Saturday 4th Dec. 2010
Recently I received some amazing pictures forwarded to me by my sister, Dianne. They were of a drama as it unfolded in an African National Park; the escape of a elephant from a crocodile that got hold of its trunk and tried to drag it into water.
It reminded me of a day about 50 years ago when working with the Smithsonian wildlife research team, I witnessed a very strange encounter between an elephant and crocodile at Marai Villu, Wilpattu N.P. in Sri Lanka.
It was the middle of a very hot day when I saw a herd of elephants approach from the far side of the villu. As they saw the water they broke into an ambling run heading straight for it. There were about a dozen crocs sunning themselves on the bank and as the elephants thundered towards them they made a beeline for the water. The adult elephants came on ahead of the babies and all the crocs got out of their way except for one that was strangely slow - slow enough to collect a hefty kick from the lead elephant! The reptile got lifted off the ground in a cloud of sand and mud, landed at the water's edge and quickly disappeared.
Crocodiles are torpedo-swift in water and they're certainly not sluggish out of it! And so I wondered why this particular croc was so slow getting out of the way of a thirsty elephant heading for water. The conclusion I came to was that this reptile had probably had a nasty battle with one of it's own and had come away second best having been rendered lame.
I wrote about this incident in The Sunday Times of Ceylon together with a black and white sketch.
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