Them Big Old Bulls

38 Replies

What better way to wrap up the report back on our winter visit to the Kruger National Park‘s Satara and Mopani Rest Camps, than to appreciate those majestic elephant bulls that roam the Lowveld!

Nothing like an evening dustbath…
… and a bit of a scratch!
Drinking from an “elephant well”
The old guys don’t mind a bit of shade
Impressive Tusker
Just look at that bulk!
Obviously a very gentle individual
Armada approaching over the waving landscape
Ndlovane (2016/07/02)
Ndlovane (2016/07/02)
Ndlovane (2016/07/02)
Ndlovane (2016/07/02)
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession
Regal procession

38 thoughts on “Them Big Old Bulls”

  1. T.K.C

    Oifante is een dier wat ek nie regtig kan afneem behalwe as hulle so paar honderd+ meter van my af is nie. Hahaha. Ek’t ‘n groot respek vir hulle.!

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  4. maristravels

    What wonderful images. I’m passionate about elephants and managed a few years ago to get a prize awarded to an Elephant Help Clinic in Thailand where the plight of these lovely beasts who used to be called “the tractors of Siam” is a sad one due to deforestation and no longer being required to drag the teak from plantation to river. The mahouts, now being out of work, are trekking with them on harsh tarmacked roads to southern coastal resorts and there they are used in the tourist trade, giving rides and working all day in many cases. Baby elephants are often chained up outside bars as ‘a novelty’ and to be photographed with tourists.

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    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      It seems such a travesty to reduce such a magnificent creature to a life of servitude. I think it would break my heart to see elephants in that state, when we are so used to seeing them striding proudly over the African landscape, like these were!

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    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      Thanks so much for weighing in, Budpumba. We’ve submitted our pictures of both the big tuskers we’ve seen on this trip to the researchers in Kruger, who confirmed that they are known, but as yet unnamed, bulls!

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      2. de Wets Wild Post author

        Thanks Budpumba. Seems that’s a name the owner of that site gave to this particular elephant himself. I’m excited to wait for the official name given by the Park authorities, as they honor past and present rangers by naming tuskers like these after them.

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    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      Ek dink nogal dit moet n swaar las raak, veral wanneer die ou grote oud en swak begin raak. In die olifantsaal op Letaba kan n mens nogal sien hoe byvoorbeeld die tande van ou Mafunyane stomp afgeloop is op die punte.

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