African Elephant - Dusting off Time
An African Elephant cow takes a dust "shower". Although it is hard to belief, these magnificent creatures do this to protect their skins from UV rays and pests. With the skin around 1 - 2 cm thick, it is hard to understand how ticks and such can cause irritation to these pachyderms. Yet they do.
This specific cow is very old ... her dipping back (spine), thickness of upper trunk and rather hanging belly indicate this. To judge an elephant cow's age by tusks can be very tricky as they do not grow thick and heavy like a bull's.
Note how she also scratches her back leg ... an itch. Considering all the aspects in this photograph, one can easily compare her behavior to that of man's. And that is what makes Elephants special (even Holy in some countries).
The African bush elephant is the larger of the two species of African elephant. Both it and the African forest elephant have usually been classified as a single species, known simply as the African elephant, but recent evidence has seen the forest elephant classified as a distinct species . Some authorities still consider the currently available evidence as insufficient for splitting African elephants into two species.
