© Michael Nichols / National Geographic Society
Nichols shot this elephant herd with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with a 24-70mm lens. Exposure was 1/300 second at f/2.8. Click photo for more images by Michael K. Nichols and others.
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In 2006, when National Geographic staff photographer Michael K. "Nick" Nichols first heard about a place in central Africa with vast, forgotten herds of elephants, he could barely believe the news.
Then he arrived at Zakouma National Park, a tiny refuge in Chad, and saw the site with his own eyes. "A big herd of elephants might usually be up to 200 individuals," he says, "but at Zakouma you could see herds of 800 and more." Conservationist Michael Fay, who'd tipped Nichols off to Zakouma, estimated that some 10,000 elephants lived in the 1,200-acre park during the long dry season, taking advantage of the water and forage the refuge offered. In the wet season, many migrated away to literally greener pastures.
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Nichols and Fay, who had worked together on a mammoth story about their trek through central Africa in 2000 -- a trip that led to the establishment of 13 new national parks in Gabon -- decided to work on a story celebrating the natural history of Zakouma. Then they learned that poachers lay in wait for elephants leaving the park in the wet season. In recent years, with the region's political instability resulting from chaos in Darfur and the Central African Republic, poachers have been responsible for a precipitous decline in the elephant population.
Nichols hopes his Zakouma images will spotlight the plight of its elephants. "We believe that if we bring environmental stability to this region, it will help bring political stability as well," he says.
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