Musth

I'd already seen far more animals than I'd hoped for on the drive, but our guide heard elephants and drove off to look for them. We found them but they were too far away to see clearly; all I could make out was the movement of some very large shapes in the bush.

We drove on, and a few minutes later saw another elephant behind some trees close to the road. We stopped and waited and after a few minutes he came out to investigate. It was a large bull, and by large, I mean at least ten feet tall.

And he was in musth.

When his head was turned sideways, you could see the secretions oozing from his glands, a sign that he was in hormonal overload, eager to mate, and likely to be extremely aggressive. And did I mention that he was over ten feet tall?

We sat very very quietly while the elephant checked us out and decided if we were a threat or not. We'd been told that animals saw our vehicles as one large creature, and as long as we stayed inside and didn't stand up, they'd never realize that we were actually a conveniently packaged container of bite-sized taste treats.

Then the elephant charged.

Technically, it was what's called a mock charge, a lot of head waving and ear flapping and trumpeting while the elephant lunges in your direction. It's very dramatic, and has the effect of making the 5-ton animal suddenly look about twice that size, and definitely removes any curiosity one might have had about seeing an elephant do a non-mock charge. (It happened so fast I didn't even have time to think about whether I should keep taking pictures. I'm not that much of an idiot.)

Fortunately, having established who was boss, and making it clear that he did NOT like us, not one little bit, the elephant retreated to the bushes, glared at us a minute or two longer, then ambled away.

And once he had left, we did too.