Elephant Charge...

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Dear All,
More from the Elephant series from the Dhikala Chaur. This male elephant after giving us a thorough check over decided to have a go at us. Ears flapping wildly he approached us with alarming speed.Fortunately he was not too serious and backed off after we beat a hasty retreat. The driver backed the jeep off the track to change the orientation of the Gypsy, toppling me off along with the gear into the bottom of the Gypsy. Fortunately got away without any injury.

EOS 5D II +100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS L @ f8, 1/800, ISO 800.

Look forward to comments.

Cheers
Dipankar

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see a tusker. Was it in musth? One of the tusk seems to be broken? Was this image clicked at the beginning of the charge?

If you are in a safari and an elephant charges, then it is better to be careful. One can have injury falling down from the seat. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice to see a LONE TUSKER in Dhikhala Chaur.Possibly one tusk may not be broken.An elephant seriously charging at full speed will have his head cocked on one side. Its a warning charge .Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely environment photograph. I liked the composition. The light is nice. The narrow aperture has helped. Elephants these days are getting more impatient and charge at gypsy's quite often. Maybe they are tired of the constant noise and traffic. Thanks for sharing.

[Bhargava Srivari]

Nice scene..the habitat in the BG looks good. In Corbett, drivers always try to move the jeep away from elephants while in bandipur/kabini, they keep the jeep still so that the elephant charges till close and goes back thinking the jeep is a non-living being/ aliving being which is not afraid of the elephant!

A difference in the psychology of elephants, perhaps?

tfs