Elephant calf plays cat and mouse: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 11 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, birding, birding african birds, blogumentary, bush knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, IUCN Red List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, teach, video, white rhino, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.Scary day.
Luckily the footage I shot today wasn’t the most riveting stuff ever because then I’d be cursing.
Barend was out there with me today hoping to shoot footage of me with the elephants but we never got to them. We got side tracked by about a dozen Marabous Storks on Banyini. Some were at the pan drinking and just standing around and others were hunting the grasslands plucking unsuspecting grasshoppers.
They really don’t look the most appealing of characters with their balding, scabby heads and pendulous pink air sac. But at least their mothers love them AND they do a great job in cleaning up the veld of rotting carcasses. And more recently as man invades their territories they are found cleaning up at rubbish dumps.
Down at Chimize pans we encountered 2 sets of White Rhino cow and calf. They had their compliment of Yellow-billed Oxpeckers that kept them clean from external parasites and are their watch dogs as the rhino’s eyesight is really poor.
The rhino’s were wallowing when we arrived but came to investigate us initially before heading on their way.
And what do we have to show for it? Well there are a few photographs BUT no footage even though I shot plenty.
While shooting the Marabou’s I commented to Barend how hot the camera was. On the side where the tape goes in it was too hot to touch because of the sun baking down on it.
And although we could see the images on the computer we couldn’t download them as the tapes were faulty. They had probably been stretched/warped from the intense heat. But I wasn’t consoled until I’d shot more footage to be sure it wasn’t the camera that was faulty. That would have been a disaster as I don’t have a backup camera. I do have a small Panasonic but it just isn’t good enough for what I’m doing. It’s just another of those cogs that you don’t want to lose a tooth. Could put us down for days.
So the video clip for today was actually footage shot yesterday, of Chipfongwe playing with his plant.
Share Wildcast with the world: 
I thought maybe Chipfongwe was having a bit of an elephant temper tantrum when he was rolling and kicking. One doesn’t realize how really small he is until a full grown elephant is standing by him. He looked like a tiny pile of dirt lying on the ground.
I’m glad your camera is OK. I know it would be horrible for you if it was malfunctioning, but, Holy Cow, think how we who count on our daily video would feel! Now, don’t go calling me an insensitive American. I’m only kidding.
The Rhino has to be one of the uglier animals. What animal do you find the least appealing just as far as looks?
How in the world are elephants such huge animals when all they eat is grass? If I had to guess any animal would be a carnivore it would be an elephant.
I don’t think rhino’s are ugly at all. A black rhino standing with head held high in a threatening posture is absolutely awesome.
And a white rhino with an impressive horn is a stunning beast.
Not sure I have a favourite i don’t like the look of. Have to be careful what I say. They might just take it out on me.
Elephants eat and eat and eat. They’re eating just about all day which they have to do to maintain that bulk and because they have a really inefficient digestive system