Elephants in Zambia

This was the first elephant we saw up close in the daylight in Zambia. We had seen them the night before (most memorably just outside the window of our chalet). This guy was just off the side of the road, so we didn't bother to stop for very long.

Later on the first full day in Zambia, we took a nighttime safari, which started out a little before sunset. This was taken at dusk, and this fellow wasn't the happiest with us- a moment later he was flapping his ears, a warning sign that you best be on your way.

Wildlife Camp- a wonderful place to stay, nonetheless was dangerous after about 4pm. We were wanting to go to dinner about 7pm, but this fellow was cutting off our route. We were luckily in a vehicle, but still we could not get by for a while.

He only has one tusk, and is an angry one. He was head-butting the tree to shake down fruit from it (the tree behind him), and he was also warily watching us.

Notice he's half wet- we saw him earlier wading across the river, and Mary, my sister-in-law, guessed we'd see him later, and she proved right! (Right next to our chalet!)

A little while later, in the same river basin, which was literally feet or meters from the restaurant, we heard some activity. One of the staff shined a flashlight, illuminated the baby in the upper picture, and the flash on my camera went off.

Still, I didn't think I had captured much on the camera until I got home and enhanced the picture in a photo editor. To my surprise, there was a lot of detail captured. The bottom image is the exact same picture, just enhanced. There were four elephants, plus a hippo (black in appearance in the background).

All this was going on, and without flashlights, were invisible to us. They were quiet as well- my ears were not tuned in sufficiently well to detect any but the clumsiest of elephants.

In short, after dark, stay inside. Do not go out- you will likely get killed. Just play safe, and you will be fine, though. There are very few tourist casualties, though there are a few each year.

And finally, what would this gallery be without a picture of an elephant's dung?

They eat a lot of dry vegetation, leaves, and bark, along with fruit. It passes through their system very quickly (so they need to eat a lot of it), and as a result, their dung is not well-formed and their food is still somewhat recognizable.