Nellying Around In The African Bush

21st October 2011

If you’re a sucker for sweet, baby animals and the silly things they do, you can’t get much cuter than catching sight of a baby elephant in the wild.

By far the best country in Africa to see these creatures is Tanzania, with African honeymoon hot spots in the south such as the Ruaha National Park, which holds one of the largest populations of elephant in the continent.

Females spend a good 22 months gestating, so you’d think their newborns would be well on the way to their claimed title as brains of the bush – but no. Sadly it takes a while for the little’uns to grasp even the skill to use their trunks, so you can often see them struggling to pick up grass and shoots or missing their mouths, however drinking is the real challenge! Unlike fully-grown elephants, babies don’t use their trunks to siphon water – they merely stick their entire head in the river or lake and drink to their hearts content, ignorant underneath the water to any passing safari vehicle capturing their ridiculous behaviour on camera!