Richard And Jo Demeester's photos with the keyword: elephant

Before we even entered the reserve, we were treated to some beautiful moments.

If you are viewing this in the blog, you should visit our Ipernity page, where we have put a short video up as well. This little guy seemed to be really loving the water. For a couple of minutes, he splashed and frollicked. He spouted and snorted and danced in the puddle.

We watched this solo bull on the flat. I edged along the road to the closest point we could get, without going off the track. He turned to us and took us in. We thought he was just keeping us in sight while he went about his business. We suddenly realised he was posturing and sizing us up. Seconds after this picture, he trumpeted, and put his head down, and began thundering towards us. I just drove, and Jo assessed in the mirrors, and gave me reassurance that we seemed to be increasing the amount of space between elephant and vehicle. It wasn't a long chase, but once he felt affirmed in his dominance, he stopped and gloated. From a safe distance, we in turn stopped to catch our breaths and let our heart rates return to normal. The bull turned towards the trees and wandered off, full of confidence that we knew our place in the order of things.

It's hard not to imagine that he's smiling.

These two elephants were head to head, trunks entwined, pushing and shoving. Were they courting? Was it all part of a long, drawn-out fore-play? Or was it a stand-off? Agression or passion? Our knowledge of elephant behaviour is not sufficient to know. Maybe, some day, somebody will enlighten us.

Driving through Kruger, it is amazing who you meet just by the roadside.

Compared to the elephants around, of course it is little. You really lose track of how big they are. And when you start using words like "suckling", you can't help but imagine something cute and cuddly.

Can elephants smile? These appear to. A beautiful moment between a mother and baby, while wallowing in a marsh. Amboseli National Park.

An elephant multitasking.

Amboseli National Park

Late afternoon.

We came across these two elephants fighting and antagonising each other. What were they fighting over? Maybe whose turn it was to do the dishes.

Various adults and babies, wandering at their own paces across the open plane.

A grazing elephant at Maasai Mara National Reserve.

Even in India, the sight of the working elephant in the city streets is not too common. Nice that he struck a pose, with the fort in the background! Very obliging.