Pamina

Pamina and her family have been regular visitors to Mashatu and are very often seen on the game drives. A very relaxed matriarch with distinctive ears. Her right ear has a big triangle cut out of it while the left ear has a half moon cut on the top part of the ear. More recently the old matriarch broke her right tusk. Floppy is one of Pamina’s younger daughters and have distinctive flopped ear. In total there is about 13 elephants in this family all together.

Pamina’s specifications:

• Shoulder height: 2.51m
• Age: 40+
• No of calves: Several. Two at foot at the moment

Movements:

Pamina was collared in August 2006 with a cellular collar. Shortly after her collaring she started moving towards the Limpopo River and from there followed the same pattern as all the other collared herds spending the following three months moving up and down the Shashe River and back again along the Limpopo River into Mashatu during November. Due to the type of collar some data was lost during the period Pamina spend along the Shashe River as this area has limited cell phone coverage. Pamina and her herd spend most of December in Uitspan and Loensa. This area received a lot more rain than the central and eastern section of the reserve, most likely one of the reasons for the higher than usual concentration of elephants in this area over December.