… as well as
scraping the bark off a tree – something, that over time, either wears down or
breaks their tusks ...
Of course, we were as quiet as we could be -- except for the constant clicking of our cameras and an occasional suppressed gasp. We were so taken aback that that many wild Elephants would pass so closely to us.
There was even one moment when one stopped right by the front fender and turned to look at us, as if it was thinking, "what are you guys lookin' at?" Then, it slowly turned and continued across the road.
To see a video, click here.
To see Kristen's video, which is amazing (she definitely had the best seat for this one), click here. And watch to the end for some Elephant shenanigans.
 |
| Becca, Caty and me |
The next big Elephant excitement was when we stopped for lunch at Skukuza on the Sabie River and a very large herd came down to the river to drink. I never thought I would see that many Elephants together in one place. I took these photos from the restaurant deck.
 |
| Best lunch location ever! |
And then, later in the day, we came across another herd ...
 |
| Lots and lots of Elephants |
... some of which were digging for water under the sand (in this particular case, the mother was teaching the baby how to do it)...
 |
| Digging for water |
Some of them also crossed the road in front of us ...
 |
| Close crossing; Photo: Becca Stevens |
... and, then, for a moment looked as though they were going to take off running ...
 |
| Moving quickly |
The African
Elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal. Bulls stand 10-13 ft. tall
at the shoulder and weigh 10,000-13,330 lbs., while cows stand 7-9 ft. tall
and weigh 4,700-7,125 lbs.
 |
| Big ears |
The major difference between African and Asian Elephants are the African Elephant’s huge ears, which contain a complex network of blood vessels that can be used to dissipate heat. They also use their ears to funnel sound and to make threats to other elephants or predators.
One of the most extraordinary thing about the Elephant is its trunk, which serves as both an upper lip and a nose. It can smell water from several miles away, making up for the Elephant's relatively poor eyesight.
African Elephants have two exceptionally agile “fingers” that can pick up something as small as a single leaf. The trunk has eight major muscles on either side and 150,000 muscle bundles in all, but no bones or cartilage. It is so strong that it can push down trees and lift up to 700,000 lbs.
 |
| Feeding |
The trunk allows the massive Elephant to
reach vegetation as high as 20 ft. above the ground or to dig deep in the
ground for water, which it can then suck up and put in its mouth to drink.
 |
| Drinking dirt |
The trunk can also be used as a snorkel for crossing deep water, when Elephants are walking or (surprising for their size) swimming. And, finally, Elephanys use their trunks to touch and caress other Elephants, especially calves.
 |
| A loving mom |
An Elephant's skin is an inch thick and its feet are covered in a soft padding that helps support their weight, prevents them from slipping and dulls sound so that they can walk almost silently.
 |
| Profile |
Elephants use their feet and trunks to pick up subsonic ground vibrations made by other Elephants. They "listen" by putting trunks on the ground and carefully positioning their feet. This is how migrating Elephants are able to reconnect even if they are separated by miles.
Despite their size, Elephants avoid eating a type of acacia tree that is home to ants because they do not like getting ants inside their trunks, which are full of sensitive nerve endings.
Although
African elephants eat up to 1,000 lbs. of vegetation a day, their digestive
systems process only 30-40 percent of what they take in.
 |
| Three views |
Elephants have four
molars, each weighing 11 lbs. and measuring 12 inches long. As the front pair
wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair moves forward and two new
molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth four to
six times in their lifetimes. At around 40 to 60 years old, the Elephant loses
the last of its molars and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of
death.
The second set
of incisors eventually become the tusks, which, like the trunk, have many uses.
 |
| Big tusks |
Elephants use their tusks for digging up roots, pulling up grasses and stripping bark from trees for food. Bull Elephants use their tusks for fighting during mating season.
And, they use their tusks to defend themselves and protect their young from predators.
Tusks weigh from 50-100 lbs., can
be from 5-8 ft. long. and continue to grow throughout the Elephant's life.
Both
male and female African Elephants have tusks. And, we saw some pretty impressive tusks in Kruger!
 |
| Family unit |
African
Elephant societies are arranged around family units made up of around ten
closely related females and their calves and led by an older female known as
the matriarch.
 |
| Baby Elephant |
After puberty, male elephants tend to form close alliances with other males.
Although Elephants can reproduce at the age of 16 and live to be very old, they rarely have more than four calves within a lifetime.
Even with this relatively low birth rate, overcrowding is a problem in Kruger.
Elephants have the longest pregnancy of all animals -- 22 months. Calves, which weigh about 230 lbs. at birth, are cared for by
their mothers and other young females in the herd, known as “allomothers.”
African
Elephants are among the world's most intelligent species. With a mass of about 11
lbs., the Elephant's brain has similar structure and complexity to a human's.
Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including grief,
learning, allomothering, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, altruism, use of
tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory and, possibly, language. They cry, laugh and purr.
The also pay homage to the bones of their dead, gently touching the skulls and tusks with their trunks and feet. When an elephant walks past a place where a loved one has died, it will stop and stand silent for several minutes.
When a male Elephant reaches sexual
maturity, they begin to experience musth, a physical and behavioral condition
that is characterized by elevated testosterone, aggression and more sexual
activity.
Elephants in musth often “leak” a thick tar-like secretion called
temporin from ducts on the sides of the head.
 |
| Temporin leak |
Hyper-aggression during musth may be partially
caused by a reaction to the temporin, which trickles down into the Elephant's
mouth.
Another contributing factor may be the swelling of the
temporal glands, which press on the elephant's eyes, causing pain comparable a
severe toothache. Elephants sometimes try to counteract this pain by digging
their tusks into the ground.
There are about
300,000 African Elephants in southern Africa and 13,000 in Kruger National
Park. Large populations of elephants
are confined to well-protected areas.
 |
| The animals are in danger |
However, conservative estimates were that
23,000 African elephants were killed by poachers in 2013 and less than 20 percent
of the African Elephant range was under formal protection.
 |
| Following mom |
The World Wide Fund for Nature believes there were 3-5 million African Elephants as recently as the 1930s and 1940s.
Between 1980 and 1990, the population of
African Elephants was more than halved.
In 1989, international trade in ivory was banned, eliminating many major ivory markets. As a
result, African Elephant populations experienced a decline in illegal killing,
allowing some Elephant populations to recover. But, poaching is still a
significant problem, with about 70 percent of the poached ivory flowing to
China.
Two of the things surprised about our trip to Africa ...
 |
| The number of Elephants we saw ... |
 |
| ... and how close we got! |
 |
| Amazing! |
Trip date: August 25-September 9, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment