Elephants!

During the first two or three days of our stay in Kenya, we had only seen a lone male elephant from time to time but no large groups of elephants (much to my dismay). Then, on the fourth day, to my delight we came across a family of elephants. I told Wilson, our driver, that he could just drop me off to stay with the elephants and pick me up on the way back. I loved just being in their presence, just watching them. Their social interaction is so fascinating to me because they're highly intelligent, sensitive and social creatures.

Once we saw the first group of elephants, in the days to come we began seeing more and more elephants. Mike, a professional wildlife photographer who was also staying at the camp, was able to answer my question about why there weren't more elephants around. Apparently the elephants don't particularly like the massive herds of wildebeest and zebra that come thundering through and they move to other areas where the wildebeest and zebra aren't migrating. Makes sense to me. Hopefully on my next trip I'll be able to spend more time with the elephants. I was able to get a few decent photos and get my elephant fix.

An elephant in the Mara in sepia

An elephant mom and her calf

A small elephant family procession

Elephants - Finally!

Many of the Masai Mara elephants leave when the migration comes through because they're not particularly fond of the thundering megaherd of wildebeest and zebra.  After being in the Mara for about three days, we started seeing elephants. Then in the upcoming days we saw more and more and I was ecstatic. I love the big cats, but elephants are my all time favorite. Here's a photo of a family of elephants, one of the first groups of elephants we spotted.