It was a beautiful sunlit evening, and we were thrilled to be on a boat safari. The boat had an interesting mixture of guests; some of them were families with children and some were serious wildlife enthusiasts. We had an exciting time as we sighted lots of deer, monkeys and other wildlife. The first hour of our safari did not elicit any elephant sighting. However, we were greeted by herds of elephants a little later.

A Herd of Asiatic Elephants (Elephas maximus)

One particular herd caught my eye as it was situated on an island. This was a small herd, remarkably comprising a calf along with her mother and aunt. As the water level receded, we noticed that these fascinating creatures were not at our eye level, but on an island at an elevation. Interestingly, they were looking down at us from where they were located.

A Herd of Asiatic Elephants (Elephas maximus)

As I took the boat a bit closer to the island and stopped near the herd, the calf and the mother did not react. The aunt, however, clearly showed her disapproval of our presence next to her family. I did not intend taking the boat too close to the herd as it could disturb the elephant family. However, the winds were strong and our boat with its engine switched off had no option but to float in the direction of the wind. This moved us closer to the elephants than we intended.

Asiatic Elephant (Elephas maximus)

At first, the mother elephant looked at the aunt elephant and quite fascinatingly, some interaction took place between the two cows. Then the mother started grazing peacefully but the aunt began pushing the calf to its mother as if safeguarding it from us. It then came close to the edge of the island and was now still closer to the boat. It was looking at us, apparently warning us to leave the place. Hence, while I intended to stay calm and enjoy the sighting, I had to take the boat away. I decided that it was better to allow the family to peacefully continue with its meal.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Mammals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.