Rush Hour on Safari - Baby Elephant Emerges From The Bush

I filmed this last July while on an elephant safari in Sri Lanka. We had been driving through the National Park for almost an hour and still had not seen any animals. We were craning our neck out of the vehicle for ages, searching for elephants hiding in the bush.

Suddenly we spotted this Mama elephant in the bush to the right and got very excited. Mama elephants are extremely protective of their babies so our guide stopped the safari truck, and about 10 safari trucks had to stop behind us causing a mini rush hour / traffic jam inside Minneriya National Park. Next thing we saw her slowly crossing the road, closely followed by her adorable baby. We all sat in amazement watching them cross, careful not to be too loud or too get too close for fear she could charge us.

It was such an incredible moment to witness in person. Elephants are the best!

This park is home to one of the largest Asian elephant populations in the world - over 200 elephants living in one park! You can often see up to 80 of them at once down at the watering hole, especially during dry season. It can be difficult to spot the elephants at first as there are such dense shrubs and trees everywhere. However, once you see one elephant, you will usually see the entire herd. After this amazing elephant crossing, we saw about 50 elephants all gathered together, walking down to the lake to wash themselves and drink some water. It's best to go there early in the morning (if you want to see leopards) or at sunset to watch elephant bath time. The babies are the cutest when washing themselves, splashing water all over the place. If you want to see wild elephants like this, Sri Lanka is the place to go!