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Old 26th February 2009, 15:08   #91
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Would like to add couple of points regarding Tigers and bears .. I am from a place where tigers WERE pretty common. When I was a kid ( not long ago ) I used to prefer sitting next to the Driver during the over night journeys and the all the drivers told me different things but few points are common ..

1. If a cheetah ( leopard ) spots the vehicle on the road then it runs away .. dont even bother about it .. It wont jump into you and carry on driving.

2. If its a bear with kids then dont flash lights .. it irritates him/her to the max.

3. Often Royal Bengal tigers sleeps on the road on summers ( dont know why .. but I think pitch roads are a bit cooler @ nights ) .. If its the case then be at a reasonable distance and stop ( let the lights be on ) .. The tiger will get up and walk away very slowly .. Give ample time for it to move .. I have seen this personally ... There is a sense of laziness or Royal attitude is assosiated with this animal .. ( remember Inzy walking off the pitch after getting a nasty bouncer .. something absurdly similar )

4. Dont panic or go fast when you hear the tiger roaring .. The sound may come from a very far distance ..


These things were told to me by drivers .. I have no proofs ..
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Old 26th February 2009, 15:25   #92
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Hey sam boy,

Sorry and no offense but I cannot resist. I hope you can take a little leg pulling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sam_boy View Post
1. If a cheetah ( leopard ) spots the vehicle on the road then it runs away .. dont even bother about it .. It wont jump into you and carry on driving.
.
I agree with you. I've never seen a leopard that would jump into you and then carry on driving. In fact I've never seen one that could drive yet.


Quote:
2. If its a bear with kids then dont flash lights .. it irritates him/her to the max.
I don't know about this one. The only bear I've seen with kids so far is Yogi Bear.
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Old 26th February 2009, 15:49   #93
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Funny you should say that Sam: I thought the very same thing! Hijacked by a leopard

As to the kids --- I saw a couple of tiny ones asleep in the road the other day. They were the smallest goats I've ever seen!

sam_boy; don't mind the nitpicking, we do it for fun. Useful post!
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Old 26th February 2009, 15:52   #94
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LOL - The Yeti is at it again after a long time
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Old 26th February 2009, 16:51   #95
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Originally Posted by kalpeshc View Post
LOL - The Yeti is at it again after a long time
LOL ...

Took a while to realize .......... No wonder I am working hard .
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Old 31st March 2009, 16:57   #96
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rotorhead View Post
. While confronted by elephant when u are in a vehicle (if its an open top, then god save u), the safest thing u can do is keep the engine in idle, do not honk, dont make any major movements, roll up the windows, and if they still attack then try to get as close as to the floor as possible and pray like u never knew god before.

.



Nice video. Its scary and Iam surprised those guys discussing without feeling the heat.
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Old 31st March 2009, 18:39   #97
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@surprise : phenomenal video...well, it seems like offending the jumbo helped in this case...If I had not seen this video, then I would've assumed that this was the worst thing to do...

Moral of the story : have really really bright headlights and a really really loud horn, noise pollution activists be damned
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Old 31st March 2009, 18:51   #98
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@surprise: awesome video!

I never thought the loud horn and bright lights would scare away the elephant! I would have thought it would anger them more! Nevertheless great video.

cheers
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Old 31st March 2009, 23:29   #99
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Didn't those guys do everything wrong?
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Old 31st March 2009, 23:45   #100
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Didn't those guys do everything wrong?
well, the elephant was charging at the jeep! what else would he have done?
It charged back when he moved... scary is the only word I could think of now!
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Old 1st April 2009, 01:19   #101
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Quote:
what else would he have done?
I don't know (and hope I never find out in practice). Just seemed out of line with what I recall from earlier posts in this thread from people who know their jungle stuff.

I don't know. I'm interested to hear from those that do!
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Old 1st April 2009, 14:38   #102
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IMO, the jeep should have started reversing when the elephant was moving towards it, thereby showing the elephant that he is the boss. Anyways all is well that ends well.
Looks like the occupants of the other jeep (at least the driver) have good presence of mind and did what was to be done. Startle/surprise the elephant some how. The camera vehicle should also have honked and made a ruckus. Self defence, folks.
BTW, the elephant looks like a makhna, so he is a little more dangerous than a tusker.
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Old 7th April 2009, 11:50   #103
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Didn't those guys do everything wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by pulsar56 View Post
well, the elephant was charging at the jeep! what else would he have done?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
I don't know (and hope I never find out in practice). Just seemed out of line with what I recall from earlier posts in this thread from people who know their jungle stuff.
I have lived some time in Botswana and been on several safaris in and around the Okavango Delta. And yes, from everything that I have heard and experienced myself, this honking and flashing was the wrong way to do it. The guys in the video were really lucky, maybe it was a very young elephant???!!!

The advice given to me always was to stay calm and not provoke any further. You are in the elephant's territory not vice-versa, you must never forget that. If you have the car running already in such a moment, keep it running but don't move it. If the motor is off, don't turn it on.

Give the elephant some moment to calm down and evaluate the situation. As long as it flaps its ears wildly and is trumpeting it just tries to scare you and say "don't dare...". So you better don't lol. If it runs for you quietly this is when it is really disturbed and feels so threatened by you that it sees no other way than to attack. And this, of course, can be deadly then.

I actually was threatened by an elephant in Botswana once, a very very scary moment. I was not IN the car but OUTSIDE of it, too.

It was my first time to the Delta. My godfather lives in Namibia and he took me for this trip. The Okavango Delta is pure wilderness. No tar roads, no electric fences around the dedicated campsites, no nothing. You go there to experience wildlife, you get wildlife. The only thing that works is your GPS (don't ever go without it haha), no cellphone network etc.

On our second day into the delta we were looking for a good campsite for the night. It was late afternoon and we knew we had to get our tents up before it got dark (too dangerous then and you are not allowed to drive around in the dark there either in order not to disturb the wildlife and harm yourself). We finally found the location Michi, my godfather, was looking for.

We got out of the car, carefully looking around first, and inspected the ground, looking for an even spot without thorns or anything to put up the tent. As I looked up I suddenly saw two huge bull elephants entering the campsite. The astonishing thing with elephants is that you don't hear them walk at all and you often don't see them before they are really close (unless you are in an open area, of course).

I remember smiling and saying "oh hello", not yet really feeling any danger from them. They seemed peaceful. Michi was thrilled, he took out his camera and started filming while I quickly took a few pics.

Here are the two bulls:
Wild Animals - A survival Guide-cimg0751_small.jpg

This is a picture my godfather took of me - to give you an idea of how close they were:
Wild Animals - A survival Guide-cimg0753_small.jpg

While I was standing there contemplating the two peaceful elephants the one came closer, though no threat or anything. I turned around to my godfather who had asked me to say a few things into the camera.

That's when all of a sudden we hear this REALLY REALLY LOUD hissing sound. My heart leaped forward - I only ever heard elephants trumpet, I did not even know they could make other sounds - and despite my better knowledge I quickly ran and jumped behind the car, only then turning around to actually look at the scene.

In retrospect it is almost funny how we stood behind the trunk of the car while the elephant stood on the other side, each party contemplating the other:
Wild Animals - A survival Guide-cimg0758_small.jpg

In that moment however, I was horrified. That huge grey thing was standing only the length of a car away, flapping wildly with its ears, shaking its head and observing us with those small little wise and intelligent eyes. And it was an older and really BIG bull.

I don't know how long this went on, it sure felt like an hour or so when it must have been a couple of minutes only in reality. I was so scared though since this elephant didn't want to calm down that I whispered to my godfather to please just jump into the car and quickly drive away.

My godfather looked at me and explained to me in a very matter-of-fact voice that this was the stupidest thing on earth to do. If we actually even made it into the car, he said, the moment we turned on the motor that elephant would just run forward in shock and anger and probably crush the car against the next tree.

Nice! So we waited and sure, after some time, the elephant realised that no harm was coming from us. Hesitantly he turned around and, while looking back at us a few times, joined his companion who had disappeared into the bush shortly before this incident had happened.

Ende gut, alles gut! as the Germans say lol.

Elephants are one of my favourite animals - if you know how to behave (and I still had many many more encounters with them after that) it is wonderful to watch and learn about them. Guess that applies for most of the wild animals.

Last edited by TheOne® : 7th April 2009 at 12:03.
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Old 7th April 2009, 11:59   #104
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That is truly wonderful post and looks like it might have been a scary situation. Nice photos Jenny, I've never seen those.
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Old 7th April 2009, 12:01   #105
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maybe the elephant backed off at the thought that the yeti will come after him if he does any harm to you. Imagine the elephant running for his dear life and the yeti running after him in a tarzan dress...

jokes aside, thats one hell of a close call with the elephants. Good luck to you that both the bulls didnt decide to have a go at you and your god father, then you wouldnt have had any place to hide. A smiliar experience happend with me on our way to mudumalai and here was a lone bull elephant grazing by the road side , probably 70ft away from the highway, and we slowed down the car to almost a stop to have a look at the elephant, and here comes a cab guy from the behind at good speed blasting his horns, and the next moment the elephant comes trumpetting towards us, and since we we were only just slowing down and not actuall stopped, I shifted gears and raced ahead and the elephant stopped after just giving a mock charge. but that was indeed a scary experience.
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