The shot made more dramatic by the low camera angle.
Early morning, Kwetsani camp.
|
An
adult elephant flares its ears as it approaches the
camera. The shot made more dramatic by the low camera angle. Early morning, Kwetsani camp. |
 |
A herd of elephants crosses
the Savuti Channel. (This shot does not show the
entire
herd, which totalled 2 or 3 times the number shown here) One of our most memorable encounters with elephants occurred at Savuti camp. Excellent rainfall in the Angolan highlands, which feed the rivers which in turn flow into the delta, meant the Savuti channel was high with water for the first time in approximately 20 years. Immediately adjacent to our camp, a large herd of elephants assembled at the waters edge to drink before crossing the channel en mass. This gave us the opportunity to observe some wonderful interaction between members of the herd with females leading their calves, some of them quite young, through the water. Bulls challenged each other testing their strength and asserting themselves, trying to establish dominance. Other herd members spent their time splashing around in the water, playing and simply having fun. This episode occurred during the early afternoon when we were spending some "downtime" eating lunch, catching up on diary entries, recharging camera batteries, tranferring files on laptop computers, etc. However as events unfolded, we quickly got the cameras out and started getting some shots. At one point, I realized that the best angle on some of the elephants was actually to be had from the toilet/bathroom which had a generously sized glassless window. Ironically this provided a really good viewpoint! |
 |
Savuti Channel. Whilst elephants drink huge quantities of water and wash themselves, at times it seems they simply love to play in the water. I took numerous shots of elephants just enjoying splashing around, see the slide show/galleries link below for more. |
 |
Savuti Channel. A pair of bulls decide to test each other out, this encounter lasted for several minutes as each animal attempted to assert its dominance. |
 |
A bull elephant assumes a sexually dominant position over its rival. This contest continued for several minutes. see the slide show/galleries link below for more. |
 |
Chitabe. Chitabe provided some fine elephant sightings and elephant numbers were good. This bull elephant was one of the largest we saw. Notice the fluid issuing from the gland between the eye and the ear, this indicates that the animal is in "must", in other words, he's ready to mate. During this period the bull becomes increasingly irritable and gives off a distinctive odour which is noticeable even to the human nose at quite a distance. |