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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom Didn't those guys do everything wrong? |
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Originally Posted by pulsar56 well, the elephant was charging at the jeep! what else would he have done? |
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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom 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:
This is a picture my godfather took of me - to give you an idea of how close they were:
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:
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.