Friends

Friends or Siblings, difficult to say, but these Elephants having some fun at the Hapoor waterhole at the Addo Elephant Park near Port Elizabeth, were the centre of attention. On a rather hot day earlier this year, I was parked at the Hapoor Waterhole watching large herds of Elephants approaching the waterhole, having a drink, splashing themselves and moving on. A few of them decided to immerse themselves into the water, lots of splashing about, and interaction between these three was a wonderful encounter.
……..the journey continues………..

Friend

Partners

The Hapoor Dam at the Addo Elephant National Park is frequently visited by large numbers of Elephants as they move through the terrain in the Park. It is a place where they drink, splash themselves, swim etc, before they finally move on to be followed by the next group. Consequently, other animals have to try and sneak a drink in between. I watched as a Black backed Jackal saw an opportunity to have a drink, shortly after some Elephants had moved off. The jackal carefully advanced to the waters edge and started drinking. Shortly after two Elephants, a younger and older an one, arrived on the other side of the water. The Jackal was obviously thirsty and appeared to have decided to just keep drinking despite the arrival of the heavies :-). The Elephant “partners in crime” obviously didn’t appreciate the presence of the Jackal at “their” waterhole, and tried to intimidate the Jackal, by mock charges and splashing water towards it. The jackal appeared unperturbed and continued drinking, so the heavies persisted with their bullying tactics. At one point the Jackal appeared to turn away from the impending splash, but turned back and continued to drink thereafter. Eventually, he moved on carefully. Perhaps he had enough to drink, or he decided he had overstayed his welcome :-). Partners is the prompt on the Weekly Photo Challenge this week, and a sequence of images of the Elephants and Jackal interaction is my response to the prompt.

…….the journey continues…………….

Partners

One Love

Bob Marley’s “One Love” asked “What about – ? Let’s get together and feel all right”, perhaps we can take a few cues from the Animal Kingdom 🙂
One love is the prompt on the Weekly Photo Challenge, and images of interaction between animals from my recent game drives are my response to the prompt…

…….the journey continues …………..

One Love

Gathering

With temperatures peaking at 34degC on a recent visit to the Addo Elephant Park near Port Elizabeth, herds of elephants headed towards the few waterholes in the Park. It was intriguing to watch hundreds of Elephants co-ordinate usage of these waterholes. As if by some pre arranged programming, groups of elephants, sometimes as large as 50, would gather in the proximity of a waterhole. Whilst one group was busy drinking and splashing at the waterhole, all the others just grazed ad waited patiently. Then as if by mutual agreement one of these waiting groups, would in a very organised movement, always ensuring that the little ones were protected, slowly make their way towards the waterhole. As they approached the waterhole, the group at the water would slowly start to move away, allowing the approaching group free access to the water. This process continued for hours, with some groups even returning a few times, without any apparent disagreement, or confrontation. Just mutual respect, and a real sense of sharing the valuable resource of water, perhaps a lesson humans can learn form these intelligent animals.

Gathering is the prompt on the Weekly Photo Challenge this week, and images of the various gatherings of elephants are my response to the prompt.

………the journey continues,,,,,,,,

 

Gathering

Weekly Photo Challenge : Lost in the details

Some of my recent posts have featured images from my recent vist to the Addo Elephant Park, near Port Elizabeth. The Park is home to all of the big 5, though the Elephants outnumber all the other animals substantially. One is very fortunate to be able get close enough to these “gentle giants” to be able to get “lost in the details” which happens to be the prompt for the Weekly Photo Challenge this week. Watching them move about so gracefully, feeding, drinking and socialising amongst themselves without appearing to be hindered by the human intervention in their environment is indeed a privelage. I took the opportunity to look a little closer at these wonderful animals, todays “lost in the details” images are some of the resulting images…………….the journey continues…………