I’m getting a bit antsy that the photo tank is running low, so, readers, BRING OUT YOUR PICTURES and send me the good ones. We still have a backlog, though. Reader Bob Lundgren sent some lovely photographs of elephants. The notes are his:
Thought I would send along some photos of African elephants (Loxodanta africana) we encountered on our trip to Tanzania in January. These are a combination of my photos and my wife’s. They’ve gotten mixed together in our photo library so it’s difficult to tell which are whose anymore. Generally, though, assume the best photos are hers.The first six photos were taken in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. This is a 2850 sq. km. (1096 sq. mi.) park located in east central Tanzania, south of the Serengeti. Because of its location in relation to the “wildebeest/zebra great migration” Tarangire has fewer safari visitors than the Serengeti. But if you want to see elephants – lots of elephants – Tarangire is the place to go. It’s estimated that there are about 2500 elephants within the park boundaries.The first photo shows a small herd in their preferred wooded savanna/forest habitat. If the camera were to pan left and right in a 180 degree arc there would be seen several other similar sized groups scattered throughout the woodland. The trees are Yellow-Barked Acacia (I think). The red coloration of the elephants comes from the dust and mud that they use to protect their skin from the sun.
The second photo is a close-up of a single individual. Note the large ears – very different from those of the Asian elephant. The African elephant’s ears have many blood vessels near the surface on the back side. This helps with cooling, particularly when the elephants flap their ears.
The third photo is a detail of the trunk showing the two “fingers” at the tip. This is also very different from Asian elephants. Asian elephants have only one “finger”. The two opposable “fingers” of the African Elephant give it the ability to grasp small tufts of grass and other small items. It’s marvelous to watch the delicacy of this at the end of the massive trunk. Indeed, the flexibility and utility of the entire trunk is fascinating to observe.
The fourth photo is a detail of a baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) showing the damage elephants can do by rubbing against the bark. This particular tree was a favorite. Elephants will also damage baobabs during the dry season since the baobab bark can hold lots of water. While elephants certainly damage trees, the damage is sporadic. We saw very few baobabs with this type of damage and very little elephant-caused habitat damage overall. Baobab trees are the other thing, besides elephants, that Tarangire is noted for. There are many magnificent old-agers throughout the park.
The fifth photo is of an individual elephant on the grounds of the permanent tented lodge where we stayed. The lodge is long established and located on a ridge overlooking the Tarangire River. A large herd of elephants makes the area home and small groups regularly amble through the grounds from the river valley below to the savanna pasture beyond the lodge. When this happens the personnel at the lodge are diligent in keeping people and elephants at a safe distance from each other. The elephants have posed little danger and have caused little damage over the years. Any damage is usually the result of curious or rambunctious youngsters. The lodge has a photo of a youngster playing “Whack-a Mole” with the low bollard path lighting. Recently the lodge also posted some photos on their Facebook page of elephants becoming interested in the goings on at the swimming pool – curious heads and trunks poking over the surrounding wall.
The sixth photo is of a relatively fresh elephant carcass with White Backed Vultures (Gyps africanus) fulfilling their role. Our guide, Mussa, was quite suspicious of this. Because the carcass was close to a road, he was concerned that it might have been poached for the tusks. Indeed the tusks were gone, but he talked to some park rangers we encountered later and was assured that this was a natural death. The rangers harvest and destroy the tusks of dead elephants when they find them to discourage poachers. Poaching is a bit of a problem for the park, however, because of the density of elephants. We came across two other elephant carcasses later (apparently natural deaths). These had been completely scavenged. Only the skin remained, looking like a deflated tire.
The seventh and eighth photos are of a small herd at a mostly dry river bed in Lake Manyara National Park. Again, if the camera in the first photo were to pan to the right 180 degrees another twenty or thirty elephants would be seen. These were the only elephants we saw in this park. The eighth photo shows a youngster in mid dust bath behavior.
The ninth photo is a close up of one of two bulls that approached us near the Ikoma Gate in the central Serengeti. This particular individual ambled quite close to the vehicle and gave us a look for awhile. There was nothing threatening about it. No doubt he was wondering what we were, as elephants have poor eyesight. After we communed for a few minutes he moved off to join his buddy.
The tenth photo is probably the oldest bull we saw. This fellow was in Ngorogoro Crater and had magnificent tusks. The elephants in Ngorogoro Crater are relatively safe from poachers since there are only two well secured roads into the crater. The few elephants here can live to a ripe old age.
Nice shots. The elephants here seem pretty comfortable with visitors. When I visited S.A. the elephants we saw seemed decidedly aggressive. As we inched down a road where elephants were grazing, a bull ambushed us. The driver quickly backed up and kept backing until we were no longer seen as a threat.
They are magnificent animals.
Yes. It might of had to do with the time of year we were there – plenty of forrage and few new borns. A friend of mine was at this same park at another time and recounts an encounter with a bull similar to yours. Overall, though, I was surprised by how comfortable all of the critters were with vehicles. They mostly just ignored us, except for the male lions that went down the line of vehicles on the road “marking” every tire.
Truly magnificent. A shame there are people whose response to such magnificence is, “oooh, I’ve got to kill one for a trophy or to make a profit!” One of those guys with a portrait on Mount Rushmore, Teddy Roosevelt, was like that. Lincoln, from all I’ve read about him, found killing for sport appalling and cruel.
A scary aspect is that for some of the poachers, the income from a single elephant tusk is more than a years salary. With that kind of economic pressure the park rangers have their hands full.
One of the things I’ve been meaning to post about on my website is elephant poaching – Al-Shabaab is making tens of thousands of dollars a DAY from poaching. It’s how they’re funding their terrorist activities. So this is a major security concern as well.
The NAT GEO effort mentioned earlier has fully exposed the tusk trade feeding the wars raging in Darfur in South Sudan and terrorist activities elsewhere. The tusks are harvested in central Africa and transported to S. Sudan where the government pays for the tusks with guns and ammo for the terrorists arsenal.
I really like that idea of dyeing the tusks red, although it might not be all that easy to catch the critters to do that.
Yeah, I like that too. And the tattooing of turtle/tortoise shells as well.
Lovely elephant photos! I thought the tree picture was going to be a “find the elephant in this photo” challenge.
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Probably the greatest animals still on the planet. Let’s all do what we can to save them.
Very good, and near perfect timing since August 15th was World Elephant Day, in observance of the need to enforce conservation of these amazingly intelligent beings.
National Geographic is coming out with an issue that traces the complexity of elephant poaching. This is a segment from NPR where they interview the principle author who used a very clever technique of following an ivory smuggling route by using a fake tusk equipped with a transmitter.
I received that Nat. Geo. issue last week. Looking forward to reading the article.
That China is a driver reminds me of the (internal) uproar when one young citizen had scrawled graffiti on many thousand year old remains in Egypt. They are getting there after widespread poverty, but it takes time.
“China destroyed nearly 1,500 pounds of ivory in May and announced that it would phase out its enormous domestic ivory market, which could be a huge win for elephant conservation.”
[ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140123-hong-kong-china-ivory-burn-elephants-animals-science/ ; https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/crush-and-burn-destroying-illegal-ivory ]
It is truly disgusting that some of the new Chinese tourists coming to the U.S. are causing damage to our natural heritage. When I visited Yellowstone last summer a Chinese man in a bus tour jumped off the boardwalk at a hot spring and carved some Chinese letters into the soft mineral deposits we were looking at. The park ranger nearby quickly accosted him and took him forcibly back to the parking lot where other rangers interrogated him in handcuffs. It looked to me like they finally let him get back on his bus after a stern lecture.
Outstanding photos. Elephants are the most amazing & dignified creatures on earth. I’ve always had a great love & admiration for them. (or as my daughter called elephants when she was little – owsanuts!)
I will never tire of elephant pics. Thanks for the great photos and commentary!
These are wonderful photos Bob – thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
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Thanks for all the positive comments, folks. Happy to share.
Thank you. We depend on you and others for experience beyond our own.
Great photos and commentary, Bob!
Did your guide explain the absence of big predators on that carcass?
Thanks Diane.
No he didn’t explain that and we didn’t think to ask. If I were to guess I would say that the carcase was left to the vultures because there weren’t a lot of big predators in Tarangiri during the time of year we were there. Of the more than 100 lions we saw during the trip we didn’t see a single one of those in the park during our two days there. We didn’t see any other cats in the park either except for a single leopard with cubs in the distance on our first day. Actually, our guide was quite excited about that, telling us that leopards were typically not in the park this time of year since pickings were better further north where the wildebeest migration was happening. We didn’t see any hyenas here either. So, likely there just weren’t any predators or four legged scavengers around this area to utilize the carcass. Plus, elephants are not usually the first prey choice for smaller predators – too big and dangerous.
But those are all educated guesses. Now I’m off to google.
Thank you, very interesting. Would have been interesting, then, to watch the carcass consumed over what I have to assume would be a much longer time period. Although after a short while I doubt anyone could stand to get near it. 😀
It was pretty ripe!
😀
Hi Jerry, This is an HDR image of Zenda from the Brookfield Zoo; 3 shots with a Lumix FZ-35. It’s not quite “wildlife” but as an amateur landscape photographer you take wildlife where you find it. Ron Adamczyk, Buffalo Grove, Il.
Ron, either Google Jerry or click on the “Research Interests” link above to get his email address, and send your contributions to him that way. 🙂
What a privilege to see these amazing animals in the wild – fantastic.
Thanks for sharing.
Bob, great photos, thanks.
Could you tell us about how traveling was in Tanzania? Any trouble? Any unrest?
We are planning a trip to Africa in the next few years and I’m thinking about destinations. Top of my list right now is Zambia.
Thanks jblilie,
Traveling in Tanzania was delightful. There is currently little if any unrest there. We were told that there is an election coming up in October, which could cause some problems since most of the populace seems to despise the current government because it is corrupt (No surprise there I suppose.) But I don’t think there will be much of an impact in the safari areas since they are pretty isolated from the big cities where problems might be expected.
We found the people very friendly and the street merchants the most relentless of any we encountered anywhere. If you hold out long enough they will almost pay you to take stuff off their hands.
Our trip was organized by a small safari company called Access2Tanzania. It’s owners are based in Saint Paul, Minnesota; but it’s Tanzanian operation is staffed completely by Tanzanians. Their guides are employed full time on salary and are very reliable and knowledgeable. Some comanies employ guides on contract, which can be an issue in that you won’t know if you will be getting someone who,is reliable. No doubt, there are other reputable safari companies also.
Tanzania has been overlooked in the past as a safari destination, overshadowed by its neighbor, Kenya. I hear that Kenya’s popularity is leading to its decline as a prefered safari destination because of crowds and prices. Tanzania’s northern parks are large,numerous and varied in habitat. You are right there amongst the animals – no fences anywhere even around the camps and lodges. Plus, it’s my impression that the “great migration” you hear about (and must see) mostly occurs in Tanzania giving you much more opportunity to plan a trip throughout the year.
The ebola crisis in West Africa freaked out a lot of people unreasonably earlier this year which caused a precipitous drop in tourism in East Africa. Many safari companies and lodges/camps were hurting for business. My wife and I were the only people at one semi-permanent camp in the Serengetti. From what we can tell business still hasn’t recovered. Some friends are planning a trip to Tanzania this October and the prices they are being quoted are very reasonable, plus they seem to have their choice of lodging options, which two years ago would have been unheard of on this short notice.
Sorry, I’ve gone on at a bit of lenght here. I love talking about Tanzania. You might want to check out the Tanzania forum on Trip Advisor. You have to read between the lines a little bit, but its great source for practical advice.
I always thought that an African safari would be somewhat difficult. After having experienced it I am amazed at how easy and carefree the trip was. I’ve taken trips to Europe that were more arduous. It is really one of those “must do” trips. My wife and I were sitting in the Kilimanjaro airport waiting for our flight home. At one point we looked at each other, smiled, high fived and said “Best trip ever!” It truely was.
Thanks very much for your detailed reply! Not too long by any means. Cheers!
I’ve been to Kenya (5 weeks many moons ago); but I was a young, fit man then. Now I’m old(er), slower, less fit (by a lot) and I have a young son and my wife, so I’m much less adventurous. 🙂
Tanzania sounds wonderful. My experience of the Kenyans was similar to yours with the Tanzanians. We were coming from India (where we were not treated very well — surprisingly) and Kenya was a breath for fresh air.
Thanks for the tip on the Safari company (I live just north of St. Paul). Word of mouth is great.
I had ruled Kenya out based on the political unrest there of recent years, though I loved my visit. I was thinking Zambia, based on friends’ reports from Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. Also, it has Victoria Falls, which I would love to see.