Mculu

Elephant Blog

Named in honour of Ben Lamprecht who served in conservation in the South African National Park for 26 years. Mculu is a Shangaan word referring to the manner in which Ben was known to walk with his shoulders pulled up high.

Mculu was first spotted in early in 2009 by Kirsty Redman in the Letaba area, but a lack of good quality photo’s and a similarity in ear notches to known tuskers failed to determine if this was a ‘new tusker’ or one of the known bulls. A series of temperamental behaviour distinguished Mculu from the other tuskers and allowed this bull to clearly be identified. He is a relatively young bull and his home range fairly small when compared with other tuskers, however, despite his age, he has officially reached the so-called “emerging tusker” status; a classification that describes an elephant with tusks extending a minimum of 1.5m each. Once the tusks extend and they hit their growth spurt beyond that, they are considered a tusker.