Damn, the elephants are so cute -- and smart! The other day, the five resident elephants on the Estate were hanging out practically in our backyard, about 200 meters up the river bed from the house. We never would have known they were there - but, from out of the blue, a man showed up on our back deck, motioning us to quickly come out and jump into his safari vehicle. To be clear - we NEVER see folks just out wandering around in the Estate. There are lions out there! So it was strange to see someone in the backyard.
It was our neighbor, Birdman (not his real name), another guy who tends to do a safari drive most nights in the Estate and had kindly offered over WhatsApp to take us any time. That afternoon he realized that the elephants were just a few hundred yards up the river bed from our house (and right across the river from his) so he hopped into his vehicle, drove down the dry river bed, ran to the back door to pick us up ("Quick! Jump in! We're going to find the elephants! I know they're right around here! I just heard them!"), and raced off to find them.
We soon found the elephants, including the baby, and watched them for the next hour plus. We could watch these guys all day...
Baby copies what he sees the adult elephants doing - eating bark and branches. Very cute.
One of the big guys thought we were a bit too close at one point, let us know it, and then went on eating branches:
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