Pachyderms

The quiet, pleasant giants - an endangered species

Auschwitz begins as to where one stands and thinks: they're only animals.

Theodor W. Adorno

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Untouched nature - very close & authentic

The elephant herd in Tarangire

Tarangire National ReserveTanzania, 20.03.2016, 12:57 pm

Our first stop on our safari in 2016 was the Tarangire National Reserve in northern Tanzania. A beautiful park, through which the Tarangire River winds. The Tarangire continually carries water, so that many animals from dry regions migrate to the Tarangire National Reserve for the annual dry season. This means that at certain times in Tarangire National Reserve the highest density of large animals, after the Ngorongoro crater, is present.

The landscape of the park consists of grassland, especially on both sides of the river, as well as an open tree sway with dense bush and woodland, also of hills and rocky cliffs with sparse vegetation.

So we can be curious about what we will see today and what kind of animals we are facing.

Right at the beginning we see a medium-sized giraffe family with some young animals grazing peacefully in the high grass. Partially, the young giraffes sit in the tall grass, so that you can only see the long necks of the animals. Right next to the street, we find a warthog-couple, peacefully bathed in a water pond and surrounded by a swarm of red-billed-oxpecker. The hard-working birds with the red-yellow beaks are constantly striving to free the warthogs from their annoying parasites.

It starts already great, but the big ones - the gray giants - we are still missing, we have not yet seen.

Finally, we come to Tarangire river and from the nearby Buschland we see the first groups of elephants with 20 to 30 animals. We stand with our Jeep on a hill and look down at the river. Funny, the elephant cows are with there babies on the river and play, drink water and enjoy the freshness of the delicious wet. Step by step, more and more animals are coming to Tarangire river.

Shortly we decide to go to the other side of the river, and hope to photograph and film the elephants on their arrival. If it is said, let's go. If we hurry, we might make it there in time before the elephants with your calves arrive.

We are there.
The elephants come out of the water, straight to us.

The elephants wander around our car, slowly past us to reach their next destination, the juicy green tree groups, a little further up the hill. We enjoy this unique moment, keep quiet and wait patiently until the animals have arrived at the trees and their fresh green foliage.

Now we quietly and very slowly following the elephant herd and place our jeep near the grassing herd, in the nearby bush work. We are curious about what happens next - everything is possible. The joy is great and we realize that we are suddenly surrounded by about 75 to 100 elephant cows with there caps | elephants babies. It is clear, however, that it is so much nicer to understand that, as a matter of course, we are included in the herd as a part of them - so it feels at least for us, the more we feel more than happy, in the tender embrace shaped by the gray giants of the Tarangire National Reserve.

Now virtually belong to them, the gray giant of the African savannah that are so close to our jeep that they almost touch us. We stay for about two hours in the group of this unique animals, until the herd leaves and enjoy the presence of these magical creatures.

A unique, great feeling, a successful day.
Surrounded by the ghost of the gray giants.


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Wildlife Moments - A donation project by Robert Gstaltmaier

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Wildlife Moments

Thoughts & motivation about "Wildlife Moments"

Robert Gstaltmaier lives in Bischofshofen, near Salzburg, Austria. As a nature lover and hobby photographer, he has been interested in the African continent for many years. Again and again fascinated form the land, animal world and people, he is now traveling the African continent at regular intervals. In the meantime, there are many thousand pictures and videos of animals in the wild, the impressive landscape of Africa and the people living there.

From a hobby became a passion - from a passion became a heart affair and from a heart affair Wildlife Moments was created.

Here you can find further information on the project "Wildlife Moments“.