What an impressive sight - a herd of African Elephants in the middle of the Chobe River oblivious to all but their task at hand - foraging, munching, swaying, stretching amongst the muddy vegetation.
As our boat nudged gently into the grassy clumps, the elephants on the right hand side of the photo below swayed over to check out the bow of our boat as well as our cameras.
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Botswana's Chobe River is well known for its impressive herds of African Elephants - Loxodonta africana.
We observed these elephants to be calm and not concerned about our presence. |
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| After digging up large clumps of grass, and then thrashing & shaking sand from the grass, this female African Elephant devours her fibrous selection. She consumes a great quantity of food as part of her extremely varied vegetarian diet, which includes grass, leaves, twigs, bark, fruit and seed pods. |
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An African Elephant's trunk is a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and grabbing things. The trunk contains about 100,000 different muscles, and has two fingerlike features on the end of their trunk that they use to grab small items.
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| An African elephant uses its large ears for cooling, communication & hearing. |
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| Elephants are fond of water and enjoy drinking, bathing, wallowing, playing & showering in the Chobe River. |
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Check out the baby elephant ...
This family herd of female elephants (cows) and their young are enjoying a swim across the Chobe River. |
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| The herd is reaching the other side of the Chobe River. |
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| Time to dry off and enjoy a stroll whilst foraging for food. |
These hungry animals do not sleep much, and they roam over great distances while foraging for the large quantities of food that they require to sustain their massive bodies.
More about elephants another day.
Cheers Jen
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