Elephants at the Museum

At the Museum today Charles Darwin was there as usual, but there was also a lecture about the Cave Elephants of Mount Elgon  National Park. Fascinating. The park is partly in Uganda, and partly in Kenya. The  speaker was Stephen Powles and it is somewhat of a family dynasty. It was founded by his grandfather, ‘ Buster’ Powles, and his father was a warden, and his uncle. His brother is also involved. Stephen was born there. A far cry then from my suburban family background,  The elephants visit the caves and eat the rock for the salt content. The threats to the wildlife are deforestation, poaching, and ivory hunters. In the museum there  are ivory tusks below the bust of Charles Darwin, with a note about ivory hunters, and a statement to the effect that they would look  much better on the elephant. There were lots of questions because it was a wonderful talk, but I only wanted to know why his grandfather was called Buster, and whether the goal posts on the grassy bit in the shadow of the extinct volcano were bamboo, and which team played there. I didn’t ask the questions so I’ll never know.