Hands up those among us who can say they’ve willingly volunteered to be a pooper scooper of elephant dung. Exactly what I thought – few and far between.

I have been there and done that – and it still ranks up there as one of the highlights of my life.

I didn’t join the circus. I wasn’t helping out at a zoo. I was deep in the savanna of South Africa, tracking wild elephants as they roamed through the wispy grasses.

It was late 2016. I had just finished a four year contract that had me working in Africa and I needed a break. Being Canadian, we are widely welcomed in many countries and South Africa was no different. I could go and stay for three months, visa-free. So, I did.

I did safari after safari after safari. I volunteered for one month at Daktari Bush School & Wildlife Orphanage. And on the advice of a friend and fellow Canadian who lives in Hoedspruit near Kruger National Park, I signed up as a volunteer with Elephants Alive, an organization dedicated to the conservation of elephants and their habitats. Before I knew it, I was heading out into the bush with two staff members, looking for these largest of all mammals.

Tracking elephants

Sometimes we would drive randomly until we found a herd. We’d then snap photos of the elephants to add to the organization’s database. We’d look for very minute details, a tear in an ear, damage to a tusk, injuries to a foot – anything to help distinguish one elephant from another. Our photos would later be matched up with the database and if we had stumbled upon an elephant that hadn’t yet been documented, it would be added.

Other times, we used GPS to get us started in the right direction. Some elephants have been collared and the GPS would give us their last known location. We’d head in that direction, then get out a radio antenna which could help us “ping” their relatively current whereabouts.

Once we found the herd we would sometimes sit with them for hours at a watering hole. I’d snap photos and take video while a staffer recorded the audio for researchers who were studying how males communicate with each other. Sometimes I would put the camera down and just watch, mesmerized. We remained as still and quiet as we possibly could. We didn’t want to do anything that might startle these walking walls of grey. We always stayed in the vehicle and always kept one person in the driver’s seat, just in case we needed to make a hasty escape.

Pooper scooper

Being the newbie on the team, it was up to me to get in there and collect fresh samples of the dung left behind when the elephants moved on. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds. Elephants eat 16 to 18 hours a day. They have such poor digestive systems that most of the grasses, twigs, bark etc. that they ingest goes in one end and out the other, so, without getting too graphic, although the dung balls were massive and close to the size of a football, they weren’t in the least bit stinky. I’ve seen – and smelled – way worse stuff come out of dogs, cats and humans.

I would don one white rubber glove, do a quick second and third scan of my surroundings to ensure all the elephants had moved on – you’d be amazed at how well these giants can hide! – and stepped slowly to the big mounds of poop. Excitement and nervousness coursed through my veins. I was in my element.

Escorted by my colleague Ronnie, he held the test tube and showed me how to collect and deposit the important components of the dung that would again help researchers studying the biology and genetic makeup of pachyderms.

Multi-purpose poop

Did you know that besides sharing a lot of information with scientists, elephant dung has many other constructive uses? According to Africa Geographic, it can be used as:

• Mosquito repellant. When I first read about this I thought, bring on the mosquitos, there is no way I am smearing any kind of dung on me. Turns out you burn the dung, and the smoke does the job.
• Coffee. Elephants hoover up coffee beans and during the fermentation process inside their expansive digestive system, the beans lose their bitter taste and become more chocolatey and cherry-like. I love chocolate and cherries, but this still isn’t enough to make me like coffee.
• Paper. This one I was aware of. I have a custom-made painting on elephant dung paper hanging in my living room. Being herbivores, elephants eat a lot of fibre, a good chunk of which remains undigested once released from the animal’s backside. An eco-friendly version that can save a lot of trees.
• Housing. Have you ever seen a dung beetle at work? So amazing to watch, they quickly became one of my favourite creatures when we weren’t spotting any of the Big Five while on safari. The male beetles work so hard to impress a female with their ball of elephant dung. If she approves, she lays her eggs in it, the ball gets buried, and nine months later (okay, not really nine months, it’s really just a few days) baby beetles are born.

Elephants are fascinating creatures. Spending so much time with them allowed me to witness first-hand how family-oriented they are; how protective they are of their little ones; how teenaged elephants love to test their growing machismo by charging at our vehicle. They hooked me in, and I immediately began entertaining ideas of packing up my comfy home in Canada and relocating to South Africa. For a myriad of reasons that never happened but I will get back there, and I will get back into a vehicle, track elephant herds and collect their dung. Sound the trumpets!

Are you an animal person? Do you have a favourite? Do you have an encounter with an animal that is embedded in your memory banks? I’d love to hear about it!