Elephants having a whale of a time in the Okavango

elephant-delta-belle

The earth’s largest land mammal is known throughout Africa as a lover of the water. Particularly, elephants in Botswana are known to spend a fair amount of time in the water, whether it be crossing wide Okavango waterways, or merely frolicking in the shallows as one big happy family. It is quite a sight to behold, as these great animals charge into the water and plunge, head first, into the depths – thoroughly loving the cooling waters on their hot skin.

All over Africa, elephants are found near water, as they need to drink almost daily in order to digest the vast quantity of coarse material they consume every day. It is one thing to watch these creatures stand neatly at the water’s edge and use their trunks as feeding devices, transporting litres of water from the source and into their mouths; other times one may catch elephants in a playful mood and be lucky enough to observe their celebration of water.

Here, on the Delta Belle Houseboat, guests on their own exclusive cruising safari arrived at one of these entertaining sights. Watch as a herd of elephants interacts with one another as they share in the cooling waters of the Okavango River.

“Elephants are especially partial to bathing and swimming, during which time they will either spray themselves down or submerge completely using their trunks as snorkels. Bulls are especially playful during swimming time and they engage in social dominance contests and play fighting while in the water.” ~ Extract from Megan Emmett and Sean Pattrick’s book, Game Ranger in Your Backpack

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