Nikao

I always thought it was nice to have someone walk you to your tent and keep an eye out on you at night just in case... but always wondered a bit what 1 person could do with just a stick against the wild animals that walk through camp.

Well.. I must say I now experienced how the masai handle an elephant that wanted to get a bit to close;
Last day in Mdonya Old River Camp and we were just about to leave for an early gamedrive (6:30), but there were 3 elephants ravaging about near the car. Not to close so I jumped in the open vehicle to get settled, but then 1 elephant stepped closer with ears out in front of the car. Then I had the pleasure to witness the 'power' of the masai;
He just kept staring at the elephant, and when the elephant wanted to move even closer he simply raised his stick and the elephant immediately backed off!

Really impressive to experience the control and calmness of the masai in this situation.
Got a movieclip of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXtoOE7-3bc

(trip report and photo's will follow over the weekend )

Elizabeth_S

Great clip!

sandi

Can guarantee if these were females with young ones, there'd be no backing off till they knew you had backed off. Also, as these weren't spooked by someone coming out of nowhere... they were good to just go on their way.

But as mzungu, we wouldn't know enough or how to dissuade them; we'd be the ones backing away or hiding behind a tree.

Wouldn't surprise that your Masai guides/drivers actually knew these two, even have names for them. You stay/live in a park long enough, everyone gets to know everyone!

Good filming!

qwovadis

Great clip!

www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantrage.asp

Always wise to be careful especially with the bulls.

Universal respect and respectful distance work best for me.

qwovadis

Bull elephants annually cycle between a state of heightened aggressiveness, called musth, and non-musth. A musth elephant is primed to mate, and fights other bull elephants, attacks other animals, and may destroy inanimate objects in its way. Musth bulls produce a distinctive low-frequency vocalization, the musth rumble, have thick secretions from their temporal glands (the duct from the temporal gland opens between the eye and the ear), and continuously dribble urine. Testosterone levels are at a peak in musth males and probably regulate this extreme form of reproductive behavior.

Legendary "rogue" elephants were probably musth bulls, redirecting their aggression at random objects, including villages and the people in the villages.African elephants do not reach this stage of maturity until they are 25 or so years old.

Musth is an interesting reproductive strategy that seems terrible but in fact favors evolution of best of breed over time.

Nikao

They indeed had names for a few regulars, not sure if these 3 were amongst them though as there were many different elephants walking around the camp from time to time.
I know this wasn't to dangerous or them being aggressive, fortunately! I felt safe and at ease the whole time, but still thought it impressive how immediate the reaction of the elephant to the masai was

sandi

qwovadis - it's so nice when you give us full sentences. Asante sana!

Percy

Yes and without websites !!

Nikao

lol.. well actually.... he did put a website there and the full sentences are quotes I'm afraid

sandi

... regardless, own words/knowledge or copied... much easier to read as sentence than clipped phrases!

Lifeman

Yep, cut and pasted from astro on

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-305418.html

Kavey

I remember the first time we saw an elephant flare it's ears, trumpet and race towards us, I nearly peed my pants. Later, when we had got out of the way, our guide explained that the elephant was putting on a show but not really intending to attack - it would have flattened its ears to it's head in that case, the better to move fast and furious.

Of course, it remains a memory of excitement tinged with fear and respect for wild animals.

Love the video!

Percy

Lifeman

How did you happen to find this site !

I would not even know where to look.!!!

Hanuman

tsk, tsk if the cut and paste was from a copyrighted site then that's a violation. Qwovadis should had provided a link to where he had copied other people's words.

Lifeman

All I did was google the first couple of sentences of the first paragraph.