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Leading Tomorrows Leaders Today


Leading Tomorrows Leaders Today
Photo Information
Copyright: Loot Eksteen (loot) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5435 W: 593 N: 3649] (10027)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-10-16
Categories: Mammals, Bushveld
Camera: Cannon EOS 350D, Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 AF APO Ultra DG, Digital ISO 200, UV 86mm Kenko
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/125 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Travelogue: Kruger National Park - 2007
Theme(s): My Dedications ;o), Dedications at TrekNature Part Three, Family Matters 2, A study in Mammalogy, Kruger National Park 2, Mammals of Southern Africa II, Wildlife of Africa, Mammals of Africa, Baby Animals 2 [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-03-02 2:28
Viewed: 2413
Favorites: 2 [view]
Points: 54
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Savanna elephant - Loxodonta africana africana

This one is dedicated to the little Emperor, his royal highness JinYao Zhang DeSandies, ManYee's little pride and joy. Please see the workshop for confirmation of the royal standing of this little prince. At least we know that grandma is occupied with the visit of the little apple of her eye and have not disappeared all together, but I just wanted her to know that we are missing her here on TrekNature.

Continuing with my series of parent and baby animals I present you with this elephant cow leading a group of youngsters. It was captured at the little circle at the end of the S64 Nyala road at Pafuri in the far north of the Kruger Park. The background is a part of the Matshitshindzudzi Mountain range that runs alongside the Luvuvhu River and parallel to the Nyala road.

Leading tomorrow's leaders is a great responsibility. Ask any responsible parent or dedicated teacher and you will get the same answer. Setting a sustainable and value driven example is all important for human babies. There are so many moral standards, ethical principals, social values, skills and abilities that have to be transferred, shaped and sharpened and so much knowledge acquired for the youth of today to be adequately prepared or formed for the demanding life of tomorrow.

Ok, baby elephant don't need to be equipped to one day step into the hustle-and-bustle of today's modern business world, but they are very similar to human babies as far as their education are concerned. They have to learn every bit of skills and knowledge needed for them to survive in a hostile, unfriendly, and difficult environment.

Did you know?

There are many eyewitness accounts of the females in the herd gathering around to welcome the new-born. Within minutes of the birth, the mother and other females trumpet, rumble and scream, oozing temporal secretions down the side of their faces. During these initial minutes the mother also attempts to help the new-born rise to its feet. This is a matter of survival since the new-born must stand to drink its mother's milk. Without this necessary food, the calf is sure to perish.

This kinship and social contact allows the young elephants to successfully reach other stages in life cycles. Infancy is not only an important time for the young calves, but also for the young mothers-to-be. It is through the close interaction and kinship between the two that allows the young females to develop necessary skills required for motherhood. However, first time mothers can be very awkward with their babies and depending on their experience can even play a role in hindering the calf from feeding.

The infancy life-cycle of an elephant is not a brief period. Young elephants are started on the process of weaning in their 1st year of life and may continue to be weaned until their 10th year or until another sibling is born. This prolonged dependency period is vital to the elephant. As a minimum, the African elephant calf is entirely dependent (emotionally and physically) on his/her mother for three to five years.

The calf's fairly underdeveloped brain is very much like a blank slate which must be shaped over the growing years. The elephant is very similar to the human and many of the other great apes in this one particular way; a great deal of brain development go on outside of the womb. Specifically, the brain of a new-born elephant is about 30-40% of the size of that of an adult. Amazingly, this opens worlds of possibility for complex learning, social development, and the formation of culture. In this situation a species tends to rely less upon instinctual behaviours and more upon socially learned behaviours within each individual's genetic boundary.

Also, this stage of development lays the foundation for the caregiver(s) to play a strong role in shaping the particular being growing up. The new-born elephant is born with a minimal amount of "innate" knowledge. For example, despite a calf's "precocious" nature, he/she lack the ability to use its trunk with any real skill. Hence as the calf grows and through experience, it will understand what it can do with its trunk (paralleling a human baby learning how to walk). The young calf will within time comprehend that it is to be used as an extra hand to pick up items, to scratch with, to drink with, and much, much more...

Interestingly, mothers have been found to care and to interact differently depending on whether it is a male or a female calve. Males sucked more frequently than females and moved away from their mother earlier. They were found to leave the local family unit to interact and play with non family members. On the other hand, females stayed close to their mothers and engaged in more friendly and aggressive interactions. They also interacted more within the family unit.

These patterns lay the social foundation for the future lives of the two distinct sex groups. This difference of lifestyle between male and female elephants is more prevalent in their adolescent and their adult lives. The distance between an elephant calf and his/her mother increases with age. Overall, females tended to remain quite close to the mother and as expected the males were much more independent.

Each and every observation of another species really must take into account the world they live in to gain real insight into their lives. What we tend to forget is our world of value is seen completely differently based solely on the sensory experience other beings receives. Source

Post Processing was done with Adobe Photoshop CS2.
lgfoto, cataclysta, ramthakur, Alex99, jaycee, vanderschelden, badar, Janice, Miss_Piggy, bobcat08, manyee, Aaltjie, Dyker, goldyrs, Rehanna, XOTAELE, jcoowanitwong, betsie has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To manyee: Mysteries of lifeloot 1 05-07 21:15
To AnimalExplorer: Tarzan is quicker than Chuck Norrisloot 1 04-28 09:55
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Critiques [Translate]

Hellow Loot,
Sharp image, good contrast and undisturbing backround.It portrays the trust that babies have on the parents. I have comments regarding the heading with relation to humans but maybe it will be better that i refrain from these.Your pics are really all of a very high standard and very informative.TFS.
erwin.

Very nice composition Loot and good DOF.Very interesting notes.TFS

  • Great 
  • joey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2001 W: 226 N: 6845] (24727)
  • [2008-03-02 3:42]

Hello Loot,
shot of this small family of Elephants!
I love how there's a big Elephant at the front and a medium-sized Elephant at the back with the two little'uns in the middle :-)
Excellent composition.
Great lighting and natural colours.
Superb work Loot.
Thanks,
Joe

Hi Loot
I like almost panoramic frame. There is something special in these shot but I dont know what it is ;-) Great sharpness, beautiful green tones
Very good job
TFS
Krzysztof

Hi Loot,
First of all, I enjoyed looking at the picture of Manyee's grandkid in your workshop posting. I also enjoyed reading the note with it.
Your dedication to the little "Prince" is a touching gesture on your part.
~
The image of your elephants is as usual beautiful and captivating.
The foreground and the background despite different levels of focus merge well into each other to form a great composition.
Thanks and best regards.
Ram

  • Great 
  • Zeno Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 451 W: 0 N: 975] (8383)
  • [2008-03-02 5:07]

Hi Loot,

Its always interesting to see your safari-photo's and read your informative stories. I just read in a Dutch newspaper about the problems you have with elephants in especially the Krugerpark. There are to many of them and these wonderful creatures destroy great parts of the park. I hope they will find a solution that is best for men and elephant.
Nevertheless its good to see pictures like this one. You show us real nature. Thanks so much for sharing.

regards,
Zeno.

  • Great 
  • Alex99 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3584 W: 143 N: 5669] (18531)
  • [2008-03-02 6:16]

Hi Loot.
What a pictorial scene you have pictured and shared with us. Even without amazing family the captured landscape would be wonderful. However, with impressive elephant "chain" it is simply superb. Great is all, and POV and composition, and natural colours and soft lighting, and precisely selected DOF with some blurriness of the wonderful BG. It is clear the note is the best as always. Many thanks and kind regards.
Alexei.

  • Great 
  • jaycee Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2493 W: 11 N: 6885] (21912)
  • [2008-03-02 9:34]

Hi Loot,

Fantastic family shot. I love the way the parent is the leader and the others are in size place order. A beautiful setting with wonderful natural colors. Each elephant is perfect with wonderful details. This shot brings back wonderful memories of my trip to Africa.

Jane

  • Great 
  • jmp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1740 W: 95 N: 2273] (8411)
  • [2008-03-02 11:29]

Hi Loot,
A perfect composition and a great note. I'm afraid that human leadership is getting too much complex, if not out of control.
TFS and best regards mf,
José M.
PS. Me knee is going very well. So well that I must control myself just with the brain. Thank you very much for your interest.

Hello Loot,
It is strange to experience that such large animals in some conditions just appear as little miniatures in Kruger National Park and probably in other parts of Africa as well. Almost as Japanese netski. Your image is a very good example of the aforementioned and is even increasing
this effect through the different sizes of these elephants and the semi-blurred background mountains.
Well done!
TFS
Annick

  • Great 
  • manyee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3064 W: 231 N: 6159] (21044)
  • [2008-03-02 21:56]
  • [+]

Well, my friend... That is ONE way to get me out of my "grandma haze"!
Indeed I have been much occupied with my pride and joy.
He has since returned to China, and I miss him so!
Thank you for your kind dedication. : )

The sight of your picture rather gave me a jolt! It is uncanny!
Unbeknownst to you, on my window sill, there is a scene exactly like that: A family of elephants, with an adult at the lead, followed by three young elephants of graduated sizes. The only difference is that my elephants have smaller ears, and they are black, carved out of ebony.
This set of wooden elephants has been with me since I was a child growing up in Vietnam. When my parents immigrated to the States, they brought it with them, though they had precious space to spare.
And now it adorns my home, a link to a distant past, both in time and space. : 0
A beautiful and meaningful picture you have chosen to dedicate to me and my little grandson! Thanks again, my friend. : )

  • Great 
  • badar Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 108 W: 0 N: 159] (785)
  • [2008-03-02 22:47]

Hi Loot,
Beautiful sharp image. The pan cropping does really work.I hope there will be many generations of students & good leaders for them.
TFS
Badar

Good photo and interesting notes Loot.

Nature is a wonder on it's own!

  • Great 
  • horia Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2169 W: 218 N: 4383] (14900)
  • [2008-03-03 1:07]

Hi Loot

A superb capture and a very interesting dedication :)
I love how you managed to capture this nice little family all walking in a row here - mother first and the kids after her :) They really look adorable!
I particularly like the DOF here which is very well focused on the subjects and manages to blur everything out very well - both the FG and the BG and thus making the elephants stand out excellently!
Very good sharpness and exposure as well.

Bravo and TFS
Horia

  • Great 
  • Janice Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3315 W: 148 N: 6113] (18648)
  • [2008-03-03 1:14]

Super line up of those heavy beauties Loot.
And that's a lovely photo of Manyee's little man - isn't he a darling. Those notes are very interesting too. I have missed seeing Manyee's photos lately and I am so pleased you are in contact with her - HI MANYEE!
Thank you
Janice

Hallo Loot
Lovely dedication to a special lady’s (Manyee) grandson. At this stage he would not know anything about dedications etc, but I am sure his grandma will tell him about it as soon as he is a bit older. What a great shot within a perfect timing. This is just another wonderful photo from you. I was wondering if there is a certain order in which they always walk, or do they just follow the queue whenever they see there is movement? I just love the way the little ones are following the mother, from the youngest to the eldest, the difference in size is amazing. Wonderful detail and colour,and it was good to see the elephants again in their natural surroundings. Thanks for sharing.
Love
Anna

Hello Loot,

What a amazing shot of this small family of Elephants. All in one line. A nevertheless particular about herd is see mother first, the smallest and oldest child closes the file. To seem people (-:
When I saw the thumbnails of elephants the colors are mostly more grey. What is the reason of this difference? Maybe there enviroment? Red sand or clay where they live?
Interesting notes. Cheers and TFS BOB

Hi Loot,
Delightful scene you have captured here. Techincally hard to fault. Great natural colours and good separation from the BG. Next time I suggest convincing these guys to get in order by size...then you would have one totally insane image:o)
Cheers
Paul

Hallo Loot
Follow the leader. We use to play that game at school. The person leading was not always my favourite and I wonder if it the same in the animal world. Do they also have likes and dislikes on fellow animals? Like these youngsters for instance. Do they follow the matriag because she is a good leader, or do they follow her because they want to? What will happen if one of them decides they have had enough and turn their own way? Does she ever look around to see if they are still following, and does she know how many are suppose to follow? Does she turn back or call when one of them is missing?
I am sure that is silly questions, but have been wondering about it in the past, and looking at your photo the questions came back to mind.
What a fantastic shot! To get 4in one frame and still everything look so sharp with good details is amazing. It's wonderful to see them in so many different sizes. Great light and all is clear and sharp. What a great panorama. I must congratulate you on this one.
Kind regards
Aaltjie

Hi loot fantastic shot very good moment very close view and perfect sharpness and details
I dont know how you could do better
very well done
Toba

  • Great 
  • Dyker Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 137 W: 0 N: 57] (170)
  • [2008-03-09 7:41]

Hello Loot
This is a well taken family scene with good notes to go with it and a lovely dedication complete with supplementary workshop photo and very interesting notes to accompany it. Elephants are amazing creatures and I've told you long ago that they are my favourites. Your notes just confirms how intelligent these animals are and what makes it even more extraordinary is that their intelligence is not through instinct, but through acquired knowledge gained through their upbringing and the teaching of the parents and other elephants in the group. The photo is great with nice depth of field displayed with the out of focus background and the very sharp area of focus on the animals. Well done.
Greetings
AC

Loot,
I'm seeing this after a reference from your wife on a similar shot of mine.I love this shot of yours.
The timing is perfect.
Thanks so much.
Kind regards,
Goldy

Hello Loot

Hierdie familie foto is voorwaar 'n pragtige toewyding aan Manyee se kleinseun en is hy nie 'n kostelike klein prinsie nie? Eendjies, eendjies, stap in 'n ry. Een, twee, drie, vier, stap hul verby. Jammer, ek het die verkeerde liedjie hier beet. Dit moes seker iets oor die olifant gewees het wat sing van "Die groot ou reus met die behendige neus" of so iets. Hoe sou jy daarvan hou om so 'n neus te kon hê wat jy terselfdertyd as 'n arm of 'n hand kon gebruik? Ek as 'n ma sou nogal kon doen met so 'n ekstra een. Ek weet net nie hoe dit sou lyk as daai ding hier uit my voorkop moes hang nie, maar as ons almal so gelyk het sou ons seker gedink het dit lyk normaal. Julle mans sou dan dalk vir mekaar kon sê, "Haai, kyk na daai meisie, het sy nie die oulikste ou slurpie nie?" Ok, ek is sommer net verspot, ek weet, maar met Eskom, invlasie, die petrol prys, die 'bohaai oor Reitz', en al hierdie ander gemors moet 'n ou maar 'n bietjie verspot raak om oor ietsie te kan lag anders gaan ons net iewers moet gaan sit en huil en daarvoor is ek waaragtigwaar ook nie lus nie.

Groete
Rehanna

Hola Loot.
Genial encuadre y estupendos tonos.
Buenos detalles y gran PoV.
Un cordial saludo, JL.

Hello Loot,
Beautiful family picture. You have them framed nicely. Well seen in natural habitat. Sharp focus and well exposed image.
Very well done and tfs.
JC

Back with comments in the am Loot,
Howard

Hi Loot,
This picture really shows great dimension and the main subjects really pop out when viewing, great exposure. This one reminds of the episode "TARZAN, THE APE MAN " where the hunters follow the pacaderms to the graveyard to collect all the ivory, Johnny Weismuller was the coolest Tarzan. TFS
Paul:)

Johnny Weissmuller. Maureen O'Sullivan. Now we're talking! Jane tags along with her father and his partner as they safari in search of the mysterious elephant graveyard. Once they are deep in the jungle, Tarzan "discovers" Jane and promptly kidnaps her. They, quickly, fall in love and then the action begins. The safari is captured by a tribe of pygmies and Tarzan must rescue them - with the help of his friends, the elephants.
This is a fantastic adventure film! Weissmuller is easily the best known of the movie Tarzan's and does a great job (even if Tarzan isn't portrayed as the intelligent guy he is in the books). What can I say about Maureen O'Sullivan? She IS Jane; intelligent, sexy and quite capable of taking care of herself (until she meets Tarzan)...

Remade in 1959 with Denny Miller and in 1981 with Miles O'Keeffe.

Tarzan Movie Source

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