less confrontational way. But how is it in Botswana, anything that we might learn in Sri Lanka in terms of coexisting with the elephant population?

Yeah, I mean, I think the scale is so different in Botswana. I think we're almost at opposite ends of the scale where we have such a large elephant population and such a small human population. And I think Sri Lanka is completely opposite, but it doesn't mean there's not, yeah, lessons to learn. It's always taking work, right? I think it's some thing that there's never gonna be one solution. We're always gonna keep working at it as the human population expands and increases. But I don't think hope is lost. I think really clever land use planning is the key. Same thing in Botswana, you know, allowing paths and movement connectivity between protected areas, recognizing those important areas.

I think it comes down to just intelligent planning and being mindful of what wildlife needs and also what humans need. We shouldn't stop development. Human development, not at all. We don't need to, but we can be intelligent about it. And with the expansion of technology nowadays and our increased knowledge, I think we can definitely do it. And I think in that capacity, it's very transferable between Botswana and Sri Lanka. We just deal with transboundary issues as well because Botswana's elephants also move into Zimbabwe. They also move into Namibia. They also move into Zambia and even Angola. So I think it's our challenges as getting comprehensive policies across all those countries.

Whereas Sri Lanka, you can do it. You're one entity there, although a large human population, I think there's a lot of hope. And I think people are really recognizing what's needed. Every species has something to teach humanity, whether it's in medicines or behavior or whatever. What do you think the elephant has to teach us? I think just empathy. Kindness. Kindness and empathy, yeah. Yeah, I think it's absolutely the key. I think if you ever get the chance to be able to sit and watch a wild elephant from a distance, just interact. I think it's a very nice grounding reminder of what's important in life and how they treat each other.

I think it's, we need to do it a little more the same, remind ourselves to do the same. Wonderful way to conclude this conversation, but I hope you will continue it with Baby Dilmah. Thank you very much for the moment. Cheers and thank you so much for coming in. Such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you.