At first light lion tracks made their way towards HQ and in the hills I found these 2 youngsters lost. They kept calling softly but with no response. I had to leave them as they moved deeper into the hills.
Banyini at dawn was quiet, just this herd of zebra coming in to drink.
Lions out the way, it was now time to follow up on elephants. I had tracks in the hills and soon encountered this young bull. He was nervous on his own and took a bold stance against me but quickly moved off into the bush.
I followed tracks of a breeding herd of elephant into the hills and up towards Chikwelane spring. Taking only my stills camera I was not feeling too hopeful to find elephant at the spring. I had to walk the last section through the gorge to get there.
Finding a small herd drinking I rushed back to the car and grabbed the video camera and then clambered through the hills and over the rocks to film them drinking from the crack in the rocks.
They soon left and moved east through the gorge. I followed some distance behind, the herd still unaware of my presence.
Realising they were moving to a wallow further east, I rushed, getting there just as they got there. They were going frantic in the wallow and I found myself the ‘safety’ of a huge fallen over tree from which I was filming. It was only when up close that I noticed this was One-Tusk and her family.
Just then the oldest daughter with her tiny calf, saw me and started throwing mud at me. Some of it unfortunately landing on my lens. She moved away into the tree line with her calf.
Then One-Tusk noticed me and seemed concerned. So I spoke to her and it was amazing how she almost instantly carried on with her wallow on hearing my voice.
They wallowed for about 5 minutes and on leaving the wallow One-Tusk unexpectedly charged the tree I was leaning the camera on. I backed off only too glad the fallen over tree was between us. One-Tusk stood there watching and contemplating, then came round to the tree to my side. Like cat and mouse we moved around the tree. Thankfully her 2 calves were small enough for me not to have to worry about them during our little ordeal.
Each time I moved One-Tusk would charge and I made sure to keep the tree between us.
Then looking for another way out, I moved away and was about to move through a dried up wallow when she came again this time towering over me.
Hastily I made it back to the safety of my tree. She followed trumpeting away at me, then backed off and slowly moved away.
Happy our little encounter was over I got back to the vehicle and followed the elephants. I wanted to approach One-Tusk in the vehicle, which she is obviously used to, and talk to her from there.
She was happy with the vehicle approaching but when I spoke I could almost see the look of frustration on her face. ‘Now the little bugger is in his car and I can’t get too him!’
Not that that stopped her. She came right up to my side of the vehicle and pushed on it behind my door. As she pushed harder denting the vehicle I gave her a slap on the forehead. She moved back.
The herd spent the rest of the day in the hills allowing me limited access.
Back on Banyini a lone elephant bull came to drink and then this little family of warthog came to drink, wallow and graze.
I’d hoped for another stunning African sunset but the fiery ball disappeared over the horizon into never never land without any display.
Mercy! Thought she was going to go over the other, smaller log, to get you. Yipes! It was interesting that she seemed to calm down when you first spoke to her, trunk questing to verify your scent, but the ears never went back. Last charge was not for the faint of heart! Since there was alot of cover, how could you be sure she had really left? You know her well, sir, to give her a slap on the forehead! Have there ever been any attacks on people in the truck by any wild animal? Amazing they don’t know what little it would take to really do terrible damage in an open vehicle.
b.
Wow! I don’t know whether you are very brave or very foolish. Why doesn’t the elle wrap her trunk around you and pull you out of your vehicle? I love your beautiful videos and stories. Please be careful.
scudbud
Kim, this took my breath away and prompts me to ask something I have
wondered about for a while. Do you have any kind of defense from any of the
wild animals, aside from your ingenuity? I know you take the liberty of
napping in the presence of Manyari, and sometimes have your beautiful girls
out there with you. What if you were attacked? I love your videos, but I have
concern for your safety.
Mary in Oregon
Hi Kim,
watch out bud, we want to see your next docs!!!
Stay safe.
Cheers,
D.
Whoa! What great filming. One Tusk obviously does NOT like you out of the car. We need our daily “fix” of wildcaster, so do be careful
Cynthia
What an exciting experience, it’s amazing that a fallen tree can safely keep you from One Tusk. She is magnificent, and her trumpeting, music to my ears. This kind of experience keeps me coming back for more. But do be careful, and stop slapping those elephants!!!!!!!
My guess is she had to teach her calves what to do in similar situations. I’m sure the two got the message. I did too! My heart is still pounding just from putting myself in your shoes.
Oh WOW Kim - what a blast that was!! You’re not only a very brave man amongst the hyenas but the elephants as well!! Why do you think she was so ‘upset’ with you? She’s quite the girl! Loved hearing her ‘trumpeting’ - ya know, I didn’t even hear a ‘quiver’ in YOUR voice - cool as a cucumber!! Do you ever get scared or uneasy…? Great, great stuff - love it…thanks again for all you do!
PS - did you have a change of shorts in the truck? Or at least a good stiff drink afterwards?!! I know I would’ve needed one!!
Kim, Do you think that she might have mistaken the way the camera for a rifle as both are held in Simular ways, up to the eye and is pointed at them? Is there poaching in the park where she may have seen something like a shooting, death? Good footage but a risky wayto get it, I am surprised that she didn’t try to move the tree. it was far more interesting than watching them bathe.
Bonny: She was far enough away for me to disappear into cover without her seeing me.
Animals don’t tend to see people in vehicles as people. So you’re pretty safe.
Scudbud: She doesn’t really see me as the person in the vehicle. She sees us as a whole, so lets push the car. but she’s pushed the car many times, really just playing. This day I don’t think she was really aggressive, just a teeny weeny bit hacked off.
Mary: I don’t carry a weapon. People carrying weapons tend to use them a lot earlier than they need to, when most times an animal charging will veer off. And also because I’m putting myself into the animals space, it doesn’t give me the right to shoot it ‘cos i was intruding on its space.
in the vehicle we’re fine. I’ve had lions sniff my face while lying on the camera box next to the door, and hyaenas pulling on my sleeping bag, but just testing really. not aggressive stuff.
Cheeky: Often after these experiences I wonder to myself why I wasn’t scared. Am I just stupid? I think I just understand the whole situation and have it under control. It’s when things go wrong that I sh….. myself.
Chris: No, I don’t this at all. Poaching here is extremely low if not non-existent and no poaching on elephant.
The tree was too big for her to push.
Now I can say I “know” someone who slapped a wild elephant. What a great video!
Wow Kim,
What an amazing video….while seeing the video, my adrenalin rush came up to it’s peak( a 70-week high, that was the last time i was in Kruger)….i almost smelled the air out there while seeing your video…
I must say you are brave…..i show-off your videos periodically and proudly to my group of around 10 friends….this was one of the best stuff…
This was great and would love to see more reality stuff like this. But, please play it safe……
Raj.
Hi Kim. Scary stuff. Watch yourself - looking at an event through a lens can lead to a sense of detachment and false sense of security! ( notwithstanding that you know your animals really well)
Hi Roy. That lens doesn’t help being such a wide angle, so she looks so much further away. Not really what I needed right then.
I wonder what Steve Irwin would say about this.
This isn’t the first time she’s reacted negatively to you, Kim.
Why would you follow her after she obviously didn’t want you around?
Hi Kim,
You are lucky she did not decide to jump over that tree!
What an adrenaline rush that must have been!
Perhaps she did not like your aroma that day ; - 0..or was simply protecting her calves.
Regards,
ivanova
Anita: She’s never really been negative towards me. Although this video didn’t look like she was being friendly, she still wasn’t being seriously aggressive. If she was she’d have come with ears back, rammed the tree, run around the tree frantically and all of this would have been done silently.
Then all the other times she’s interacted with me in the vehicle, has really just been a game for her. She will almost religiously come to the car just to push it. There’s never been any aggression associated with that stuff.
so why did I follow her this day? Elephant are highly intelligent and if she realized she just had to charge me a couple of times and i wouldn’t follow her anymore, she’d do it every day. I’ve seen it with vehicles in other reserves where elephants will trumpet and mock charge a vehicle and they speed away with the elephant chasing after them. It’s just a game. Cos when I come round the corner, they do the same thing, BUT I don’t budge and they then just saunter out the way. They love playing games.
For some reason only 50% of the post is being shown, is it my internet browser or the site?
I used to be questioning what’s up with that bizarre gravatar??? I do know 5am is early and I’m not looking my finest at that hour, however I hope I do not appear to be this! I might however make that face if I’m requested to do one hundred pushups. lol Anyway, in my language, there usually are not much good source like this.
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