This Elephant Is Proving That You’re Never Too Big To Splash Around In The Mud

This Elephant Is Proving That You’re Never Too Big To Splash Around In The Mud

This elephant is proving that you’re never too big to splash around in the mud as it attempts to cake its entire body. He doesn’t let his 13ft height get in the way as he rolls and plays joyously in the mad bath – as a photographer in Africa captured the incredible scenes in a South African game reserve on camera.

But it’s more than just fun. Elephants use the mud to cool their skin and to protect them from ᴘᴀʀᴀsɪᴛᴇs and their skin from the hot sun’s powerful UV rays. Photographer Anette Mossbacher said the elephant spent around half an hour languishing in the mud before wiping his ears and eyes with his trunk.

The 52-year-old, from Germany but living in Bergdietikon, Switzerland, spotted two male elephants heading for the mud holes in Madikwe and decided to follow them.

She said: ‘It was so much fun to watch this elephant enjoying his mud bath. When I saw him enjoying it so much, I thought if he wasn’t be so big I could join in. When it is good for the elephant it might be for us humans too. There were huge splashes nearly as high as his body. He splashed with all four of his legs, one after the other to get his tummy covered as good as possible.”

The elephant was making a bit of a mumbling noise but he was more busy with getting mud all over his body. The elephant looked very happy though and he even had a smile on his face.  He was sinking into the mud bath, first lying down for a little while and just moving his head sideways a few times. After this he just ‘sat’ in the mud and seemed to enjoy it, he played a bit with his trunk in the mud then stood up again and clean the mud from his ears and eyes with his trunk. There were about five mud holes in this area, which are used by elephants and rhinos. When standing he had another go with all four legs splashing more mud onto his body.