game drive three (evening) with beautiful elephants (balule nature reserve)

First zebra sighting of the trip! These guys were tough to find in the dense undergrowth.

A vulture perched high in a tree.

First glimpse of another elephant! 

Make that two

Elephants use their trunks to smell. It was strange to sit in the car and have elephants wave their trunks around at us, just like this one is doing!

Just a little dirt bath. Elephants use dirt to stay cool and keep ticks off their skin.

A dung beetle! These guys are important to the ecosystem: they roll up balls of elephant dung, lay their eggs inside, and bury them underground. The soil gets more nutrients passed around, and fly populations are controlled somewhat (flies also lay their eggs in dung, but the hatched flylings can't go anywhere from underground).

We went on a chase to find a leopard spotted earlier that evening; didn't see the leopard this time, but we did see this hyena who was also on its trail! Hyena sometimes scrounge off leopard kills if they can.

Another excellent spot by Sipho: an African Wildcat. This guy was about the size of a housecat and well-hidden in the grass. Sipho had a spotlight he used to scan the bush and spot animals.