Kruger National Park - The other side - Part 10

It is that time of year when the younger (but not much smaller) elephants are in musth, they can be fairly ill tempered and you need to look out for them.

Musth is described as follows: "Some males showed "tears" streaming down the side of their faces (secretions from temporal glands), and continual dripping of urine onto their legs. Besides these physical changes, there were associated changes in behaviour. Males that were streaming tended to follow females that were in oestrus, and were markedly more aggressive than others."

I have left these photographs untouched to give you the feeling of him getting closer.

This last was taken pointing the camera over my shoulder as I got out of there!! LOL!! I must stress that this is NOT and everyday experience. Most elephants ignore you when they are around even though sometimes, when it is a breeding herd with babies, one of them will mock charge.

The next few pictures are some of the tiny jumping spiders I found on my walk.

These wild pear trees have very soft wood and are quite often damaged by the elephants. This results in them growning up having strange shapes like this one with the hole through the middle.