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Update: The riverside research station of Iain DouglasHamilton, Save the Elephants, in northern Kenya, was destroyed on the morning of March 4, 2010 by a flash flood, which resulted from a storm many miles upstream. Although no one was killed, due to hasty evacuation, buildings and equipment were wrecked, computers and cameras were washed away, and some precious data were lost. The nearby tourist camp of DouglasHamilton's wife Oria, Elephant Watch, and seven other lodges were also devastated.
The biologist Iain DouglasHamilton is walking up on an elephant, a sizable young female, nubile and shy. Her name, as she's known to him and his colleagues, is Anne. She stands halfconcealed within a cluster of valentino rockstud camouflage sneakers trees on the knob of a hill in remote northern Kenya, browsing tranquilly with several members of her family. Around her neck hangs a stout leather collar along which, at the crest of her shoulders, like a tiny porkpie hat, sits an electronic transmitter. That transmitter has allowed DouglasHamilton, flying in by Cessna, proceeding here on foot through the tall grass and acacia scrub, to find her. Crouching now, he approaches upwind to within 30 yards. Anne gobbles some more leaves. She's oblivious to him, or maybe just not interested.
Elephants valentino sneakers on sale can be dangerous animals. They are excitable, complex, and sometimes violently defensive. DouglasHamilton is a worldrenowned expert who has studied them for 40 years. Don't try this at home.
He wants a clear look at the collar. He has heard reports that it may be too tightthat she has grown into it since having been tranquilizerdarted, fitted, and thus recruited as a source of research data. Ordinarily, DouglasHamilton does his elephantwatching more cautiously, from the safe containment of a Land Cruiser, but no vehicle can drive this terrain, and Anne's comfort and health are at issue. The collar should hang loose, with a dangling counterweight below. He wants to be sure that Anne's isn't snugged up to her throat like a noose. valentino rockrunner shoes But at present, amid the thicket, she's showing him only her imperious elephantine butt. So he creeps closer.
Three other men lag back. One is David Daballen, a bright young Samburu protg of DouglasHamilton's, who often accompanies the boss on missions valentino lace sneaker like this. The second man is a local guide holding a Winchester .308 rifle. The third is me. As we watch DouglasHamilton edging forward, we notice another female elephant, a big one, probably the group's matriarch, sidling around craftily on his right flank. We duck low to escape the matriarch's view. We freeze. As this female comes on, suspicious and challenging, DouglasHamilton seems unconcerned with her, but Daballen begins to look nervous. He is calculating (he'll tell me later) how fast an elephant might be able to charge across such a rocky, rubblestrewn slope.
Then the big female commits herself to a sequence of gestures valentino sneakers suggesting nonchalance, if not outright contempt: She pisses torrentially, she defecates galumphingly, and she turns away.
