Baby Elephant Patrol: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 10 months ago Tags: africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, IUCN Red List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, peace parks, photos, polls, quickmaps, video, waterhole, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.The shade was hardly the shade today. Well the term didn’t really mean that much as temperatures soared over 40 degrees Celcius in the shade. (104F)
Driving around in the midday heat in my open vehicle is hard to discribe. I don’t know of situation where the heat is so intense. It was like opening the oven door and being hit by that barrage of heat. Except this is continuous and sucks all the energy and moisture from ones body. Actually I just shouldn’t have been driving, as parked in the shade was a lot more comfortable.
Our little elephant herd was in very much the same place I’d left them last night. But they must have been to drink somewhere in this time as they couldn’t possibly survive without water in these temperatures. And again for most of the day they stayed in a small area feeding and resting all day.
The little calf just followed as he should. Life for him was no more than follow my leader. AND drink when he wants.
This little male calf is only about 2 weeks old and will probably become a key player in our elephant film. BUT HE NEEDS A NAME. So if you have any suggestions for names, please submit them under the “Recent Comments” tag.
While he was lying shaded up under his family I headed south to Hartebeest pan and sure enough some elephant bulls were making the most of the mud. They would leave the waterhole for about an hour, feed close by, then back for another cooling off session. Made sense to me but I just wasn’t prepared to go that far too keep cool.
Back with our elephant family at dusk and they headed east into the hills. I could only follow on foot, which I did at a distance as I wanted to see where they were headed. Sure enough they cooled off at the seep at Chimbiya (:map:). There wasn’t enough water for drinking and they continued east in the hills, leaving me to return to my vehicle and back to base.
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It almost looks like these guys are flying with their ears flapping!
always amazing to see ellies care for their young. Watching your video and live feed from Pete’s Pond right now where a large herd with many young are visiting. I wish all humans would have the opportunity to watch these interactions - we could all learn a lot from ellies.
Thanks Kim for sharing your world with us.
Hey China
Always checking to your site to see what you are up to.
Fantastic footage as always.
Lisa and I have decided that the little jumbo should be named “Maverick”. Top Gun was a first class movie.
Will try and catch up on skype some time.
Cheers
Rog and Lisa
Thanks guys. You just don’t know what this little fellow is going to get up to in the next 40 to 50 years. Or what will happen to the world around him.
Keep those names rolling.
Cheers
I think, after watching the video, that this cute little guy should be called “Catsup”. He always appears to be trying to “catch up” with the herd.
Hi Kim,
Really enjoy this website. Thanks for sharing the bush with us ! That baby elephant is too cute.
A few suggestions for the name of the baby elephant :
- Ciqala, meaning “Little One” in Dakota
- Anoki, meaning “Actor” in Native American
- Yahzi, meaning “Little One” in Navajo
- Takoda, meaning “Friend to all” in Sioux
- Wapi, meaning “Lucky” in Sioux
Gerda
These are all great. Going to be a tough one to decide. Keep them coming. Thanks
I love all the elephants. It is very informative for a short piece.