Amazing experience. Thanks so much for sharing it.

Now knowing the layout of the bones in an elephants foot, if you look at his left front foot in my last picture you can visualise them in the foot.

I can see it best on the middle picture where he is standing between the chairs. You can really see the outline of the toes well.

Unless you were using a big telephoto lens, you are really too close for comfort. As much as I love elephants, I keep reminding myself that they are totally unpredictable. So many "experts" have been killed. All it would take would be one wrong move or noise that they could interpret as a threat and you would have been a goner.

I envy your experience with this guy though. Fantastic.

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Jan I do wonder what effects tourism has on wildlife, in this case elephants?
Is there a greater conflict between humans & elephants in Kenya than say Zimbabwe & Botswana?
Does the high level of tourism along with local communities have an adverse effect on the elephants attitude to humans?
Even though Zimbabwe allows hunting I have never felt threatened by elephants!

I will admit in windy conditions I have taken extra precautions as the animals hearing is badly affected by the noise of the wind & the russle of the bush! It is infact negating one of their biggest anti predator senses! Hearing!
I have witnessed squals comming across Lake Kariba,elephants grazing happily on the shore line but as soon as the wind hits the shore they panic & run blindly for the cover of the tree line!

I wonder what the wind sounds like to those sensitive ears & massive brains?

I have been very close to elephants they have walked past brushing the vehicle.

In the case of this big Male he's about 20 perhaps 30 foot away (6 - 10 metres) If he had any animosity towards me I'm sure he could have sent me to my maker when he crept up behind me. All I got was a head shake of displeasure!
He quite happily watched me as I picked up my camera bag stood up & moved out of his way, no threat posture from him he just waited till I'd gone before moving past the table & chairs.

I actually believe that as I was already there, he had entered my area & therefore was the one who felt ill at ease. He'd invaded my space, not I his!
Go to the animal & you are in the wrong, let the animal have a choice, put yourself where he is heading then let him come to you if he wants to!

Kipper:

I think we all underestimate the intelligence of these amazing creatures. Many of them seem to know who to trust and who not to. In Amboseli the elephants can see and smell the difference between tourists and Maasai (whom they run from). It is because of what the local communities have done to them in the past. Even today the Ambo elephants will come right up to one's vehicle and yet if a vehicle is full ot Maasai they will run off.

Of the many times I've been in Tsavo (where elephants were heavily poached in the 80's and early 90's, they are getting much better. In 2001 they were terrified of even tourist vehicles. Yet now they have improved and are getting used to them most of the time.

They are also very curious animals. I regularly talk to all the eles. that walk past my tent telling them what good Mamas they are and what beautiful babies they have. They don't understand a word I am saying, but they sense that here is someone who cares about them and won't bother them. Often after talking with them they will walk to the waterhole and drink and then return right in front of my tent and let their babies lie down for a nap before moving off. Would I step off my veranda 20 - 30 feet away? I'm not stupid.!! They would then see me as a threat to their young and go after me.

Any little thing that looks or acts different to them they consider a threat. On one of my trips I was called to see a surprise. When I arrived on the tent veranda two huge tusks protruded from the bush and this huge bull elephant about 35 years old was there. When my friend called him he came and drank the water from the birdbath. My friend and I talked with him for over 20 minutes before he moved off. He had visited this particular tent often and knew the friend's voice well. When the ele. started walking toward the middle of camp where it could mean trouble, my friend walked out to the edge of the bush to call the ele. back. In about 3 seconds the ele. had wheeled around and charged my friend, who luckily saved himself by diving through the bushes and up on the veranda. In retrospect the friend thought the reason the bull charged him was that the ele. had never seen the human on foot before, always sitting on the veranda.

There is quite a clump of bushes behind my tent. When ever I leave the tent to go for meals, I have to remind myself to check the bushes before I walk the path. If I absent mindedly walked out past the back of the tent and they were there, I could be charged. Since I'm in their territory, it is up to me to watch out for them, not visa versa .

Some of the more wild elephants that are seen on game drives act totally different when they approach camp and the waterhole because they know it is a RELATIVELY safe place for them and that they won't be bothered.

The fact of the matter is, no matter how comfortable any of us feels around elephants, we must always be on guard because they are unpredictable.

To answer your question honestly, I feel that elephants receive far more threats which effect their personalities from the indigenous population who kill them, poison arrow them, snare them, throw things at them and yell and scream at them. Thus I don't think tourists watching them has nearly a negative impract as the natives.

Again, you had an awesome experience with this bull. However, had he been in musth it might have been a toally different outcome.

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However, had he been in musth it might have been a toally different outcome

As they read us so we read them

No matter who or what experience & knowledge we have we can get it wrong & do get it wrong.

As you say we must always be on our guard & never complacent.
But also we should not wrap ourselves in cotton wool but enjoy each encounter to the full.