November 18, 2013
Baby Elephant Drinking in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa

Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa is a great place to see and photograph African Elephants because there are several waterholes that the animals visit. On one such visit, a baby elephant made one of its first attempts to drink from the waterhole. Because it didn't quite understand how to use its trunk like a straw, it leaned way down to the water level and tried drinking from the waterhole with its mouth.

It must have been getting some vibes from its relatives that it wasn't drinking properly, so it tried to stand up like all of the other elephants. It started to slip into the waterhole, and its neighbors pulled it back and the baby ended up on its butt. The little guy seemed unfazed by his situation.

Then the little guy tried drinking while standing up, like elephants are supposed to do, and the large elephant to its left had its trunk at the ready to hold the little guy back and the younger one on its right was using its head and trunk to hold the little guys hind end from getting too close to the waterhole. It was a lot of fun to watch these events unfold.