Civil War Invades An Elephant Sanctuary: One Researcher's Escape
To identify the elephants, Turkalo learned to draw the animals' ears — each ear's shape and markings are unique to each individual. She and other scientists also recorded their calls. "Not only do they recognize each other's calls, but the calls go far," she told NPR correspondent Alex Chadwick, who spent days with her back then, observing the elephants with Bill McQuay. "I could hear the call and say, 'Yeah, that's a juvenile being pushed out of a hole by its mother; it's protesting.' Or you hear a rumble, and you know it's probably an adult female, rumbling for a family — either saying, 'I'm here,' or 'Let's go.' "
But Turkalo's 22 years with those elephants came to a disastrous end last year, when civil war in the republic found its way to the Dzanga bai. Turkalo had lived through civil strife before, but this time, she tells us, it was much worse. "This time they covered most of country," she says, "pillage, rape and kill."
They were the Seleka — the Muslim rebels who had overthrown the national government in the spring of 2013. As she sips her tea in the Providence coffee shop, Turkalo is the picture of calm. But last year at the bai, she says, she feared for her life. It was just impossible to stay. She well remembers the day when the war came to the bai. "It was the 24th of March," she says. "I heard they were on their way."