2011-03-19 – Amboseli G.R.

After another quiet and rainy morning, in the evening I spent some time with a rather big family of elephants. One of the females was in estrous and was repeatedly surrounded and followed by four of five medium sized bulls. It was interesting to watch how the hierarchy among the bulls was established and maintained. Most of the time a nod of the head of a bigger one was enough to intimidate the rival, but on one occasion a short fight broke out. The female didn’t concede herself to any of these pretenders. As they walked in the plains they encountered another family and there was some trumpeting and heads held high, then the two families proceeded in opposite directions while the adolescent males engaged in fights.