Baby elephant trunks at work: Video

Another cold dawn and the elephants had moved east towards Ganyani. Mandlovu’s herd were feeding peacefully on the fruits of the Balanites tree. Suddenly the all froze. They’d heard the deep rumbles from other herds. Something was wrong.

Mandlovu took the lead and moved rapidly south with her herd. They must have travelled about a kilometre before stopping to feed again. Then all seemed fine. What the disturbance was I don’t know.

I left them to see if I could pick up on Whisky. I didn’t cover the whole property but didn’t have any joy. It’s quite possible that now he’s on his own he’ll be travelling far and wide looking for other dogs to join up with.

Earlier I was alerted by reserve guides about a leopard kill in the south. I got there to find 2 hyaenas in the shade of a bush with the rib cage and spine of an impala carcass. And in a nearby tree was the rest of the impala. I didn’t see the leopard. More than likely what had happened is the leopard had killed the impala and the hyaenas stole it away. But then somewhere along the line the leopard had probably snuck in and snatched the remains of the carcass back and quickly treed it. They can be amazingly brave sometimes how they’ll steal back carcasses knowing they can tree them to safety.

After fixing a puncture I was again back with the elephants in the afternoon still feeding in the mopanie. And only after the sun had set did they venture out into the open on Banyini using the ‘safety’ of darkness to drink at the pan.

Seeing them in the open like this is so stunning but they just won’t do it in full daylight hours. Maybe I should lay a trail of sugar cubes out there!!!