14 DAY TRIAL // A 46-year-old female elephant named Nzhou is now the proud member and defender of a buffalo herd in Zimbabwe's Imire Black Rhino and Wildlife Conservation area.
What's more, researchers and wildlife rangers who have had the chance to see the pachyderm interact with the buffaloes say that, judging by her behavior, it is possible Nzhou is quite convinced that she is one such herbivore herself.
Talking to the press, Judy Travers, one of the owners of the Imire Black Rhino and Wildlife Conservation area, explained that the elephant came to live in this part of Zimbabwe back in the 1970s, when she was still very young.
Thus, the pachyderm was brought to this sanctuary following the death of her family at the hands of poachers who killed them and butchered them looking to get their tusks and sell the ivory on the black market.
At the time when she arrived at the wildlife park, Nzhou was introduced to a bull. Since they had no other family, the two elephants befriended a herd of buffalo in the region and eventually started following these herbivores around wherever they went.
Following the death of the bull, Nzhou refused to be parted from her adoptive family and took it to herself to watch over the buffalo herd as if she were their matriarch. Interestingly enough, the herbivores accepted her.
According to Daily Mail, the 46-year-old pachyderm has learned to distinguish among the various sounds that the buffaloes produce when communicating with one another, and the herbivores too are familiar with the significance of the sounds Nzhou makes.
Judy Travers claims that, as surprising as this may sound, the elephant appears to have grown so accustomed to life among the members of the buffalo herd that she has lost her ability to get along with others of her kind.
Thus, she no longer reacts to callings let out by other pachyderms now living in Zimbabwe's Imire Black Rhino and Wildlife Conservation area, and returned to the buffalo herd shortly after rangers tried to introduce her to a herd of elephants.
“She’s very nurturing towards calves and their mums, but can put her big foot down towards the mature bulls. When newborns drop she is part of the herd that moves back to the mum and calf after they've had a chance to build a relationship,” Judy Travers explains.
Furthermore, “Nzou is the matriarch of the entire farm but she chooses to spend her time with the buffalo. We have tried to reintroduce her to the elephant herd on the farm but she’s really happy where she is.”