57. Days 16-17 & 20 (Aug 31, Sep 1 & 4) – Elephant Videos

I took a lot of videos of elephants because their movements and activities, especially for such large animals, are fascinating (at least to me).  So I’ve gathered them (each of the videos are under two minutes) and present them here with a little commentary.

This is one of two videos of elephants from the rear as they are gathering on the shore of a stream.

And this is the second video of them at the stream.

Watch this elephant as it eats brush from a branch and especially as it manipulates the branch so delicately with its trunk.

In the following video we see elephants eating a lot of dried grass.  Elephants swing the grass before ingesting it to rid it of stones and dirt.  Note also the birds present.

In the following video we see elephants drinking from the river, taken while we are floating down the river.

And in the following video we see what I believe are the same group of elephants drinking at first.  Then one elephant, who is most likely the matriarch for this herd, finishes drinking and starts walking away.  One by one the remaining elephants follow her lead.

The following four videos show elephants in mud.  Post 56 contains information of the use of the mud in the day-to-day life of an elephant.

In the following video we see two adult elephants (most likely female) and a calf.  It’s not clear to me which cow is the mother of the calf but what’s your guess based on behavior?  Also, notice towards the end of the video one elephant tossing dirt on its back, another comfort activity discussed in Post 56.

Next up: Giraffes

56. Days 16-17 & 20 (Aug 31, Sep 1 & 4) – Elephants

While I saw lots of elephants on the game drives, I never grew tired of them.  They are magnificent creatures, very big and ambling when moving.  In fact, it is said that elephants are incapable of actually running.  There are two species – the Asian and the African – and obviously we saw the African which is the bigger of the two.  The male African elephant is the largest land based animal, ranging from 10 to 13 feet in height and 9,000-15,000 pounds in weight.  Yet as large as they are, when seen in the wild, they seem to fit right in.  

Most of the elephants we see are in groups, which mean they are females with their calves, most of the females related to each other.  And there is a leader – a matriarch who is often the oldest cow.  Elephant groups – sometimes called a herd – are often found around bodies of water.  There was a pond near our camp where this herd of elephants was.  The first photo shows just how close they were to camp, since this photo was taken from camp.  In fact, this was the morning when we came back to camp and several of us were told that we couldn’t yet go to our tent since there was an elephant in the way.

Elephants Viewed from Camp

And a bit closer-up shot.

Closeup of Elephants from Camp

Another name for a group of elephants is a parade and this parade seems very well named.

A Parade of Elephants

They are crossing the road in Botswana as we are on our way to Chobe National Park.  (Insert appropriate joke about why did the elephant cross the road here.)

The nice looking creature shows several things about an elephant.

Elephants Showing Important Features

One thing they are known for is the trunk which is a fusion of the nose and upper lip which takes place in utero.  The trunk contains up to 150,000 separate clusters of muscle fibers – or so I’ve been told; I haven’t counted them and recommend that you don’t bother either.    There is little fat and no bone in the trunk and one of its purposes, shown here, is grasping objects – in this case some grass the elephant is eating, although the trunk can lift an object up to 750 pounds.  Other uses of the trunk include breathing, smelling (resulting in a sense of smell four times better than a bloodhound), touching, and, as we shall see but not hear, sound production.

The second thing this photo shows is the elephant’s large ears .  The ears on this elephant are real, not Dumbo-cartoonish.  The ears serve a valuable function in addition to hearing.  The large expanse of skin allows their use to regulate body temperature and flopping the ears increases the cooling effect.  Elephants have excellent hearing especially at low frequencies, much lower than can be heard by ordinary humans, and for long distances.

The third thing this elephant shows is the traditional tusks, which in the African elephant are found in both the male and the female (and normally only the male in the Asian elephant).  The tusks, which are incisor teeth on steroids, serve as weapons and tools for both moving things and digging.  Elephants typically have a dominant tusk, called the master tusk, which usually is shorter with a rounder tip.

The final thing this elephant shows that I’m going to comment on is its skin – much of the skin of the elephant will have dried mud on it – which the elephant will also spray dirt on.  This cools and insulates the elephant, serves as a kind of sunscreen, prevents moisture loss, and protects it from insects.  

The next photo shows our elephant probably going to get its mud bath.  Note also the birds behind the elephant, probably waiting to feast of insects that may pop up after the elephant disturbs the ground or the water.  

Elephant About to Enter Mud Followed by Birds

On one of our game drives we came across, separate from any herd, a mother and calf.

Cow with Calf

We of course stopped and watched them.  The mother seemed unperturbed by our presence but the baby eventually told us to get moving and leave it alone.

Calf Blasting at Us

I wish I had my recorder on but you’ll just have to take my word that this relatively small elephant could still make a big trumpeting sound – illustrating another use for the trunk.

I’ve mentioned how elephant herds tend to gather around water and here we can see a rather large herd strung along the Chobe River.

Large Herd on Chobe River

And a smaller part of this herd including two young calves.

Part of Herd with Two Calves

A bit later we see one calf resting in the shade of its mother.

Mom Providing Shade

And if you think this is a cute picture of an elephant family

Not an Elephant Family

you’d be wrong  Both of the adults are probably female, since the herd rarely has males in it.  

Along the river, some of the elephants are standing in the water, taking advantage of it on this fairly hot day (even though it is winter).

Elephants in the River

And just a little bit further along the river we see an elephant getting a mud bath.

Elephant in Mud Bath

Link to Full Resolution Photos

Next up: Elephant videos

55. Days 18 & 20 (Sep 2 & 4) – Warthogs

(Note: The pictures of the warthogs are taken at three locations – one on a game drive in Manyeleti, one on the game drive in Chobe National Park (Botswana), and one at a resort where we were waiting to head out to the game drive in Chobe where there were several warthogs just running around the entrance.)

The warthog (more correctly the “Common Warthog” is a member of the pig family, the only pig that is found in grazing and savanna habitats.  It is about 3-5 feet in length and weighs between 100 to 325 pounds, the male being larger than the female. It is omnivorous, eating everything including carrion, but is not a hunter.

The warthog was another form of wild animal that was offered to us at dinner.  Again, we were told that it came from a farm and not taken from the wild.  The meat takes much like wild boar, not surprising since they are closely related.

Warthogs tend to stay within what is called a home range.  Within that range are solo adult males, bachelor groups of subadult males, and sounders which consist of females with their young and other females.  

A Group of Warthogs

A Solo Warthog About Ready to Dig

The most notable feature of the warthog is the two pairs of tusks protruding from the mouth and curving upwards. 

Warthog's Tusks

As you can see in the above photo, the lower pair is very short and is rubbed against the upper pair every time the mouth is opened and closed, thus becoming very sharp.  The upper pair grow to 10 inches in length and curves up to 90 degrees.  I have not been able to determine if there is a ban on warthog ivory – there are places online where you can purchase it (perhaps).  And Wikipedia says it is available in carved form for the tourist trade in Africa (although I did not see any).  It is, of course, much smaller than elephant ivory and this might be sufficient protection.

One of the purposes of the tusks is for digging.

The warthog lives in burrows and can dig its own burrow but more often takes over burrows that were made by aardvarks.  But the warthog also digs for food with its tusks, as seen in the following two videos (with apologies for rude people who move in and out of the frame). 

Note particularly that it is the lower, shorter, sharper, tusks that are most used in digging.

The tusks are also used for combat with other warthogs, often but not always as part of mating.  

Two Warthogs Fighting

Link to Full Resolution Photos

Next up: That other African animal with ivory – the elephant

54. Days 16-18 (Aug 31-Sep 2 ) – Zebra

The word zebra constitutes one of those words that epitomize the statement that is wrongfully attributed to Oscar Wilde and may not have been said by anyone of any note.  The statement, “The Americans and the British are two peoples divided by a common language,” wasn’t said but what was said was the following: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”  In the case of the word zebra that difference is really quite small – they pronounce it with a short “e” and we pronounce it with a long “e” (although if we were to ask how it is spelled, they would start out by saying “zed”).  But we’re talking about the same animal, or rather eight subspecies of the species “equus” which is the same species as the horse and the donkey.  One distinction of the zebra is that it has never really been domesticated although both the horse and the donkey have been.

The zebra we see in South Africa is the Plains Zebra which is the most numerous subspecies.  They are a very common herbivore and live in groups called harems consisting of one male, multiple females, and their young.  An adult male will live either alone or with other males until it chooses to challenge a male at the head of a harem.  

Now the most noted aspect of the zebra is, of course, the stripes.  It is not true that you can tell the sex of a zebra by its stripes – the male having black body and white stripes and the female a white body and black stripes – or is it the other way?  But our friends at Wikipedia do give us some interesting information about a zebra’s stripes:

It was previously believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes, since some zebras have white underbellies. Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal's background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions.  It is likely that the stripes are caused by a combination of factors as will be discussed below

The stripes are typically vertical on the head, neck, forequarters, and main body, with horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the animal.

A wide variety of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the evolution of the striking stripes of zebras, although the truth is that we don’t know.

1. The vertical striping may help the zebra hide in the grass by disrupting its outline.  In addition, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to an apparent grey.

2. The stripes may help to confuse predators by something called motion dazzle -- a group of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large mass of flickering stripes, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out a target.

3. The stripes may serve as visual cues and identification.  Although the striping pattern is unique to each individual, it is not known whether zebras can recognize one another by their stripes.

4. Experiments by different researchers indicate that the stripes are effective in attracting fewer flies, including blood-sucking tsetse flies and tabbing horseflies.

5. Stripes may be used to cool the zebra.  Air may move more quickly over black light-absorbing stripes while moving more slowly over white stripes. This would create convection currents around the zebra that would cool it. One study finds that zebras have more stripes in hotter habitats.

The zebra also appears on the coat of arms of the Republic of Botswana.

And now that you know much more about zebras than you did before(or perhaps than you cared to know), let’s look at some pictures.  We’ll start with some groups of zebras – after all, they are herd animals.

Mother and Baby Zebra

Group of Zebras - 1

Group of Zebras - 2

Group of Zebras - 3

There were a few zebras who really enjoyed posing for us.

Zebra Posing

I really liked the effect of the strips on the heads of the zebras facing us.

Effect of Stripes on Face - 1

Effect of Stripes on Face - 2

One of the zebras we came along had been injured, although our guide said that it wasn’t clear what or who had caused that injury.

Injured Zebra

Link to Full Resolution Photos

Next up: Warthogs

53. Days 16-17, 20 (Aug 31-Sep 1, 4 ) – Cape Buffalo

(Note: As you can tell from the date identifier for this post, I’m now including not only photos taken from the Manyeleti portion of our trip, but also from the extension that occurred in Botswana in the Chobe River National Park which was a one-day safari that consisted of a game drive in the morning and a game “cruise” in the afternoon on the Chobe river.  I will have more to say about the Chobe river area and Botswana generally when we get to that part of the tour, which included Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, later.  However, there are not many differences between the animals in Chobe and Manyeleti.  There is a difference in the diversity of the grouping of the animals, and the presence of the river in the Chobe region generally makes for more game animals.  But for a discussion of the animals themselves, I’ve included the Chobe photos because they make more sense here than in a separate discussion.)

One of the most striking looking of African animals, and one of the members of the “big five” discussed earlier, is the Cape Buffalo, technically one of the five or so subspecies of the African Buffalo.  It is a very large member of the bovine subfamily which also includes cattle, bison, water buffalo, yaks, and four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes.  That being said, the relationships and evolutionary links between the various members of this subfamily are not well known.  The Cape Buffalo can weigh up to a ton and can be as long as 11 feet.  You will sometimes hear reference to the Water Buffalo as one of the African big five but that is a mistake; true water buffalos are only found in Asia.  The Cape Buffalo requires water daily so they depend on and can often be found around perennial sources of water.

The Cape Buffalo became part of the big five because it not only is very unpredictable, but if shot and not killed, it can and will fiercely attack.  And, except for humans, it has few predators.  A group of lions can bring down a single adult Cape Buffalo.  Buffalo calves can fall prey to cheetahs, leopards, and spotted hyenas, and there have been reports on a group of spotted hyenas taking down an adult buffalo.  The crocodile can take an adult buffalo but typically they only attack old or young animals.

In a way, we were predators – as several times the buffets we were served at dinner included Cape Buffalo stew.  When I asked I was told that these were not animals taken from the wild but they were raised for food purposes on a ranch.  I know there are such ranches although I am fascinated how these – or any of the other wild animals that are raised on ranches – are handled.  The meat is reminiscent of beef with a somewhat gamey flavor.

So let’s take a look at these animals.  Here is a wonderful example just standing around, asking us to take its picture, even having posed on the slight rise in the ground.

Cape Buffalo "Posing"

And another one, part of a herd as these are definitely herd animals.

Small Herd

The horns are one of the most impressive features of these animals.  As you can see, they are huge and they join in the middle in a sort of shield, called a “boss” across the forehead of the animals.  The horns provide a great deal of weaponry for this animal.  And they are not to be trifled with.  Over 200 people a year are killed by Cape Buffalo, making it the most dangerous animals to humans in the African bush.  The horn length can be up to 63 inches and from tip to tip across about a yard.  Both males and females have horns, but the females’ horns are generally smaller.

Let’s take a closer look at this magnificent animal, courtesy not of foolhardiness but of a 200 mm camera lens.
 

Cape Buffalo Up Close and Personal

And here is one just resting in the field (and you cannot say that it is outstanding in its field.)
 

Not Outstanding in Its Field

And now we have a small test.  If you can enlarge the photo above, look just above the end of the smooth part of the horn on the buffalo’s right (your left).  Sticking out is something – and we’ll talk about it soon.  But first let’s talk about food.

The buffalo is not a carnivore.  It feeds on vegetation.  It serves as the first pass cutting of grasslands, mowing down and eating the tall, coarse grasses, and eating at a greater rate than most other herbivores.  They then move on to other fields leaving the meadows for the more selective grazing animals.  Here is one grazing.
 

Cape Buffalo Grazing

Here is another group of three, although the head of the last one is behind the second one, and there is some sort of a scar on the last one’s hide.
 

Three Cape Buffalos Are We (With Apologies to G&S)

And right above in the middle of the middle buffalo you can see a bird taking off in flight.  This is the oxpecker, and they are very common around the Cape Buffalo.  They feed on insects, usually taken from the skin of the buffalo.  The buffalo seem not just to tolerate this but also to enjoy the relief from the biting insects that the oxpecker provides.  Let’s look at some more photos of this relationship.

Often the oxpecker is on the back of the buffalo, whether the buffalo is standing,

Cape Buffalo and Oxpecker

or resting.

Cape Buffalo and Oxpecker - 2

Sometimes there are enough insects to support two birds.

Cape Buffalo and Two Oxpeckers

And this picture gives new meaning to the phrase “in your face.”
 

In Your Face

But oxpeckers are not the only bird found on the cape buffalo.  There is also the much more stately cattle egret.

Cape Buffalo and Cattle Egret

The cattle egret is found not only on the back of the cape buffalo, but it often is walking on the grass near and under the cape buffalo where it also gets insects that are scared up out of the grass as the cape buffalo walks.  Here is a movie of a cape buffalo walking (and urinating) while the cattle egret walks right along with it. 

Next up - Zebras

Link to Full Resolution Photos

52. Days 16-17 (Aug 31-Sep 1) – Lions

The lion is known as the king of the jungle and a lion sighting on at least one of the game drives is often seen as making or breaking a safari.  If that is the test (and I’m not one who would single out the lion in that role), then our safari was doubly successful.  On two successive days we came across lions – both times on the afternoon/evening game drive, the first time more than midway through the drive and the second time early in the drive.

Let’s look first at some discussion of lions in general and then look at the different times we saw lions.

In each case, we did not see single lions but rather prides.  Lions, at least females and cubs, live in groups.  These are said to vary in size from 3 to 40 although ours both were in the 10 to15-lion range.  The pride generally hunts, raises cubs, and defends territory together.  The male’s job is primarily to defend territory, especially against other male lions.  And to erase any question that this is primarily to ensure the continuation of the male’s genetic line, consider that there is usually only one although sometimes two dominant males at the head of the pride, and when the male shifts (as it can every 3 or more years), the new male will usually kill all the cubs of the pride.  Another fact related to this behavior is that female lions do not usually become fertile and receptive until their cub matures or dies (and some 80% of cubs die before become full grown, usually as prey to other animals.

The female lions are usually related and they give birth at about the same time.  This permits a cub to nurse from any available female.  A female will normally remain a member of the pride for life.  The females do most of the hunting – often in small groups – although when prey is obtained, the male eats first, then the females, and lastly the cubs.  Despite its reputation as a fierce hunter, roughly half of a lion’s food is taken as carrion.  

The lion and the hyena tend to compete for the same prey (and carrion) in the same areas.  In some areas lions are more successful at hunting, while in other areas hyenas dominate.

There is some controversy as to the extent of true subspecies among lions (which currently are found only in sub-Saharan Africa and in one location in India).  The subspecies in the Kruger area is known as the Transvaal or Southeast African Lion.

The first group of lions that we came across were probably a pride of lions but I would call them a pile (or perhaps several piles) of lions.  It was early evening, around 5:15 and the lions were doing what lions generally do except at night – sleeping.  And many of them were sleeping piled on top of each other, and seemingly paying little attention to the smelly green animal (i.e, our vehicle) that was nearing them.  I took a great many photos of this first pride and have with a show of great restraint (ysr) managed to reduced it to a much smaller group of lion photos, presented here without further commentary.  Toward the end of our time with these lions, a few of them started waking up and walking around, but still paying us little or no attention.

Two Sleeping Lions

A Pile of Lions

How Undignified

Still Asleep

And Still Asleep

One is Finally Up and About

Morning Stretch

Walking Off

When we came across the second pride early in our afternoon game drive the following day, there was a little more activity, although not much. Some of the lions were sleeping but some were awake and appeared to be feeding although we were not able to see on what.  Our driver and spotter both thought it was a cape buffalo they were eating and the previous day, in this same general area, we had seen a very old cape buffalo away from the general herd.  We don’t know if this was the animal that was killed and was being eaten but the best guess of our driver and spotter was that it was.

Again, I need to emphasize that there appeared to be some feeding going on but this was an assumption and we did not see any such feeding – and thus there are no pictures of this.  But here are the pictures of the second pride.

A Bit More Activity

Yawning

That's Also a Yawn -- At Least We Didn't Hear a Growl

And Some Just Barely Awake

And since this pride was likely feeding on a cape buffalo, that’s what we’ll see in our next post.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

51. Day 17 (Sep 1) – Rhinoceros

The most elusive member of the big 5 on our safari turned out to be the rhinoceros.  By the end of our first full day of game drives (and thus 3 drives, two afternoon-evening and one morning drive we had seen four of the big five (cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, and lion).  Only the rhinoceros remained to be seen to give our safari a rousing success (sarcasm warning).  And it wasn’t until the afternoon of our last full day of rides (#5) that our driver and spotter pulled out all the stops and drove us to a good sighting of the rhinoceros.  My own theory is that they knew where the rhinos were all the time – they just wanted to give some drama to our game drives and keep us interested (ysr).

The rhino is a most improbable animal.  There are five different rhinoceros species currently with two of them in Africa and three in Asia.   We’ve all seen them in zoos but I’ve never before thought of what it takes to get them to a zoo.  If you want a wonderful story about that, and about conservation efforts generally for the rhinoceros in Nepal (involving one of the Asian Rhinoceros species) read The Soul of the Rhino by Hemanta R. Mishra.  You will never be able to see a rhinoceros in a zoo again without thinking of the amazing efforts it takes to provide the zoo with that animal.

The rhinoceros is a very large animal (we’ll talk about size variations later) with two horns on its face between the eyes, and moves in a fairly slow gait.  Look at this video for a sense of that.

Link to video: http://youtu.be/0zEEf-jrtJI

The slow ambling gait they have in zoos is not simply a factor of them being confined to a small area (small in comparison to the vastness of the game reserves and parks in which they are found in the wild).  They do tend generally to walk quite slowly.  This is a factor principally of their enormous size.  Another aspect of this is that a rhinoceros that has been anesthetized (for such purposes as being fitted with tracking devices) has to be turned every 7 minutes or so to prevent destruction of internal organs.  However, the rhinoceros can (and does) charge at a fair fast rate of around 35 miles per hour.  The charge, however, is not as dangerous as might otherwise be thought because the rhinoceros also has very poor eyesight. 

The animal we saw in South Africa was the so-called Black Rhinoceros, whose color is mainly brown or grey, just like the White Rhinoceros.  And while they are not typically territorial, they usually are found only in fairly small groups or solitarily.

Rhino Group - 1

Rhino Group - 2

The principal difference between the black and the white rhinoceros is their jaw and their size.  The guide books say the small black rhino is hook-lipped while the large white rhino is square lipped.  These rhinos that we saw had hooked lips – when viewed from the side – that’s the skin that is hanging over – or so we were told.  The difference in lips also makes for a difference in diet.  Black rhinos feed by browsing while white rhinos feed by grazing and thus the black rhino holds its head higher than the white rhino.  This distinction, though, can only be made if you have the two species together, which we did not.

While we’re on the subject of skin, the rhino’s skin is quite tough, thickly layered, and fairly loose.  The thick skin protects the rhino from thorns and sharp grasses but does provide a nice habitat for mites and ticks.  Apparently you can sometimes see a bird on the back of a rhino, eating these parasites.  In the photo below of the seemingly posing rhino, observe what appear to be two nearly vertical very short shadows, one about half way from the head and the other another ¼ of the way towards the rear. 

Rhino Posing with ????

If you enlarge the photo you can see that these are shadows caused by birds, and the photo below, taken a minute or so earlier, clearly shows a bird on the back of the rhino.

Rhino with Birds

While baby rhinos and very young adults are subject to being attacked by lions and crocodiles, the adult is only very rarely attacked by a crocodile and not at all by lions.  So, you might ask, what animal does attack the rhino?  Unfortunately it is only one species, the not-so-wise homo sapiens sapiens.  Is it because rhino meat is so delicious?  No.  It’s because of the horn.

The horn of the rhino, one of the common features in each of the species, is unique among mammals, in that it has no boney core but consists entirely of keratin, a family of fibrous structure proteins that makes up the outer layer of human skin as well as hair and nails.  While some rhino horns find their way into dagger handles in Yemen and Oman, their principal “use” is in traditional Asian medicine.  The common misconception is that it is an aphrodisiac but rather it is prescribed in powdered form, for fevers and convulsions.  It is considered by many practitioners as a life-saving medicine although there are no studies that confirm this.

A horn can fetch close to $250,000.  This, of course, leads to poaching and often the rhinos are killed only for the horn – the rest of the carcass is just left.  There are many efforts made to stop poaching including removing the horn from rhinos in the wild, thereby rendering them undesirable to poachers.  And an ingenious system aimed at stopping poaching was described in the following article.  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/dye-and-poison-stop-rhino-poachers/  However it now appears that this method doesn’t really work.  

Of course one of the questions that arises with rhinos is where does a 1 to 3 ton mammal hide.  And as you can see in this picture, they actually can be fairly difficult to spot in the bush.

Rhino Semi-Hidden

Link to Full Resolution Photos/Videos

Next up: Lions (no tigers and no bears)