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among giants, an elephant that would become an obsession. During January and early February
the bulls and cows would pair off and affectionately caress and spray each other at the water
holes. Barnard followed the largest legendary bull with huge tusks called Dhlulamithi (“grows
taller than trees”) and 28” tracks but never killed Dhlulamithi. He caught up with the elephant
and took a long shot, and indeed had killed an elephant at 500 yards, but instead Dhlulamithi
and his askari hunted him. He climbed a tree to try and see them when he discovered they had
sneaked up to his tree and were searching for him. He tried to climb higher but came face to
face with two green mambas and fearing getting bitten he dropped onto the back of
Dhlulamithi, his rifle falling one way and he the other.
Green Mamba with Also the Evil Smiling Face
Fortunately, they ran off and although he was later able to potentially shoot Dhlulamithi, he
aimed but put down his gun, never shot an elephant again, and retired to a farm. He also never
caught the elephants that were described to have up to four tusks. Barnard's son Izak was later
shown photos of Dhlulamithi taken by John Pringle and confirmed it was the elephant his father
was obsessed with shooting. The bull was also seen by Style in the Nuanetsi area. No one
knows who eventually shot the bull, but the tusks were sold to the ivory trader Balmer and
exported out of Mozambique. Two other named big tusker bulls, one with a similar name,
Ndlulamithi and Mafunyane would sometimes get together in the Shingwedzi area of the
Kruger Park. Ndlulamithi once charged elephant expert Dr. Anthony Hall-Martin who was
nearly trampled. Photographer Daryl Balfour produced a great topic on these elephants, but
was nearly trampled to death in the process, only having a handgun to protect himself. Marais
and Hadaway give a detailed account of the great African tuskers, including reference to 258
pound tusks from Benin and a pair weighing 280 pounds each seen by the British explorer
Richard Burton and said to have been sent to the King of Portugal from Mozambique. As
discussed elsewhere, earlier this year I saw the 232 pound and 228 pound tusks in London at
the Natural History Museum.
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