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view and wait until the subject gets accus- tomed to our presence. We sat. We waited. The elephants soon became accustomed to us, and then we moved in very slowly and got our photographs. I treasure these photographs. Of the hun- dreds and hundreds of elephants I’ve seen and photographed on the many trips I’ve made back to Africa, none were as large and impressive as that patriarch. The old fellow was in excellent condition, though he had to be at least 55 years old. He has, of course, since died—perhaps a natural death or, more likely, was an early target during the strife and wars in Uganda in the 1970s and 1980s. There are reports of a couple of big tuskers living in Africa today, but I don’t know as I’ll ever see them, much less get pictures of them. What I did pho- tograph on that day 25 years ago was the passing of an era.

No matter how we tried to approach the old bull in our Land Rover to take pho- tographs, one or several of the attendant bulls blocked our passage. With heads and tails held high, they would flap their ears, roll up their trunks, and bluff a charge at us. All of this was accompanied by much shrill trumpeting, certainly one of the most thrilling, spine-tingling sounds in the animal world. Through all of this, the patriarch con- tinued his feeding. He never looked up; he moved just enough to reach more grass, and totally ignored us. He either didn’t care or else was fully confident in the pro- tective action of his attendants. His faith was not misplaced; we could not, at first, even begin to get close to him. Our solution—and I’ve found this works with most of the wild creatures I try to pho- tograph in the field—was to sit in plain

Fire is such a commonplace occurrence on the African grasslands— whether set by lightning or by people— that most of the animals, including the elephant, pay very little attention to it.

Elephants are capable of eating the 5-centimeter- (2-inch-) long, needle-sharp, steel-strong thorns of the acacia tree without damaging their trunks, tongues, or mouths.

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