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Elephants
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Mark Drury: " Matriarch "
Mark Drury: " There’s nothing more powerful than a Mother’s love! "
Lucien Beaumont: " Changing your perspective can open up a whole new world. "
David Yarrow: " Leaving the giants of Amboseli after 51 hours of filming over last 9 days. Thank you to the @kenyawildlifeservice and my guide and friend Juma Wanyama and ranger Bobby Kennedy Hassan. I look forward to sharing some content next week. Off north now for more action.
The elephant population is up 5% in Amboseli this last year. "
Harsha B. : " Happy Ganesha Chaturthi ??
Elephants can get sunburned! These giants bathe in mud to help protect their skin from the sun. They also do that to keep bugs off. "
Harsha B. : " Ganesha habbada subhashayagalu ??
Elephants spend between 12 to 15 hours eating grass, plants and fruit every single day! They use their long trunks to smell their food and lift it up into their mouth. An adult needs to eat up to 150kg of food a day – that’s 50 tonnes a year. "
Nelis Wolmarans: " Sunsets and jumbos... few other destinations will offer you these better than from the water at Chobe National Park in Botswana. For a great photo safari experience, get yourself onto one of the @pangolinphotosafaris photo boats and find out what makes this National Park truly spectacular... "
David Yarrow: " The Desert Army
I am sad to be leaving after a successful 25 days in East Africa, but looking forward to returning to my family and home town in Devon, England for the Bank Holiday Weekend. This is what Amboseli has to offer and when it does, I think it is unrivalled as a spectacle in the natural world. A battalion of elephants in one seamless, cohesive unit charging through the desert. To see this scene played out is a real privilege and one that should always get the adrenaline flowing. I find myself reaching for military metaphors, but this spectacle is accompanied by an eerie silence and the serenity of the desert is not compromised. I sense that The Desert Rats, the byname for the 7th Armoured Division, would have made more noise in their celebrated campaign against Rommel in North Africa in 1941. The photographer’s job, when encountering such a desert army of elephants, demands quick thinking on positioning and a really strong relationship and understanding with his driver. We have been in this situation a few times and one potential variable is now a constant - we use a 200mm lens. Anything shorter is too loose and going for more compression risks cutting off some of the army. This is not an easy image to capture and I did have a cigar that night. Maybe like General Harding or indeed General Rommel. "
Jens Cullmann: " When giants meet ...
you will sometimes find out quickly who is the bigger giant. These two bulls met by chance in the bush. After a few seconds of checking each other out, one of them ran off like he was being stung by a bee ... it was very obvious who won this meeting. "
Mark Drury: " Bull elephant. "
Mark Drury: " Sparring young bulls. " Mark Drury: " Craig. "
David Yarrow: " Craig
With Tim’s passing in 2020, the responsibility of being the poster child of African elephants has passed to his 50 year-old cousin Craig. This is no downgrade as Craig’s tusks are huge – his right one in particular. We know our game in Amboseli and on arrival we already have the KWS and the local Masai on our side. The game is to find Craig at first light and that is not easy as he often moves 5 miles in any direction in a day. That’s a material amount of acreage in the foothills of Kilimanjaro where bush laden topography makes spotting far harder than in the desert below. So even with the help of 6 Masai on mopeds, we only tend to find him one day in 3. The good news is that when we do, this colossus is very chilled. With the counsel of both the KWS ranger and my guide Juma Wanyama, I can be 10 feet away from Craig and lying on the ground. This is probably the greatest privilege I have with animal encounters anywhere in the world, but the triangle of trust has evolved over 8 years. We all trust each other and that includes Craig. I guess we earned it. This portrait of Craig taken at 7:40am is the best I can do – there’s not much I would change. The heart pounded a little – it was taken with a wide angle lens and the subject was probably the world’s biggest elephant. Enough said. "
Jens Cullmann: " Here is one of the few elephant bulls in Mana Pools National Park, who have a key advantage against his conspecifics. Some elephants there can stand on two legs to reach higher branches in trees. This one still has to use other objects like termite mounts or fallen trees to reach what he is aiming for higher up in trees. I call him tree climber "
David Yarrow: " Twins
This simple image, taken 10 days ago in Kenya, is emblematic of the good news on conservation in specific areas of East Africa and we must embrace good news, even if it sits uncomfortably with populist headline narrative. The elephant population in Amboseli is thriving. In the last 12 months, over 130 elephants have been born. Some iconic senior citizens of the ecosystem - notably Tim - have sadly passed away from old age, but none have been lost to poaching in 2020. Indeed, none have been lost to poaching in over six years. Consequentially, the elephant community here is as large as it has been for many years. Huge credit must be given to the KWS and NGOs such as Big Life and Tusk. Amboseli is a paragon of conservation models and what has happened here can happen elsewhere. Seasoned rangers who have seen it all, can be forgiven for being somewhat indifferent to animal encounters, but when we found this mother with her twins born during Covid 19, they ordered me to stop and document it. I felt their pride. There are good news stories out there. " |
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