Children of all kinds of animals will tend towards play, much to the exasperation of their mothers who are usually just trying to get through the day.
Elephants are no different, and while this mother sedately feeds on the field of floating plants, her calf spends its time getting up to all sorts of mischief around her instead of just behaving itself.
For safari-goers, this kind of behavior makes for some amazing sightings that show the more playful side of nature, as misbehaving children get up to their antics in the faces of their long-suffering parents.
A Watery Field Of Food
The whole elephant herd was submerged in deep water that almost reached the tops of the adult’s legs. The reason for this was because the thick matting of plants that had grown across the water’s surface must have been very tasty indeed.
The individual members of the herd were using their strong trunks to rip clumps of plants from the matting, and then they’d continue that twisting motion to fling the plants around and get most of the water off them.
Once this was achieved, the plants must have made a very satisfying meal, but for the calves, having such deep water to play in was too much of a distraction to allow them to eat lunch with the proper manners.
Triumphant Appearance
While an elephant adult was calmly twirling her food through the air before eating it, a calf emerged behind her, but this individual was not the one playing a game.
The playful calf had already fully submerged itself beneath the water next to its parent, and then it quite suddenly emerged with its trunk held high in triumph, perhaps trying to surprise its mother, who was just trying to enjoy her meal.
It looked as though it had a big smile on its face as it revealed itself, clearly immensely enjoying whatever kind of game it was playing, and then poking its mother with its trunk afterwards, to make sure she saw its appearance.
Submarine Simulator
The baby elephant’s game seemed to involve spending a lot of the time with its head submerged under the water and only its trunk in the air so that it could safely breathe.
There didn’t seem to be any kind of goal, being underwater was a reward in itself, and it was fun enough for the calf to keep submerging itself several times, only coming up from good when it had to follow its mom to a new patch of food.
Get our Best Sightings as they Come in
Time To Mimic Mom
The fact that mom had moved on seemed to indicate that the time for games had come to an end. Or perhaps all the underwater excitement had left the calf hungry enough for it to focus on eating instead.
It started to copy its parent, using its much smaller trunk to tear off clumps of plants which it started slinging around. Because it was much shorter, it struggled to hold the plants completely clear of the water, but before long it would be just as big as the rest of the herd.
Maybe then it would understand how difficult it can be to focus on a meal while a child is so intent on playing a game close by.
