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The day before our departure from camp, Big Boy stayed close to our tent the entire morning. Susan commented on his behavior and said he probably missed Chris. I was busy with breaking down the camp, but I did notice that Big Boy was restless. Later in the afternoon, he came up to our little fence again. I thought that he was hungry for pods, so I had some of the staff rake up a bunch and dump them over the fence. But Big Boy did not touch them. I could see that he was troubled about something, so I walked over to him to have chat. He looked at me with those big, long eyelashes and his look said, "I understand". Why is it that elephants have this natural affinity towards humans when it is the humans themselves and only the humans who can and will hurt elephants? I looked around the area and noticed that there were only seven of the young bulls that followed Big Boy, not the usual nine. It worried me that poachers could have moved into the area, which normally happens when all camps close down for the rains and poachers are left with the valley to themselves.

Big Boy was obviously unhappy, something had unnerved him, and he had a bewildered look in his eyes, which was possibly an appeal for help. More than ever I was convinced that he probably lost two young bulls of his askari to ivory poachers. I stared up into his eyes and tried to ask him to stay close to camp, that while we were away he would be protected. I firmly believe there are times when you can communicate your thoughts to animals. He tilted his massive head once again and gave me that strange, special look from his eyes that said, "I understand."

While I was attending to last minute details, I heard a gunshot in the distance; it echoed through the valley, shattering the silence. It was December 16th, 8:20 pm. A total of twelve gunshots were fired over the next three minutes. My blood chilled; the prospect of poachers running after a wounded animal continually firing G3 heavy ammunition into the animal meant it could only be an elephant. At the time, we had twenty elephant feeding around our camp. It was most upsetting to see the naked terror and sheer panic as they scattered in all directions. I saw one huge, familiar backside disappear over the hill towards the scout camp. "Thank God," I thought, "Big Boy is safe."
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