Usually when the elephant herds come to drink or wallow they take it in turns, but not yesterday in the red soils around Tsuvuka pan. All the herds climbed in at once. As the kids went wild, the mom’s soon joined in in all the fun.
It’s always so refreshing to see animals having such fun with the simplest of commodities. We’ve moved on so far and almost lost the simple things in life, which so often are the best.
This post is coming to you extra early this morning as I head to Harare to see how cholera is affecting the people of Zimbabwe.
Sadly seeing the elephants loving the wet muddy conditions that are upon us right now is not the case in our cities where so many people are suffering with disease because of the very same conditions.
Too funny to watch the big ones wriggle in the mud. Is it hard for them to get back up once they are lying flat on that slippery surface??
Hi Kim Wolhuter,
Thought you might enjoy this from Le Vaillant’s Travels…
“They told me that their meat was worthless, and gave ulcers to anyone who ate it. In a word, these were red elephants. Red elephants! Just the word red made me want to see them and held the promise of new knowledge, for I had never read nor heard it said that there might be red elephants.”
LV, to his credit, realised that it was the colour of the mud they were bathing in that caused it…. but not that many red, as opposed to pink, elephants around.
Ian Glenn
Kari — You can see how difficult it can be for them to get up, as that one ele tries again and again to get on her feet.
This is one of those videos you need to watch several times to catch everything that’s going on!
Even animals enjoy a mudbath. They know what is comfortable in that stifling heat.
Kim,
I assume you have friends and colleagues in Harare. What do you hope to do there-will the government let you film anything?
I hope by the time you get there things are turning around for the better. I have great memories of Harare in the early 80’s.
Yes I could clearly see her stuggle- perhaps a better question would have been… does it ever happen that an elephant may die after a struggle trying to get up once it has been lying down in the mud?