The Elephant Poachers

“Poachers!” exclaimed Mark, breathing hard, as he quickly shoved Jane behind a leafy shrub. 

“What are they doing here?” Jane peeked out and saw a khaki pickup truck drive into the clearing, breaking suddenly.  Two men dressed in dark green clothing jumped out.  They had large guns slung across their shoulders.  Without speaking to each other the men started tying ropes across the bottom half of the trees that were spread out at the end of the clearing.

“They’re after the elephants.  You know they can get a pile of money for just one pair of tusks.  It looks like they plan to panic the elephants into the ropes and shoot them as they get trapped on the ropes.  Unbelievable!”  he replied in disgust shoving a grubby hand through his blond hair. 

“But that’s illegal and the punishment is death, why would they risk it?” Jane was getting pretty frightened as she realized that they were in huge danger.  If the men found them they would not take any interference lightly.  She suddenly wished that she had not agreed to go looking for porcupines with Mark.  It had sounded so safe when he asked her this morning.    She should be back at the camp sitting around the camp-fire listening to her parents chatting right now instead of hiding out in a bush, shaking uncontrollably.

“We must get back to the camp and tell my uncle. He can get a message to Jabulani, the park ranger” whispered Mark.

They started to creep quietly through the bush towards the camp.  It was another lovely, still night with a full moon and they could see quite clearly.  Unfortunately what they didn’t realize was that they could also been seen clearly.  There were lots of eyes in the dark watching them.  A little duiker hiding behind a bush, a night ape looking down on them from the top of a skinny tree, an owl his head rotating as he looked about him and one of the men!  Before they knew it they had almost stumbled against the man.  He immediately grabbed Jane.  "Stay where you are or I hurt your friend" he growled at Mark.

Before they knew what had happened the man managed to tie them up.  He bundled them into the back of the open-topped pickup truck.  They were both shaking in fear.  What would this man do to them?  Would he hurt them?   

Jane was trying to calm her racing heart when she saw that Mark had managed to get his hand into his back pocket.  He pulled out the little pocket knife that he had proudly shown her that morning.  Jane’s heart flipped happily as she saw him getting to work cutting the rope round his hands.  Before they knew it, they were free and quietly creeping behind the truck.  They crept along the tree line trying to get away as quickly as they could.  Mark was really good at finding his way and in no time at all they found themselves in another clearing close to the pan. 

Mark whispered “we must be very careful here, as the animals make their way to the water at night to drink”.

And then to their shock and horror they watched as one elephant after another filed past them going in the direction they had just come. 

“Oh no, they are going towards the poachers!  They will be killed!  What shall we do?” exclaimed Jane her eyes wide with fright.

“We are going to have to head them off somehow” said Mark determinedly.

“But how? They are so big, we may be trampled.  You know how angry elephants can become if –“

“Well we cannot just let them go to their death. We must do something and we must do it now!  Come on !” he pulled her up and they moved off towards another leafy copse of trees.

Mark then maneuvered them closer to the head of the herd.  As he reached the big matriarch he noticed a young male elephant standing under a tree, watching the herd go past.  He is not part of the herd, Mark thought, he looks as though he is one of the young males that were pushed out of the herd last year.  He stopped in his tracks, trying to work out a plan to make the elephants turn around.  He knew that the elephants had not seen them yet as they were standing down-wind and elephants have bad eyesight.  The moon came out from behind it’s cloud and he could now see the whole herd clearly.  There were elephants everywhere.  All sizes from the big ponderous female elephants right down to the tiny little calves.  He was suddenly so overcome with sadness, that he forgot his fear. 

“Elephants are terrified of gunshots!  I have an idea!”  he whispered urgently as he pulled out the red balloon that Jane’s little sister, Sarah, had given him that morning.
He quickly blew it up.  In the moonlight the balloon looked like a beacon of wondrous red light. 

He motioned for Jane to stay down behind a rock.  He started to creep along the tree line towards the bush path.  He was pretty sure that the elephants would use this path which would take them to the area where the poachers had set up their ambush.  He must be quick. He quickly climbed a tree, first making sure that there weren’t any other creatures using it for a home for the night.  He waited.  He listened to the sounds of the bush at night.  Then he saw the first large elephant quietly walking through the thicket onto the bush path just as he had predicted.  He waited a little more.  Then as he put the tip of his little knife into the swollen balloon "BANG!"  The noise ricocheted throughout the bush, against the trees, over the water in the pan, sounding exactly like a gun shot. 

The lead elephant stopped abruptly. 

Her ears extended away from her head like sails.  Her trunk in the air.  She let out a huge loud trumpet and started milling about shaking her head.  She was clearly terrified.  The other elephants, taking her fear as a sign, started to circle round in fright.  Trumpeting and puffing.  “Come on Mama turn, turn please take your family away from the danger” Mark whispered to himself holding his breath.