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Sunday, November 20, 2011

The desert elephants of Damaraland

Desert elephants aren't a separate species of elephant, but have simply adapted to the harsher climate of this region. We were very fortunate to encounter this group in a dry riverbed:

As everywhere, elephants are very destructive, pushing over trees to get at the branches or to scratch an itch. They were working hard to pull down the lowest branches this tree had to offer:

One of my fellow travelers, Ted Doll, took some nice video of this group if you'd care to take a look.

Isn't the baby adorable?

They weren't afraid of us, but they did steadily move off, keeping the baby well protected.

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