For a while we’ll alternate between wildlife photos and India photos. Today we have an unlikely pairing: an elephant and an arachnid.

Reader Richard sent an informative email about the elephants of Tsavo Park (Kenya) with some words on poaching. Note that there are two species of African elephant: the one below and the smaller forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis. Richard’s captions are indented.

Last year, WEIT touched a couple of times on the poaching of elephants in Africa, especially that of Satao (WEIT 15/06/14 and 16/06/14). I thought that your readers might perhaps be interested in some photographs that show a more cheerful outlook. There are currently about 11,000 bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Tsavo East. On my first visit 28 years ago, I saw only one large herd. Heavy poaching was driving the numbers down, and over the next three visits I saw respectively none, one tiny group, and a solitary old male. Ten years ago, however, I saw well over a hundred in a few hours, and these are a few of the photographs. The really encouraging thing is the unusually high proportion of juveniles. It looked as though the recovery from the worst of the poaching years was largely endogenous. I plan to visit Kenya again soon, perhaps in a couple of months, perhaps next year, in which case I shall definitely try to re-visit Tsavo East to see if the picture is the same.

The second photograph is a bit of a joke against me. The time taken by an early digital camera to autofocus allowed the elephants to hide their heads. Lions perform the same trick. However, it clearly shows that Tsavo elephants are, indeed, pink. The soil is laterite, containing a high proportion of ferric compounds. When elephants find a muddy patch, they wallow in it, and walk away covered in mud, which stains their hides this characteristic colour. This leaves a slight depression, which collects more water, which attracts more elephants to wallow, and this positive feedback loop eventually forms a waterhole. I was told by a guide that most of the waterholes, which benefit many other species, are made by elephants.

The fifth to eighth photographs were taken from Voi Safari Lodge, which is built part way up a rocky hill overlooking the waterhole. Although a bit scruffy, it is my favourite safari lodge. The seventh photograph gives some idea of the emptiness of the place. The horizon on the top left is southern end of the Yatta Plateau, about 40 km away; there is no human habitation in view. The plateau is said to be the longest extant larva flow in the world, at 290 km.

The ninth photograph is a bit poignant. When I saw Satao [the big tusker who was poached for his tusks; see the two WEIT posts cited above], he had three companions, one behind him on the track ahead of us, and the two in the photograph joining the track from the side. When we came too close behind Satao, the left-hand elephant in the photograph threatened us, with outstretched ears and waving trunk. As soon as we backed off, he calmed down, and got onto the track behind Satao and ahead of us. He was the main reason that I could not take a better photograph of Satao. The only other time that I have seen a threatening elephant was when we inadvertently cut him off from the rest of his herd. Again, he relaxed as soon as we got out of the way. If you do not annoy them, these gentle animals are very tolerant of human presence, even if you are close to them.

The last photograph is not an aberration. The hyraxes are the closest living land relatives to elephants. This one is a yellow-spotted rock hyrax or bush hyrax, Heterohyrax brucei, and is about the size of a domestic cat. They are very tame, and in fact are a bit of a nuisance around the lodge, frequently invading the dining room. They seem to regard the tiles and stone of the lodge as a natural extension of the rocky hill that is their normal habitat. They will readily take food from your hand, but this is not a good idea. Like elephants, they have a pair of enlarged incisors, which in their case function as pretty effective canines and can inflict an inadvertent but nasty bite. I saw a very unhappy small boy, who had just fed one, with blood pouring from his hand.

Switching gears, we have a scary-looking spider from reader Chris Taylor in Oz. I have no idea why nearly ever snake and spider in Australia is poisonous; have biologists come up with an explanation?

This is a male of the red-headed mouse spider species Missulena occatoria, which was running around on the drive of the my property near to Gulgong in New South Wales.  The male has the red head and fangs like this, while the female is all reddish-brown to black.  The male is most often seen, as the female lives in trapdoor burrows up to 50cm deep.  We often see the burrows, but not the spiders.  The male however goes wandering around trying to find a mate, so is more visible. And yes, they are capable of giving a serious bite to humans, though very rarely do.