ELEPHANTS DRINKING

It is time to revisit elephants, I think, and where better to search for pictures than to go through my folders of the Addo Elephant National Park. Elephants are such photogenic creatures that I have endless images of them. In this post I will feature elephants drinking at various waterholes within the park. The first is of a lone elephant at the Peasland waterhole in 2015 – before it was decided to surround it with a rectangular exclusion barrier with electrified strands hanging down so that smaller species of animals would be able to drink without having to compete with elephants. This elephant swished the water around like this for a while before it actually began drinking.

These three elephants are also at Peasland in those early days. You can see that between them they have literally drunk the artificial waterhole dry! There’s not much room for any other animals to have got a show in either.

A small section of a larger herd of elephants are quenching their thirst at the Ngulube waterhole. This mixed family group could easily spend an hour or two there – making it difficult for other animals to reach the water. Note the very small elephant on the left which is drinking from its mother.

At Ghwarrie we see a young elephant in the act of placing a trunk filled with water into its mouth to drink.

Another young elephant, this time at the Hapoor waterhole, has already had its fill of water and is squirting itself all over with the now muddy water – possibly to cool itself. Elephants often drink the clean water first before stirring it up for other activities, such as this.

Lastly, on this short trip, we will stop at Carol’s Rest – now also fitted with a exclusion barrier – where this lone elephant is at least sharing the waterhole with a rather daring warthog!

THICK DARK MUD

Regular readers do not get excited for it hasn’t rained enough here to soak the ground, let alone form rivulets and mud. Yet, the thickest, darkest, stickiest mud I have seen for a long time was evident at the Ghwarrie waterhole in the Addo Elephant National Park – where it hasn’t rained much either. Look at this family of elephants churning up the mud on the edge of the waterhole as they move forward to get to the clear water to drink.

One of them clearly desired a mud bath and spent some time squirting this thick, sloshy black mud over itself.

The results of this mud flinging can clearly be seen as they turn to move away from the water.

Some of the elephants looked as though they were wearing dark boots as they made their way along the edge of the waterhole to seek food further afield. Then I looked down at a strange dark object nearby.

On closer inspection I realised it was a terrapin!

This one had obviously decided not to burrow into the mud.

TRAFFIC JAM

One always has to drive with care in areas where animals are free roaming. We have been doing that in our town for years as the Urban Herd of cattle – and now donkeys – has expanded. In a game reserve, careful driving at slow speeds is a must. You can never tell what might be crossing the road around a corner – or for how long you might have to wait.

Each time visitors thought there might be a break – these were not the first elephants to cross – more would appear from the bushes on the right of the picture.

Motorists had to wait patiently.

And just when they thought the coast was clear …

… another elephant appeared!

These elephants were heading across the road to drink and bathe in the Ghwarrie waterhole to the left of the pictures, whilst most of the visitors were waiting to observe an even large herd of elephants at Rooidam, from where we had just come.

SPOTTED THICK-KNEE 2

It is almost a year since I came across a lone Spotted Thick-knee (Burhinus capensis) in the road close to our house. Despite listening out for its distinctive rising and falling call, especially at night, and looking out for it at dusk, I have had no sign of its presence again.  The Addo Elephant National Park has proved to be a good place for seeing these birds, where it is best to look out for them in the late afternoon, or in the early morning. This one was photographed at Ghwarrie Dam shortly after sunrise last year.

Of course you may see one during the middle of the day, such as this one at the Spekboom Hide the year before.

They can stand so still that they aren’t always easy to see as their cryptic colouring helps them to blend into the background very well. I have read that their nests are simply a shallow scrape in the ground and so I have always imagined this would be well out of the way of foot traffic – never mind vehicular traffic. Imagine my surprise then at finding a Dikkop (I love its old name!) sitting right next to the edge of the gravel road called Harvey’s Loop.

It couldn’t have been closer to the edge of the road if it tried. I reversed to get a better look and was astounded to realise that it was sitting on eggs. As both parents sit on the nest alternately and the sexes look alike, I cannot tell whether this is Mr or Mrs!

You can clearly see the scrape in the ground containing two cryptically coloured eggs – with only the parent for protection. The incubation period for the eggs is about 24 days, with both males and females involved in the rearing of the chicks.

I felt I had disturbed it enough and drove away slowly, still marvelling at this wonderful sighting.

NOTE: Click on the photographs if you wish to get a larger image.

ELEPHANTS APLENTY

Despite its name, one cannot be guaranteed to see a lot of elephants – or even any elephants – whilst driving around the Addo Elephant National Park. Sometimes one feels fortunate to see a lone elephant, such as this one, wading through the shallow water in the Ghwarrie Dam or drinking quietly with only water birds for company at first.

Note the thick, dark mud sticking to its tusk. It was later joined by a lone Cape buffalo that wasted no time in wallowing in the mud.

The situation at Rooidam was different, for here a small herd had gathered, waiting patiently while a young one found a deeper hole in which to wallow. It sometimes submerged itself so completely that only the tip of its trunk showed above the water. You can see, from the elephant on the right, how shallow the water is for some distance from the edge.

You will notice that most of the other elephants have already covered themselves with mud or sand, which helps to protect their skin from the harsh rays of the sun (as we would use sunscreen) as well as from parasites.

At Domkrag another elephant cut a lone figure as it drank thirstily from the dam. You can tell from the shadow beneath that the sun was high. A strong hot breeze was blowing too which added to the discomfort of the thirty plus degrees heat.

No single photograph can capture the hundreds of elephants gathered at the popular Hapoor waterhole. Far too many vehicles were parked cheek-by-jowl along the edge of the main watering place for another to get in, so these two photographs show a small section of the hundreds of elephants gathered on the other side of that waterhole where, presumably, there must also be access to watering points.

Note: you can double-click on these images for a larger view.