Elephant

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Hluhluwe National Park, South Africa

Fuji S2 digital, Nikon 80-400 VR

The elephants in Hluhluwe are a bad bunch. One theory is that there weren't enough older males to keep the rowdier young males in line. So they imported some old bulls form Kruger. It hasn't had much effect so far..

Visitors are warned that the elephants here are more dangerous than in other African parks. Last year, a handful of "bad elements" ambushed a car driven by a restaurant worker at the Hilltop Lodge. The vehicle was crushed and destroyed. The woman rolled herself into a ball under the steering wheel until rangers arrived, and survived.

I'm told that this is the sort of situation you want to avoid. Backing up fast on a paved road on the flat like this isn't that difficult. On a smaller,narrow dirt road, another bull forced me to back me up for over a mile, flaring his ears out and trumpeting whenever the distance between us got close to 100 meters.

Sharks don't frighten me much, and gigantic whales seem absolutely benign. Elephants, however, are scary animals.