ELEPHANTS AT THE WATERHOLE
August 3, 2017
One of the advantages of having a waterhole at the camp is the constant comings and goings of different species that need to hydrate often. The privilege of having different size elephant herds and the various bulls come and drink is an almost daily occurrence and this small herd is quite typical. An average mature elephant has to drink about 150 liters of water a day and it is in addition to the 450 KG of food that is eaten. These African bush elephant ( Loxodonta Africana) are under threat from poaching in all of Africa but the population is actually quite healthy in South Africa and to some degree, overpopulated in the Greater Kruger National Park. There are diverging views on what the park can sustain in terms of the impact from this species but if you visit the park the foliage impact is quite visible and there is a view that the diversity of the park may be negatively affected by the approximately 17,000 elephants that are residents. They are a wonderful sighting and the study of them is fascinating as they are quite complex in many areas. No safari can be complete without many sightings of different elephants of various age and size,especially these elephants at the waterhole.To learn more about the conservation of these largest land mammals see here.
