We saw many elephants every day, in many situations, during our 7 day safari.
I watched a nursing baby standing deep under her mother with its trunk tucked up, then following her obediently.
At first I thought this trio might be a baby with parents, especially because the large one seemed to have male genitalia, but in the final picture here we can see that it is a nursing mother, possibly with a prolapsed vagina. (Besides, the males don’t usually travel with the females and their young.) If you’re interested in the medical side, see this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJTGGrX_As0&ab_channel=ElephantZone Of course, I could be entirely mistaken.
Finally, a sand bath – as if there wasn’t enough dust flying around our jeep.
Another of the “Big 5” animals that people go on safari to see is the hippopotamus. According to google, hippos weigh between 3,000 lbs (females) to as much as 9,000 lbs (males.) Killing on average 500 people yearly (mostly by capsizing boats,) compared to 22 human deaths for lions, they are one of the deadliest animals in Africa. That said, they were generally not the most interesting to observe and the smell was pungent! We saw them several times on day 4. Those in this watering hole were the most active of any we saw on the trip. They were “frolicking,” diving and spouting, which you can see in some of the pictures below. Nearby was a single hippo in the meadow.
Later that morning we watched a herd amble, one at a time, up the embankment and settle down in the sun for a dry siesta. You can get a better sense of the massive size of this animals. And check out the many Oxpeckers. They love the hippos!
Same day, the next sighting, a wet siesta. We think the last picture was of three young ones, small in comparison. Otherwise it’s quite self-explanatory. What looks like land of some sort in front of the grass, is hardened hippo poop! Hence the smell. The poop, which they just swim through and have on their heads and backs, must harbor plenty of insects – hence the Oxpeckers!
Our final hippo visit that day was the most fun. Lots of yawning and bellowing!
