By Ryan Truscott – EWN
Professional guide Julian Brookstein, who is from Zimbabwe, came upon the rare sight as he took clients on safari through the park’s Lukosi section.
HARARE – Are they dead? No, this whole herd of elephants is simply napping.
The photos of a herd of elephants fast asleep in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park are a good news story, even though they might not look that way to start off with.
Professional guide Julian Brookstein, who is from Zimbabwe, came upon the rare sight as he took clients on safari through the park’s Lukosi section.
“I have always known that elephants sleep lying down so I didn’t realise the impact of the photos,” said Brookstein, who posted the pictures to Facebook on Tuesday. The post has already been shared more than a thousand times.
He told EWN that when he came across the elephants in Hwange three years ago, at first he saw just one animal lying on the ground and thought it was dead. But as soon as the others came into view he realised all 13 elephants – six cows and seven youngsters – were fast asleep.
He and his clients got to within 30 or 40 metres of the sleeping giants.
“It’s all about the wind. Stay down wind always, don’t make quick movements and use cover. As a guide you should always exercise caution on foot,” he explained.
“Something else I have learnt as a guide over the years is how quick an adult elephant can get up from lying down if it wants to!”
The guide and his guests watched the elephants sleeping for more than an hour.
When they eventually did wake up, two young elephants wanted to continue sleeping. They were kicked by a cow, gently at first but with growing intensity until they got up “with a rumble of displeasure”, Brookstein wrote in his Facebook post.
Brookstein, who has spent the past 14 years guiding in Zimbabwe, had seen elephants sleeping in the wild before, although never an entire herd.