Forget about the lyric from the 1978 hit by Jona Lewie “You can always find me in the kitchen at parties”…while I was at Antares Bush Camp, THIS is where you could find me. The Umgede photographic hide.
I was there before breakfast and I was still there after dinner. Not like some photographers that have actually slept in the hide for days hoping to get that shot.
Although I did not get to see the predators that I was hoping for, I did get to spend some time with this small herd of elephants.
I was unaware that crickets could swim, but this one proved that they can…and do.
While my lens was focussed on this a small herd of elephants slipped past the hide and took up residence at the water’s edge to slake their thirst and to cool off in the hot mid-morning sun.
Did you know that…Elephants have around 150,000 muscle units in their trunk? Well, now you do.
An elephant trunk can contain up to 8 litres of water. Their trunks can be used as a snorkel if they submerge below the water.
Elephants have big feet to distribute the weight. Each elephant foot has 5 toes, but not every toe has a nail. Their feet are flat because of a large pad of gristle under each heel which acts as a shock absorber and helps them walk quietly.
It is an interesting fact that “Elephants can “hear” with their feet”. Elephants have massive ears, but they can also pick up on noises via their feet, which register low-frequency rumbles caused by other animals up to 20 miles away.
A baby elephant is called a calf. It weighs about 250 pounds at birth and stands about three feet tall. Calves can’t see very well at first, but they can recognize their mothers by touch, scent, and sound.
Baby elephants stay very close to their mothers for the first couple of months. The calves drink their mother’s milk for about two years, sometimes longer. They drink up to 3 gallons of milk a day! At about four months old, they also begin eating some plants, like adult elephants, but they continue to need as much milk from their mother. They keep drinking milk for up to ten years!
At first, baby elephants don’t really know what to do with their trunks. They swing them to and fro and sometimes even step on them. They will suck their trunk just as a human baby might suck its thumb.
Elephant tusks are actually enlarged incisor teeth that first appear when elephants are around 2 years old. Tusks continue growing throughout their lives.
Tusks are used to help with feeding – prising bark off trees or digging up roots – or as a defence when fighting.
But these beautiful tusks often cause elephants danger. They’re made from ivory; a much-desired object.
By about 6 to 8 months, calves begin learning to use their trunks to eat and drink. By the time they are a year old, they can control their trunks pretty well and, like adult elephants, use their trunks for grasping, eating, drinking, bathing.
Amazingly, elephant calves are able to stand within 20 minutes of being born and can walk within 1 hour. After two days, they can keep up with the herd.
The African elephant is the world’s largest land mammal – with males on average measuring up to 3m high and weighing up to 6 tonnes.
Males only reach their full size at 35-40 years – that’s well over half their lifespan as wild elephants can live for up to 60-70 years.
And it’s not just the adults – even calves are huge! At birth, a calf can weigh 120kg
It is astonishing to be so close to such an enormous creature. In this instance, I was less than 5m from this behemoth.
An elephant’s skin is 2.5cm thick in most places. The folds and wrinkles in their skin can retain up to 10 times more water than flat skin does, which helps to cool them down.
They keep their skin clean and protect themselves from sunburn by taking regular dust and mud baths.
Around 90% of African elephants have been wiped out in the past century – largely due to the ivory trade – leaving an estimated 415,000 wild elephants alive today.
An adult elephant will drink about 225 litres of water per day and this can sometimes be consumed during a single visit to a water source. Each trunkful can amount to between 4 and 8 litres.
Like the image of the cricket at the start of this post, I know that this is NOT an elephant!
However, while all the cation was taking place at the waterhole, this Yellow-billed Hornbill was taking off to find some food that might have been dislodged by the elephant herd.
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