Elephant Safari

Elephant safari's in Africa

You'd think that an elephant, which can go through the woods while weighing as much as three family cars, would create a commotion. Instead, they have the unsettling habit of abruptly emerging from the background and ambling idly toward a favorite watering hole, riverbank, or fruiting tree.

They reflect our human sense of community and family ties by communicating over huge distances with deep rumbles. They have been observed gently resting their trunks on the head of a long-deceased partner, caressing its bleached bones. The matriarch of an elephant herd guides her family safely over often great distances since she is familiar with the migratory routes connecting fresh water and new grasslands.

Adult males enjoy living in bachelor groups, while senior bulls congregate around waterholes like a bunch of cranky old guys in a park. Adult females fret over their children while keeping a close check on rowdy adolescents.

The African Elephant

A mature African elephant is enormous. Even the smallest adult male rarely drops under 4000kg, which is 2.5 times heavier than the typical family automobile. A fully mature male can weigh a staggering 6048kg. Typically, females weigh just a little bit less than males. When it comes to height, there is less of a size distinction between the two; the tallest males stand at 4 meters, while the tallest females reach 3.4m. The most noticeable distinction between males and females, aside from size, is that a female's forehead is angular, whereas a bull's forehead seems to be more rounded.

Elephants have the largest brain between mammals, its weight reaches a staggering 6kg. Its trunk, which functions as an elephant's hand, can be up to 2 meters long and over 130 kilograms in weight. A trunk has no bones, but it possesses over 60,000 muscles. Tusks are used by elephants as both weapons and tools. The largest tusks ever found were 3 meters long, and the heaviest was 70kg.

Elephants consume grass, leaves, fruits, and even twigs or branches. They are staunch vegetarians and spend nearly 19 hours a day eating, and they can consume up to 340kg or about 5% of their body weight. If you expand those numbers further, you'll discover that elephants eat about 50 tons of food annually. Elephants defecate up to 30 times each day, producing up to 150 kg of dung in the process. Elephant dung maintains the ecosystem by dispersing uneaten seeds which help produce more trees and is also a source of food for birds, insects, and baboons. According to one study, one piece of elephant dung contained over 5700 acacia seeds.

Elephants Matriarch structure

Elephant females live in a close-knit, multigenerational sisterhood. Elephants exhibit one of the lengthiest pregnancies in the natural world, it can last up to 22 months.  Most of the time, a single calf is delivered, and within hours of birth, the calf is able to walk, albeit unsteadily. The first two years of an elephant's life are spent nursing, and many won't become fully independent until they are ten years old. If the juvenile elephant is a male, he will depart from the herd where he was born between the ages of 10 and 14. This wandering guy will occasionally stick to himself or associate with a more seasoned, stronger bull elephant.

The natal herd, which could include their mother, grandmother, aunts, female cousins, and sisters is where young female elephants stay throughout their lives. A seasoned female, the matriarch, leads the herd to water during dry spells and is the first to defend its members, and serves as its leader.

What are the best destinations for elephant safaris in Africa?

Going on an elephant safari is an experience like no other, you’ll enjoy the presence of these huge yet gentle giants. Below we explore a few destinations to visit to see these amazing animals.

Elephant safaris in Botswana

Elephants can be found in a number of reserves and national parks all over the African continent. However, if you're looking for a gorgeous safari destination, Chobe is the place to visit.  You can spot the big 5 in Chobe with over 50,000 elephants, it has the greatest elephant population in Africa, which is extremely astounding! As a result, it's the ideal location in Botswana for an elephant safari. It's also one of the national parks in the nation with the greatest biological diversity.

Elephant safaris in Kenya

Amboseli National Park is the second most frequented national park after the Maasai Mara National Reserve. It provides some of the best views of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is located close to the border, as well as elephant sightings that are part of the longest-running wild elephant research. Besides sighting elephants you can sight other remarkable species of wildlife in these vast plains.

Elephant safaris in South Africa

Kruger is one of the best places to see elephants, as it always is for animals. Another remarkable place to see elephants is the Addo Elephant National Park, it's the third largest national park in South Africa with one of the highest densities of elephants anywhere in Africa.

Elephant safaris in Tanzania

Acacias, baobabs, and overhanging woodland are strewn throughout the quasi-arid savannah of the undulating plains of Ruaha National Park.  The national park contains the highest number of African elephants in East Africa, due to its ideal environment. Visitors will be happy to see some of the 8,000 elephants and more than 570 kinds of bird species while on an elephant safari in Tanzania.

Elephant safaris in Namibia

The Etosha National park is an ideal park for elephant sightings.  The national park's diverse vegetation, which supports a wide variety of species, including vast herds of plains game, is part of the reason why it's a stunning park. You can also find the endangered black-faced impala, black rhino, and Tsessebe.

Elephant safaris in Zimbabwe

One of the biggest elephant herds in Africa can be found at Hwange National Park. It also shouldn't be a surprise since the park is the oldest and biggest national park in the nation, with an area of 14,600 km2. Any wildlife fan would be delighted by an elephant safari in Zimbabwe.