Elephants are both intelligent and curious. They like to get CLOSE to the truck to see what's happening.

Ranger Gavin told us to expect a young (~22 years) male to approach the truck. Sure enough, here he comes.

Even the females and young elephants are big. MUCH bigger than our truck.

Elephants eat a LOT. Up to 200kg (480 lbs) of vegetation per day. They eat just about the whole tree, including the branches.

Elephant walking near the front of our truck - Tracker Isaac on the front bumper, Ranger Gavin at the wheel. We just sat and watched in awe.

Thornybush Game Reserve is named for the VERY thorny and prickly trees, bushes, and scrubs. Elephants eat the thorny stuff, thorns and all.

The young male Gavin said would want to come very close. A couple minutes later, this guy was close enough to touch (but we didn't!). I don't have pix of when he came up super close, I wasn't even breathing, much less taking pictures!