Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here are two pictures of an elephant we saw while at Longido Game Conservation Area (Longido is about 100km due north of Arusha and is named for Longido Mountain). I was told Longido is Kiswahili for "dirt devil" or "dust devil", which we saw quite a few. The soil there is very fine volcanic powder. [Longido is pronounced "lawn gee doe"].

We saw several elephants and were able to get close to them in the hunting car because they had come over from the Amboseli National Park in Kenya and were used to vehicles.

Would anyone care to guess the tusk weight on this elephant? Later, I will provide the PH's estimate of tusk weight. The PH, Luke Blackbeard, is from Botswana and has spent most of his career hunting elephant. So I would think he is a pretty good judge of elephant.





Regards,

Terry

Not that I'm any sort of expert here but I will guess 50-55lbs. Long and thin ivory, I think. I saw a few in the RSA that looked to be more than a bit bigger than this one in terms of tusk diameter and just a tiny bit shorter. We were guessing those to be about 60lbs.

JMHO,

JohnTheGreek

First of all I will say I'm nowhere remotely close to being capable but, all things considered with what I have read about soft ivory there I'd guess the top at 60lbs and the bottom at 75lbs has a little more girth. "Z"

Hint: Approximately 12" to 13" circumference at the lip.

This elephant is small bodied.

Regards,

Terry

[ 10-02-2002, 05:08: Message edited by: T.Carr ]

One of the Bulls I saw in Pilainsberg was estimated at around 50 pounds and this bull is twice as large so my guess is 85+

My uneducated guess is around 75 a side!

Gentlmen.
This is a very small bodied elephant. Thin ivory
and does not carry weight towards the tips. The old rule of thumb is length of ivory in feet from
the lip x circum at the lip. If 13" at the lip with 3FT out of the lip would be 39# if 3.5ft then
45.5# I doubt if this bull will go over 42#

Can't fool Mr. Hoffman. This bull is very small bodied and his tusks are very thin. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the left tusk is longer than the right. The PH estimated mid-40lbs for the right and upper-40lbs for the left.

Not having seen many elephants, the tusks looked bigger to me.

Regards,

Terry

I was going to say 50-55, just because they are so thin.

I don't care if he is 10 lbs, he is beautiful!

What impresses me most is thatn the tusks haven't broken even though they are so slim and long.

Haven't seen a lot of elephant with tusks that long without one of them been broken live or on tv or in photos.

Safari-Hunt

www.Safari-Hunt.com

Comparing him to the pictures I have I thought the same.

Thanks for the lesson George!
By the way can anyone post a picture of one in the 70-80 pound catagory alive and sideways for comparisons sake?
Thanks!

[ 10-02-2002, 15:20: Message edited by: amosgreg ]

Here is two Tembe elephants





Safari-Hunt

www.Safari-Hunt.com

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Hunting Report has a report on an elephant recently taken in southern Tanzania. It measured 19.5" circumference at the lip and weighed 87 lbs. X 82 lbs. (6'10" X 6'6" total length).

Regards,

Terry

I have very little knowlege of elephants but somehow this one appeared to have a more compact body than usual. I was thinking maybe it was small too but with really nothing to base it on. Vegetation height can very so how would you conclude that this is a smallest elephant in body?

Having seen and weighed a lot of TAnzanian tusks I was going to guess a bit over 40...

Tanzania elephants are small in structure compared to Zim and RSA elephants and they have long thin tusks..A 65 Lb. Tanzania elephant may have 6 to 7 ft. 12" in diameter tusks...A zim elephant will at 65 lbs have perhaps a 3 ft. tusks at 20 to 22 inches in circumfrence...You have to allow for the nerve and that can make a real difference in weight in a Zim or RSA elehhant.

Really good elephants are the exception, rather than the rule these days in Tanzania but a 60 to 65 is possible...

Leo,

Not being an expert, I will tell you what I noticed about this elephant when I saw him in Tanzania.

I thought his head looked too big for his body.

Even with my limited exposure to elephant, it was obvious (in person) that this elephant was small in stature. Obviously that is much harder to judge from a picture.

Regards,

Terry

[ 10-03-2002, 05:06: Message edited by: T.Carr ]