Burnt elephant gave me sleepless night– photographer

ARCHITECT and photographer Koos Reyneke says he could not sleep the night after taking pictures of a severely burnt elephant at Etosha National Park on Sunday.

The elephant was a casualty of a fire that started last week at the national park.

The photos, which went viral after being posted on social media on Monday, have since been scrutinised after the Ministry of Environment and Tourism claimed they were fake.

According to the photos’ metadata, they were taken with a Nikon Coolpix P1000.

Executive director of environment and tourism Sikongo Haihambo, however, maintains that the ministry can only confirm and believe its own pictures or those sent to it directly.

“It bothered me the whole night, so I told my wife in the morning that I had to at least write something about it, because personally, I believe it was bad management,” Reyneke says.

The fires started on 20 September, spreading across vast areas of Etosha National Park and parts of the Oshana and Omusati regions.

“I was 50 to 60 yards from the elephant, and I sent many more pictures after the ministry said it was a fake artificial intelligence photo,” Reyneke says.

The architect, who often posts pictures of wildlife on his Facebook account, says going to and taking pictures in the national park are his hobbies and that the ministry’s labelling of his picture as fake has been traumatising.

“I do not even have a programme on my computer to manipulate or edit pictures,” he says.

Reyneke says when he entered the park, almost everything was burnt.

He says he took 345 pictures that day of the wildlife, including the elephant.

“I took some pictures. All in four hours – taking 345 photos with this very special zoom camera,” he says.

Reyneke says he saw other animals, including a female oryx and many giraffes reaching for the top of the trees that were not burnt. They were all black and dirty, he says.

“I did not even take pictures of them. That is how bad they looked,” he says.

Reyneke says the decision to share the photo of the elephant with the public came as the incident shook him, saying its skin was completely burnt and was peeling off.

“I immediately reported the injured elephant an hour after the last photo of him was taken as I arrived at Okaukuejo… [We] waited long at the counter for feedback, but they said the game warden was not responding.

“After waiting two more hours at the Okaukuejo waterhole, my wife and I drove back to Windhoek,” he says.

Meanwhile, Haihambo says many pictures are circulating on social media – some real and others not.

“We can only confirm ours and of those who passed on their pictures directly to us,” he says.

Haihambo says a team of veterinary doctors were dispatched earlier yesterday to assess the park and surrounding areas as well as treat and count wildlife injuries and fatalities, including from protected species.

He says they are not sure of the extent of wildlife losses as assessment has just begun.

The assessment will include damage to infrastructure, such as water points.

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