March 27, 2011
African Elephant in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa

On our first full day in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, we had a nice encounter with a black-backed jackal hunting in the morning and two teen-aged male elephants fighting in the afternoon. We had been photographing some greater kudu bucks in a good location with nice light when we saw the two males starting to fight nearby. On our way over to photograph them, we saw a group of six bat-eared fox just within range to photograph, so we briefly stopped to capture some images before moving over to the two male elephants fighting. By that time, they had made their way right next to the road and while getting into position to photograph them, they moved onto the road and started moving towards us. I backed up the car to give them some room and they moved off to the side — the wrong side for photography in the late-afternoon light. We waited and they moved around right by us on the right side of the road, and I was able to capture my favorite image of the day (below) which is of the dominant male as he walked by in a threatening posture while the other male was backing up away from him.