Raging Bulls

 Some of our encounters with the beasts in both Reserves were quite frisky. That is to say, some young males were practise-fighting.  These impala were (not quite) locking horns.

We saw several pairs of these young bucks
practising for the day when they'll try to best
the alpha male, and take all his females

Ooh.  Sidebar:  there’s a difference between antlers and horns.  Antlers are shed each year and new ones are grown.  Horns are permanent. Antelopes have horns:  Kudus, springboks, elands. So do goats and some sheep. Deer, elk, moose: they all have antlers. There may have been deer on our safari but I didn’t pay attention to them.

Back to the raging males.  We came across two rhinoceroses who were definitely not practicing. 

James, our Wonderful Ranger in Marataba
said these guys would probably spend
most of the day sparring before
coming to actual blows (if ever)

    But the one that really got our attention was in the Welgevonden Reserve.

    Our guide Phil was driving us down one of the tracks when we came upon a dead tree across the road, blocking our forward movement.  He got out to see if he could drive around it, but it was no good: we had to turn back.    

    As we drove back along the road, a very large, angry bull elephant began to charge us. In his wisdom, Phil muttered “we’re not waiting around for this guy.” and speeded up right quickly.

When we all got our breaths back, we looked back and there he was standing in the road, just waiting for us to leave.

Phil said the bull was tracking us and put the tree across the road. (They can do that, you know, with that big trunk of theirs).  He was angry that we had invaded his space.  I managed to get a couple shots of him lurking behind a tree watching us.  You can just see his leg and one tusk peeking out. Yes, he was a biggie.

One develops a deep respect for creatures this big. No, we won’t be tracking him again. And we are so glad Phil had the presence of mind to get us the hell outta Dodge!

Next up: The Cheetah Brothers