Elephant in camp is not an everyday occurrence, nor is it necessary a recipe for disaster when it does happen. It is usually the elephant's choice to enter a camp and it could be because you have camped on his/her favorite path through the bush or there is a tree containing his/her favorite seed pods in your camp. if the ellie enters your camp under the above circumstances, he does so as a part of his normal routine. In most occasions of this nature the animal is relaxed, calm and has not entered camp to challenge anything. The best thing you can do is to relax, remain calm, no sudden movements but ease out of his intended path. Oh ja and please don't shine a torch in his eyes and please shuv that camera flash in a place it was never intended to be used.
Elephant are big and powerful and are afraid of very little, yet when they are simply doing what ellies do they are chilled, calm and respectful. On many occasions I have seen elephant skirt a camp simply because there is no need for them to encroach and they respect you and yours as a part of that space. Respect is the main part of their education.
On the other hand, outside influences such as noise, lots of action, food in the way of fruit (even in the form of peels in a garbage bag as in pic 3 above or unsealed on the back seat of a car as in pic 1) entices the ellie to investigate. He will be wary, but curious and excited. This is the recipe for disaster and if he needs to, he will break things, including you....because he can.
Compare the following pic with those above. This guy wandered into camp to feed on seeds from a tree in the camp, perfectly normal, chilled, relaxed. And because there were no outside influences, tension, sudden movements, he accepted and respected the space the way it was. Having said that, he also demands reciprocal respect, if you enter his space where he is doing what comes natural to an ellie (as in your smelly, noisy car or on foot) and don't respect his space, beware he who treads there.
This guy is so chilled, picking up the seed pods from the ground sheet (in fact he even gave the guy a peace offering in the form of a root which the ellie placed between the guy's feet) and if things just stay the way they are, everyone is showing due respect. It's important to the big creatures.
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