This picture shows the Thanda Elephant herd crossing a road in front of two game drive vehicles.
In the summer time when the vegetation is very dense it takes excellent tracking skills and also a bit of luck to view these magnificent creatures in the open.
This little Elephant tried to capture the smells from our vehicle when we were watching it and its mum crossing the road in front of us.
Have a good weekend!
This large Elephant bull enjoys the cool water on a hot summer day.
Most mammals can use their sweat glands to cool themselves down. Elephants cannot sweat so they have to use other means to cool down. They pump huge amounts of blood through their ears (which represent 20% of their body surface) while waving the ears – as one means of cooling. They also try to use shade wherever possible and take extended baths on hot days. But one of the most effective ways of lowering their body temperature is to take a mud bath. The drying mud draws a lot of heat from the body and cools them down very effectively.
On yesterday’s evening game drive I took this picture of one of the largest Thanda bulls after he had a thorough mud bath.
The second picture is of a “family bath” a few month ago.
One should never push Elephants and move in too close to them.
But sometimes they choose to come close themselves. This female Elephant and the two calves where browsing on trees right next to our Land Rover before moving on to follow the herd.
My guests loved this close encounter!
PS: For the photographers among you: To get the effect with both “the Elephants” and “me in the mirror” in focus I overlaid two images with different focus (post-processing).
While I was filing images which I have taken over the last few weeks I came across this picture of an Elephant Bull fight.
I remember that we were quite close to these two young bulls when they started sparring. Ignoring us completely they impressed the Thanda guests on my vehicle with their strength and fighting skills.
This young Elephant bull was testing the strength of my Land Rover and of Bheki’s tracker seat. After a slight shake to the car he decided that this was a “strong thing” and he moved off quietly and continued feeding.
… and this is one of the reasons why our trackers do not stay in their seat when we are viewing Elephants 🙂
When his little sister (she is only a few weeks old) was crossing the road she was giving us a good “Elephant head shake of displeasure” before quickly joining her mother on the other side of the road.
The Elephant moms just watched the displays tolerantly without any signs of agitation.
The Thanda guests enjoyed the “Shaken by Elephant” experiences.
From this angle the difference between a mature (40-45 year old) Elephant bull and a young bull in his teens becomes clear. Two of Thanda’s magnificent Elephants presented themselves during one of today’s game drive.
Thanda’s breeding herd of Elephant was crossing the savanna to get to a waterhole to drink and bath. These are a few black and white images I took at this beautiful sighting.
We tracked our Elephant herd for a long time when we spotted them going up a mountain. It is amazing how these huge creatures can move up a hill.
On the same game drive we found our four Lion cubs resting in a road after playing hard.
And on the way back to the lodge we had a good look at one of my favorite antelopes – female Nyalas.
Another hard day in Africa 🙂
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 