Elephant Baby Cousins

We had just arrived at the shores of Lake Manyara in Manyara National Park, Tanzania. Our base was Karatu Simba Lodge in the nearby roadside town outside of national park boundaries.

We had stopped by Lake Karatushore and everyone was looking at a few herds of elephants, up to their knees in the water, trying to wrap their trunks around as many water lilies as they could and shove them into their mouth.   

Suddenly the ground started rumbling. We heard elephants trumpeting and approaching the lake from the opposite side of the road behind us.  These were herds rushing to get to the lake, but they first had to cross the narrow access dirt road we were on. The driver started to slowly back up so we could get a better look at them, but by this time the first herd was approaching to cross the road and they were right behind us, so we stopped to let the elephants pass.

There were well worn paths leading to the lake, but most interestingly, there were one or two mature Acacia trees next to the side of the widest well-worn path. The trees had worn out curves matching the mature elephants bellies.  I only noticed the curve on the tree trunks when a matriarch with newborn calf started rubbing her belly and her rump against one of the trees. The worn tree trunk curve matched the same height as elephant’s rump.

This matriarch had just finished scratching her rump on the tree behind her when her sister, with her few-months-old baby approached them. The older cousin started to smell and check out the newborn.  The mom kept the newborn calf next to her at all times, but she obviously knew the older cousin just wanted to say “hi” and meant no harm.  But still, she kept reassuring her calf with constant trunk caresses and she kept the calf next to her.

There were only few quick touches and playful trunk gestures from the older calf, but I was able to get this shot and couple of others to capture the moment.