I am featuring a species per week on my social media channels. Here is a summary of the last week’s posts (and some blog bonus images). I hope you enjoy some of my favorite Elephant pictures :-).
Sand bath …
All pictures were taken at various locations in South Africa.
#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography
As I was preparing the Green Mamba 1 (my special luxury & photography game drive vehicle – http://www.sperka.info/gm) I heard loud trumpeting from the Thanda House waterhole. I grabbed a camera, jumped into the vehicle and drove to the dam.
A young Elephant bull was busy chasing a bunch of Whistling White-faced Ducks around. He trumpeted very loudly whenever ducks got in his way. He obviously hates ducks! What a show …
After the recent rains the Thanda House dam is full. The Elephants love this deep water hole for bathing and drinking.
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This week we had some amazing sunsets. I really enjoyed this particular evening as I was watching a few Elephant bulls in front of Thanda House. They grazed around the house for over an hour. As I was watching them the most amazing cloud formations passed by. I captured them with my iPhone 7 Plus. Enjoy these African skies!
Well the correct answer is that adult female Elephants have more angular foreheads than adult males. The young female in my last post shows this feature unusually clear for her age 🙂 – see https://sperka.info/2016/12/02/boy-or-girl/
Today’s picture shows an young adult male and a female. Observe the difference!
Have a good start into the new week!
Last weekend I was very busy in the office and teaching photography at Thanda. On Monday I went to Pongola to get my car serviced and for a short visit to Pakamisa. On Tuesday and Wednesday I ran errands in Durban where a met a very cute puppy dog. Yesterday and today I played again catch-up in the office.
But, I still got a bit of photography done. At Pakamisa I took some pictures of Isabella working with one of her horses and at the Thanda House Waterhole (next to my home) I got some good pictures of Elephants, of Giraffes and of a young Lioness. I also shot some good-bye pictures of our young male Lion, who will leave the reserve soon for a new home. And in between I posted one of my favorite Leopard shots (taken in 2006) on Facebook.
So, here is my week in pictures. Enjoy them and the weekend 🙂
PS: As a bonus I added a short Thanda Elephants video – four times the regular speed!
I have just uploaded 159 African Elephant images taken between 2002 and 2016. Have a look at www.sperka.biz/sg10
This is another new species gallery available online at http://www.sperka.biz/sg
Please contact me at info@sperka.com in case you are interested in publishing any of these images or if you would like to license any image for printing (for personal or commercial use).
My image library contain thousands of wildlife images, which I took since I started wildlife photography in 2002. Keeping these images organized and available for people to look at is not an easy task.
End of last year I started a project to categorize all these images in ‘species galleries‘ and also put them online. I am currently working on African Mammals, followed by Birds, Snakes, other Reptiles Insects and Plants. After Africa I am planning to work on images from species of other continents.
Have a look at the first ten of these galleries at www.sperka.biz/sg (African Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, African Wild Cat, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, African Elephant, Caracal and Serval).
Please contact me at info@sperka.com in case you are interested in publishing any of these images or if you would like to license any image for printing (for personal or commercial use).
I will let you know once I upload new galleries. Stay tuned!
Well, in this picture I am with Thulani, one of Thanda’s largest Elephant bulls. I came to watch him at the Thanda Safari Lodge, having a drink at the waterhole. He was in musth when this picture was taken. During musth he needs a lot of additional water as he looses a lot of liquids to get rid of his excess testosterone (up to sixty times higher than normal levels). Because he is an old and experienced bull he does not get very agitated during this period. As Elephant ladies like the older and the bigger guys he has nothing to worry about!.
In comparison to his weight of approximately six tons, I could be considered a light weight 🙂
Have a good week!
