DEP Photography

A Fun Day With Elephants

Because what better way to have a good time than with animals?

Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles

Published in

Dancing Elephants Press

4 min readMar 28, 2023

**That’s me — up close and personal clicking photos of the elephant snacking —** Vidya Sury ©

One of my favorite places to visit is the National Park. I love to see animals in their natural habitat and truly enjoy waiting hours for them to appear when the mood takes them. Now, this is the case with most animals.

Fortunately, elephants are different. They are BIG. And easily visible. And they do not wander around as much as the others, such as lions, tigers, cheetahs, deer, etc.

At the risk of repetition — I love elephants! I mean, I have a too-large collection of elephants at home. Oh, not the live animal, ha ha, but the decor items. Why, I even made an elephant backpack for my son when he was a toddler. I will show it to you next time!

For now, let me take you on a trip to our local national park, sharing a few photos. You know there’s a DEP photography prompt coming up at the end for you, don’t you? ❤

Let’s go!

Elephants playing with hay — Vidya Sury ©

Inside the park, there is also a massive enclosure beside the jungle area where people can watch. I think these two elephants had an argument. From hanging out together, they turned their backs on each other and started playing by themselves. The one in the foreground is a baby while the one in the background is older.

The baby was happy to see people gazing raptly and put on quite a show for us, raising its trunk to us as if to say hello there — and going about its business.

**Baby elephant trying to move out of its comfort zone — Vidya Sury ©**

I was sad to see them chained, but the guy in charge there apparently was quite fond of them and treated them lovingly. But still! You know? Sigh.

Baby elephant is busy playing while the older elephant is trying to climb that structure around the tree and nobody knows why.

But it did succeed in climbing, after which the mahout gently eased it off the height. The big one then headed towards the baby, swinging its trunk aggressively.

Seeing this, the man led it away from the scene.

Because like everyone, elephants probably need their space.

A LOT of it.

To cool off and be friends again, maybe, hopefully?

**Wonder what the baby is thinking? Vidya Sury ©**

Once the older elephant was led away, the baby probably was relieved. Maybe it is non-confrontational, like me? Maybe it wanted to take a few deep breaths and peacefully play alone? Yes, I get that!

We kept watching, enthralled, as baby elephant dumped little stacks of hay on itself.

Did you know:
Elephants gather sand and mud with their trunks and throw it onto their bodies, providing sun protection and repelling bugs. Sand helps dry and warm their skin in the cooler months, while mud helps to keep them cool in the hotter months.

Then, after a few minutes, the guy brought the aggro elephant back, looking rather subdued now. He probably gave it a good talking to along with a snack.

And then everything was a-okay!

More than we can say for humans, eh?

After a lovely day at the park, we had a lovely picnic lunch, and some ice cream and then, went to the adjoining butterfly park which is built like a rainforest. Then we returned home late in the evening, quite happy.

It was a digital detox as well — with the only technology we used is our cameras. ❤

Now here’s a photography prompt for you: