Huge Elephant Tusker | Mavalanga - King Of Kruger National Park

Named in memory of Piet Otto who served firstly as a helicopter pilot and later as Head of Flight and Game Capture operations in the Kruger National Park 25 years. (Mavalanga is Shangaan meaning ‘one who has very good eyesight’, this refers to Piet’s exception ability to spot game on census long before anyone else for this he was dubbed “Mr Eye’s” by those who worked with him).
This bull has a very large home range and has been recorded in Pafuri, around Babalala and as far South as Bangu in the Olifants Trail area.
This bull has very substantial curved ivory. He has a notable thickening on his trunk that has a “doughnut” appearance with a definite depression in the middle. Hi right ear has a small “R2.00” sized hole towards the upper edge of the lobe as well as a small v-shaped notch with the bottom part of the notch extending past the end of the lobe line. The left ear has a prominent wide u-shaped notch below the middle area of the lobe as well as a similar shaped notch slightly above the middle of the lobe the is bisected by a small extension of skin (this is not usually visible unless the ears are open) A small “R2.00” at the tip of the ear lobe is also visible from a frontal or left side angle.
This elephant was first recorded by Anja Stolk in September 2008 as part of the emerging tuskers competition. Due to immense distances between locations of other submission in 2008 by Johan Marais (author Great Tuskers of Southern Africa) and in 2009 by Robert Bryden (Co-odinator Guides, Nxanatseni Region) these were originally thought to be of ‘new bulls’. Upon investigation and the recording of the identification features for Mavalanga it is now clear these are of the same bull and have served to highlight the immensely large roaming range of this magnificent tusker.
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