Elephant No.1 Limited Print

We located a small breeding herd (*Usually comprising the largest and oldest cow -aka: The Matriarch, other adult, and related cows, young females, and young bulls which have not reached sexual maturity (* From about 11 years to 14 years old) of elephants, in the northern region of Busanga Plains, situated in the Kafue National Park in Zambia.

This small family group of elephants became noticeably skittish, the moment they noticed our game viewing vehicle approaching from across the open plain area, to where they had congregated on the edge of the “Ecotone”. (aka: The environmental gradient between the open grassland area, and the tree area.)

Unfortunately, that area had a sad history of poaching, which was quite evident by their over-all very skittish behavioural pattern, so we were extra cautious about advancing too close, and upsetting them.

We were able to sit at a respectful distance, while a few of the younger animals played at mock charging us, but stopping a long way short from our vehicle.

(* I was specifically trained to respect the “personal space” of animals, understand their comfort zone radii, and always make it a priority to never encroach to the extent where the animals cease doing what they were doing, and change their behaviour! In such a case, I immediately extract, and retreat to a position where the animal resumes what it was doing originally.)