I first met the OA family on October 20, 1973 early on in the study when I was working only part-time. They were in a large aggregation of about 100 elephants and about all I could do was photograph as many adult females as possible.

On April 10, 1974, I found a small family of seven females and calves plus one adult male. I recognized two of the females from the photographs I had taken the year before. This time I was able to get more photographs and begin to sort out who was in the family. There was an exceptionally beautiful matriarch and two younger females. The family appeared to consist of the following seven members:

Beautiful Matriarch adult female >35 years old
Calf about one year old
Younger adult female 18-20 years old
Tuskless female calf 3-4 years old
Young female with up-curved tusks 12-13 years old
Immature female 9-10 years old
Immature female 5-6 years old

I designated this family the OAs and named the matriarch Olga and the second adult female Orlanda. However, I did not see them again for over a year. I finally set up a camp and began working nearly full time in the Park in September 1975. One of the groups I found that first month was the OAs. I saw Orlanda in a big group of seventy elephants, but I did not see Olga or any of the others. With Orlanda was a tiny male calf about three months old.

To read the full history of the OA family open the attachment.
(Note: there are no 'N' families. There were two in the early years of the study but both became extinct when their females died.)