DAY TWO, MET THE CHALLENGER ERICK ON SAFARI IN UGANDA

hillaryonbless - 4 days ago

The pretender of calmness is finally here! The famous male elephant in the plains of Queen Elizabeth national park well named Erick decided to entertain me and the guests on our second day of the safari during our game drive. Males usually leave their herd after reaching the age of nine years and live a lonely life. They later join it for only mating with the oestrus females. It is quite interesting how these elephants communicate and socialize in the herd. All the members in the herd are related and have their leader who is the oldest parent called "Matriarch". Being the oldest and the most dominant female of the crew, she gives the herd stability and also determines where to go graze or drink water.

A birth of a calf is a celebration of the whole herd and is nursed by the mother and the other females with in. It is termed as allomothering and a calf is born after twenty two months weighing about ninety nine to two hundred kilograms.

While we were viewing the mother with a shy little calf from the Kazinga channel, the famous Erick was spotted on the other side. He was bathing and almost fully submerged in the water, it was another strange behavior to cruise close by by and witness. As we approached him, he slowly got out and started bathing the dust from the shores.

This is a behavior for all elephants mostly after bathing in the water, they get mud or dust and start splashing it on their wet skins not only to cool temperatures but also to suffocate parasites on their skin like the ticks.
It is also a sunscreen during hot temperatures of the day. If you are on a walking safari or game drive in savanna parks, you can always spot some mud marks on tall tree stems or branches; those are elephants trying to rub against them to scratch off parasites from their skins and also those marks help us guides to tell how tall the elephant was.

I was always on standby with my camera to capture these moments and bring them to here. These strong and sharp tusks are used as defense while fighting and also to remove the bark of some trees. These barks are later chewed and swallowed and help in their digestive system also act as their medicine.

We continued our drive back to the lodge for our dinner and overnight. I had bought a surprise cake to present to my guests as dessert. As they were about to finish their two course meal, I presented it and this surprised them.
We celebrated together and that's how the day ended with smiles.
I will be updating you about the following day's encounter soon.
Thank you so much🙏.