Elephant calf enjoys the fun side of life
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 8 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, birding african birds, blogumentary, bush knowledge, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered species, experience, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, zimbabwe.That hornbill nest!
I decided not to waste more time on the nest but did check it out a couple of times today and one of the adults did come to feed the chicks, but that was just as I arrived and there was no time to get the camera out.
At dawn I found the one-tusk elephant cow and her family near Chekwa pan. True to herself, she sauntered up to my vehicle and pushed. This time I had it in neutral and she pushed me about a meter before backing away.
Again some time later she was back. Now she was bored with the bull-bar. She came and stood right up against it and then bending her head forward rested her tusk and trunk on my bonnet. Happily having made contact she again backed off. And again later was back for another push.
But most of the time she would ignore me and just walk past.
She really is no threat and just seems to want to discover what this thing is about.
They moved on for a great drink and wallow in the midday heat, spending about an hour in the water.
I left them to go walking in the hills looking for more bushmen paintings to photograph. And some I did find. They seem to be there just about on any suitable rock surface. They were busy little men in this area back then. (Well we don’t actually know if it was the men or women who did the paintings.)
At sunset I was at the Malilangwe dam hoping to film the White-faced Ducks as they fly off in formation to their foraging grounds. It was all happening but far too late for me as the light was too dim for filming.
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You have turned me into a real elephant lover! What fascinating animals! “One-Tusk” is
really checking you out. I hope she doesn’t decide to have a seat on your vehicle. When my daughter was a child, she had a favorite book called, “The Elephant who Loved to Smash Small Cars.” I think of that book everytime you tell of an elephant coming right up to your landrover. But the elephant in the book was careful never to hurt people - just liked to smash the cars, so if the book was based on reality (Ha!), you’re quite safe.
Thanks for another beautiful video.
HI Kim, I know that cow pushing you cruiser, i remember her from the notches on her ear, she rocked my car a number of times by placing her foot on the side steps of the cruiser, she also used to go down on her front legs and tusk the ground, interestingly she was doing this often in October 2002 and had a calf 2 weeks later.
Pat. I feel really safe. None of her actions show any signs of aggression.
Mark. Yes i heard about those encounters. So you were the one who used to feed her milkshakes! Yeah she’s really cool. And as i say there is no harm meant. She’s just having her own little game.