An elephant’s perspective

Two elephant bulls were feeding in earnest in the aftermath of the rains, their massive frames moving with steady grace through the verdant landscape. They were taking full advantage of the season’s growth, reaping trunkloads of foliage with remarkable efficiency.

During the height of the green season, an adult African elephant can consume around 150 kg (330 pounds) of vegetation daily. During the dry season they live off leaves, twigs, bark, and roots, and they may even dig for salt and minerals in the soil. We had such a long brutal dry season last year, it was hard to watch emaciated elephants searching for nutrition.

These two bulls were making up for lost time. Their trunks wrapped around the grasses and forbs, tearing them free from the earth with powerful pulls. Once they had a firm grip, they would shake the dirt off the roots, using their trunks and tusks to flick the soil away, ensuring only the fresh, tender greenery made its way into their mouths. The mud from the plants clung to the dominant tusk of one of the bulls in a thick dark layer.

We parked on the side of Pamushana Access Road to watch them. Close up they were enormous, the meadow around them only accentuating their size. Yet, when they moved closer to a large marula tree, their size became more relative. The marula, with its split trunk and over-arching canopy, stood as an impressive monument of nature. But the true perspective-shifting moment came when they wandered near an ancient baobab (the one with a big arch in its trunk that I refer to as the Archbishop Baobab). Its towering presence made the elephants look diminutive. Seeing these giants beneath a giant, where the elephants' stature was outweighed by the deep-rooted endurance of the land’s oldest sentinel was truly awesome.