After experiencing firsthand the plight of “domesticated” Thai elephants at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, it was nice to come face-to-face with several herds of wild African elephants at Maasai Mara. On our second day, we stumbled across a large group of fifteen elephants walking across some dry grasses (from which most of the photos below came).

On our third day we discovered a group of elephants munching on the leaves of some dense small bushes, when another group showed up, nearly stampeding, and exhibited a terrific display of stomping, head shaking, ear-flapping, and spine-tingling roaring. (I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’ve heard that the dinosaur roars from Jurassic Park were recorded from elephants.)

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on (or take any meaningful photos), but there must have been over 30 elephants clumped among the bushes, staring each other down. Perhaps the second group was defending their luscious green territory? At one point the retreating group of elephants started inching towards our 4×4 so we got out of their way quickly.