Soon after our less-than-civil encounter with “Maasai,” the large female elephant with a hole in her ear, we met another member of the family. He was a twenty-year-old male with an attitude, and I was lucky to be armed with my camera when he decided to introduce himself.
As I walked from the kitchen to the Library tent, this young bull stepped out of the bushes and challenged me. The next two photos were shot in a bit of a frenzy, while back-pedaling and hoping he would stop short of hitting me...
...which he did, kicking up dust, spreading his ears out wide to intimidate me. He then struck a striking pose for the camera as I talked softly to him, hoping the sound of a gentle voice would calm him down.
In those early days of our time at Chada camp, we named him Mkorofi, which roughly translates to "Trouble maker." He would eventually live that name down and become one of our most trusted elephants, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. More to come...