Kenya: Masai Mara – Elephants
Elephants herds are numerous and easily spotted in Masai Mara, moving across the grassy landscapes in search of small islands of trees or bushes to feed. The more you spend watching and following them, the more you learn about these massive animals – how they rip whole tree branches off trees, how they dig in mud and dirt and spray over themselves to cool down, how they protect tiny little baby elephants that hide behind moms all the time… We even saw a pair of young bull elephants spare up in a mock (or not so mock) fight. Masai Mara had once the highest elephant population on earth with around 175,000 animals roaming in this relatively small area. The ivory trade decimated the numbers down to 20,000 by mid 1970s, but protective status and conservation have brought the numbers back up to about 35,000 now.
