johnny's blog

African Savanna Elephant Apollo on his Way at Kruger National Park, South Africa by D200-PAUL -- Taking Week Off Via Flickr: Best viewed Large on Black The image was actually captured at the Ngala Safari Lodge, a track of land, formerly a ranch, and gifted to the World Wildlife Fund by the previous owner. The safari lodge, adjacent to Kruger National Park (and totally open to the park) is a concession run by &Beyond for the benefit of the land, the wildlife, and the surrounding community. It was late in the afternoon (the golden hour) and we were traveling down a dried up river bed in search of an elephant herd which had been seen in this area earlier by the people in another safari vehicle. Within the herd of several dozen elephants was Apollo, not his official name, but the one given to him by the locals. Ross, our guide, said that Apollo had the longest tusks that anyone around there had seen in quite some time and that he was estimated to be about 45 years old. Although he clearly had the biggest tusks, he wasn't the biggest elephant in the herd. He wasn't even the biggest elephant in this image. Not only was the female up on the river bank visibly bigger, so were most of the older females in the herd. African Savanna Elephant Apollo on his Way at Kruger National Park, South Africa

African Savanna Elephant Family Group at Chobe National Park, Botswana by D200-PAUL Via Flickr: Best viewed Large on Black At the Chobe National Park, the Chobe River forms the border between Botswana and Namibia. The river at this point is not composed of a single channel, but of a series of channels. The islands that separate these channels have been formed by river silt and give rise to a seemingly endless supply of juicy grass. A well balanced diet for elephants contains tree bark and twigs from the mainland as well as grass from these islands. As a result elephants, as well as other grazers spent the night eating in the mainland and swim across to the islands in the morning. There they spend the day grazing on the grass before making the return trip to the mainland in the late afternoon or evening. This presents abundant opportunities for photographers to capture rather different elephant images and the river fills with elephants, as well as boats. This image was captured in the late afternoon as this small elephant family group is preparing to swim back across the river to the mainland. African Savanna Elephant Family Group at Chobe National Park, Botswana