Strange (and Cantankerous) bedfellows

Two bull elephants had taken up temporary residence in a large floodplain along the Zambezi River in the Dande North concession. We were unsuccessfully baiting crocodile nearby. PH Henry Prinsloo's grown son and aspiring PH Fred, had a close call with the pair one afternoon when he left the blind to walk down the river to get a better look at a distant croc.

Ultimately, we abandoned the baiting and switched to the "spot and stock" method - simply put, we were running the river in the pontoon boat looking for sunning crocs to put the stalk on. We would occasionally see this young bull elephant, and it appeared his companion had left the floodplain for other opportunities. We caught him one midday making his way to the river for a bath/drink and pulled the boat onto the shore very near his position. We anticipated a charge into the water at the boat (hopefully stopping short of disaster for either the bull or the boat), and instead prompted the bull to charge an unsuspecting cow buffalo that had somehow separated from the herd and taken up residency with the bull elephant. To those who haven't been "among them," this may appear rather benign - it's not! The cow gets out of Dodge for good reason.

We saw these two hanging out together several times over the ensuing days. I suppose the cow thought the bull elephant was great insurance from the prides of lions that had been harassing the buffalo in that area.