African Elephant – Southern African Conservation Trust

Comic Summary

In this comic book children learn more about elephants and ways to coexist with them. Elephants are great teachers. Their culture of care for each other can extend to both people and elephants living alongside one another. The comic follows our hero, Vusa, and his experiences helping his grandparents herd cattle. While listening to their wisdom, he learns about elephants and the challenges of human-wildlife coexistence.

Overview of Content

The core themes explored in the comic include:

Elephants as Ecosystem Engineers and Caregivers: The story highlights the positive, vital roles elephants play in the environment, referring to them as “huge gardeners” and “water finders of the veld”.
Seed Dispersal: Elephants are shown to carry large seeds up to 65 kilometers, and their dung aids in the growth of new trees, with one elephant capable of producing up to 150 kg of dung per day.
Habitat Maintenance: Elephants create pathways, bring high branches down for smaller browsers (like kudu and impala), and even bank grass by creating “thorn cages” that protect it for later consumption.
Water Provision: Vusa learns that elephants dig wells in dry riverbeds to find underground water, which their cattle can then use.
Social Behavior: The comic emphasizes elephants’ strong family bonds, their empathy for each other (like helping an injured bull drink or turning over a tortoise), and their respect for the bones of their dead, which mirrors how the local community respects the graves of their elders.
Human-Wildlife Conflict and Mitigation Strategies: Vusa and his grandmother visit a neighboring farmer to learn about ways to live alongside elephants after they had been eating and treading on the farmer’s crops.
- Non-Violent Deterrents: The farmer shares two mitigation strategies to “communicate” to elephants that they are not welcome in fields, appealing to their strong sense of smell and hearing rather than their poor eyesight.
  - Chilli Bricks: Farmers mix dried chili and dung (elephant or cattle) to create bricks, which, when smoked overnight, repel elephants.
  - Bee Fences: Some farmers in wetter regions use fences with honeybee hives that are irritated when touched by an elephant, scaring the elephants away. This has the dual benefit of providing honey to sell.
  - Historical Range: Vusa’s grandmother explains that elephants enter human lands because it is part of their historical range, long before humans declared certain areas for themselves and others for wildlife.
Elephant Poaching and Conservation: The comic includes a visit from a policewoman and a former poacher-turned-guide who educates Vusa’s class.
- - The Problem: Elephants are killed for their tusks (ivory), which are highly valued outside of Africa for carving ornaments, with a recent market also growing for their skin and blood. The former poacher admits to poaching for “easy money,” as people would pay him a year’s wages for two tusks.

Testimonials:

“I would like to share some of the wonderful feedback from the lessons in which we used your comics. GCC’s main initiative is the Future Rangers programme, an environmental education initiative based in the Greater Kruger Region, working with six schools (three primary and three high schools) in the villages of Clare, Gottenburg, and Welverdiend. We began our comic-reading series at the start of this term and have so far explored Southern Ground Hornbill, Ground Pangolin, Cheetah, and Wild Dog, with Elephant next on the list. We work in small, consistent groups of 12–13 students, which allows us to build strong relationships and witness their growth both personally and academically. Each student is assigned a character from the comic and reads aloud when their character speaks. While this was intimidating at first, it has led to a clear increase in English proficiency and confidence. Our Future Rangers educators, who are all local community members, have also praised the cultural relevance of the stories in the way they address and gently challenge beliefs that certain species are bad luck or dangerous. Currently, the Future Rangers are preparing group skits based on lessons from the comics. As a former teacher, I can see how these resources can be adapted across multiple lessons, and I would love to formally integrate them into our Explorers (Grade 8 & 9) groups in the Future Rangers Programme.

“We are very excited to be receiving these comics for our CITW Eco Clubs and Libraries in both Zimbabwe and Zambia. My team and I look forward to introducing them and will be sure to give you plenty of feedback and photos. Thank you very much.”

“Brilliant. Extensive positive feedback. Well done! Great to see a difference being made. You are making a huge contribution to environmental education here.”