Asiatic elephant: dust bath

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This asiatic elephant after charging at us several times, moved back and resorted to throwing mud on itself. This behaviour also happens when they are stressed. After a mock charge, the elephant turns back and either breaks a branch, or throws leaves and mud on itself or feeds at a rapid pace.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, f9, 1/250, ISO 800, EV: +1/3, full frame image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

Nice image. This is displacement activity. Elephants would be extremely nervous after culminating a charge and they would resort to these activities.

It is very painful to note the dramatic change of Bandipur landscape over the past 3 decades. I did go through the monochrome images of Bandipur which was once free of invasives - a haven then for ungulates. Patra's image is a testimonial that grass is subdued by weeds in these forests.

Bandipur and Mudumalai will be a lost cause if invasive spread is not checked.

[V S Sankar]

Another nice action image from Bandipur.The image has come out sharp.Including the habitat here is very nice.Laxminarayan's comments makes disturbing reading......

Regards

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Nice image Sabyasachi, the dust bath has come out very well. The info on behaviour of the Elephants is good. Lakshminarayanan's comments are very much valid and make sense.
tfs

[Akshay Kumar Manjunath]

Nice behaviour captured , The dust bath has come out really well

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice display of habitat. The dust spray is nicely freezed. Thanks for sharing the behavioural information.

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice image and composition. Wish you were a bit more to the left. I agree with Laxminarayan about the invasives. :(