A Tusker’s Sense of Safety

If one is a wildlife enthusiast in southern India, it is fairly common to see wild elephants, especially in the forests of Kabini. It is not hard to view some grand tuskers either. But this particular encounter has remained in my memory for the special sense of family a grand tusker showed that day.

As usual we were in a safari vehicle, pretty late in the morning – I roughly remember it was closer to exit time of the safari, when we chanced upon this tusker resting in the shade. At first it did not seem to care much, and as photographic opportunity was also not great, we drove further. But as soon as we turned a corner, we were met with a beautiful sight of a family of female elephants bathing in a waterhole.

Glad to get a few good shots, we started shooting, when suddenly some movement caught the corner of my eye. There – the grand tusker we had seen earlier was walking purposely, with a very, very non-nonsense approach. Without a second thought he went to his ladies, and drove them out of the water!

We retreated, and positioned the jeep a bit further away to await the development. The female elephants did not show any discomfort – from what I could tell they would have preferred to have finished their bath. But the patriarch was having none of it, and noticing that our jeep was still in the vicinity, grandly walked into the thicker forests, dragging his ladies with him!!!

Well, at least someone had safety first on their minds that day.