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Hi Ronnie L
Thank you so much for your reply. I guessed it must have been territorial. I tell you, there was no ways they were going to let him live. I will now google the Cape Fox thanks to your info. Much appreciated.

Elephants at Hapoor Dam

Here are some more pics of the ellies at Hapoor Dam. There was this small group of ellies that were standing to one side in a very tight group protecting a very small baby ellie. I have circled the baby ellie to make it easier for identification. You will notice that all the ellies looking after and protecting this baby ellie are females. When this group decided to leave they headed straight in the direction where I was parked and passed right by me. How fortunate I was to take these pics and a very short video.

Here are the pics I took










Here is the short video of the ellies passing by my car.

The closest video I have ever seen!!! What an amzing thing to happen and the ellies were not disturbed it seems?

Thanks for posting

That was a very "new" elephant The Addo Elephants are incredibly confident with the cars.

Elephant tossing a stick.

I had been watching these young ellies for some time playing with this stick at Hapoor Dam. They were some distance away but were slowly moving closer in my direction. This stick was going from one ellie to the next. Here are a few of the pics I took of the ellies having fun with the stick.




"Give it to me, it is my turn now"




"Are we going to share it?"




"No, you have had your turn"




A few moments later the other ellie came and took the stick back again and tossed it in the air with the stick
landing close to my car and walked off. Here is a short video of the ellie tossing the stick.

Ronnie WOW, what an experience. The ellies were extremely close and soooo relaxed. The little one is sooo cute.
In the second video there is a huge herd, do you think it is a ellie meet of different herds?

Ronnie Have you seen this before? It really looks as if they are playing with the stick

Katja, at hapoor dam there are often big herds of elephants, when we were there in the middle of the month we saw some 70 ellies around the waterhole and there were still some in the background.

Hi to Katja, Jungle Junkie, & Micetta

@ JJ, Yes that was very close and a very small baby ellie

@ Katja, The ellies that were playing with the stick were part of that larger herd that you saw moving off in the background of the video and after tossing the stick and walking past my car the ellie continued on to join the rest of the herd. There were more herds at the waterhole

@Micetta, Yes I have seen ellies playing with sticks and the like before but not as close as this. There were a lot of vehicles at Hapoor and I was just fortunate that it happened so close to me.

Thank you so much for sharing this encounter! We had a similar one at the same place in 2007.
Spots and I were sitting at the dam watching the ellies that were around already. It was our first
trip and we had yet to learn that we like bigger cars better in the parks. So, there we were in
the smallest of cars that you can rent, when Spots said in a frightened whispering voice: Look over your left shoulder.
There was an ever so huge ellie and he was so close I could have touched him. Boy, I was scared senseless...

Oh, and here is my favourite ellie pic from Harpoor Dam - I called it 'indecisive elephant', as it looks so lost in daydreams.

Hi LS,
Thanks for sharing your foto and experience here.
It is amazing how silent those big elephants can move. Often it is their stomach rumbles that give their presence away.
I do hope to see more of your pics and experiences posted here.

Addo Male Lion

I spent the day out at Addo on Saturday and found this male lion late in the afternoon lying in the shade next to the road on the Ngulube loop.
I was able to watch him for some time as he rolled from one side to the other.




At one stage he rolled over onto his back and pushed his head back and gave one mighty yawn.
I was able to see right into his mouth and throat, it is huge. Here is a pic of that, unfortunately
I was a fraction late on the shot and there is some grass in the way.
( I did not think that the lion would appreciate me moving the grass for a better photograph)




I was able to watch him for some time before he got up and then walked off in the direction of a waterhole
presumably to go and have his late afternoon drink before he started hunting.

Hi Ronnie - great elephants and the lion is beautiful - Thanks

Great lion pics Ronnie , you are so lucky living near this lovely place.

LS, the pic of the "dreaming" ellie is gorgeous. I can imagine that you were scared. I think even a bigger car don't let them look smaller

That was a nice lion sighting Ronnie

RonnieL, You have amazing pics of addo elephants and now the lion. Enjoying your posts, and thanks for sharing with us all. Where's your yellow ribbon on your rearview mirror?



41 days to go to Addo!