View allAll Photos Tagged mudbath
The Elephant Orphanage of David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, where small young orphan elephant calves, rescued from everywhere in Kenya are treated until they get grown up and strong to be reintegrated to wild elephant families in Tsavo. This picture was taken during their mudbath in the visit to the Nairobi unit where the smaller ones stays.
These ones are recent rescued elephants, with maximum one month old, from Northern Kenya. Kungu, Suguta and Barseloi are the youngest caves in the team.
Meet the DS Wildlife Trust and help donating or fostering one of the little elephants at www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
Quite a bit has changed since my 1970's Cota 247. One of the observers' bikes as it was obviously parked up before the course turned into a mudbath. The Walter Rusk memorial trial, the Leadmines 2022.
Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
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Rolling around in the mud is more than just fun for elephants. Mud baths serve a critical purpose for elephants. Under the harsh African sun, the heat and UV radiation can be deadly and with their few hairs and sweat glands they have to find other ways to cool off. Regardless, it's still huge fun!
Jampa says that they like to get covered in mud to keep cool and to keep the flys and mosquitoes off..
This will my last upload until Monday as I'm going up to Donington tomorrow for all 3 days of the Download festival. The headlining bands this year are Slipknot, Iron Maiden, and Rammstein. Hope the rain goes away or it might be a mudbath like last year...
Addo Elephant National Park is set deep within the dense valley bushveld of the Sundays River region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The original Elephant section of the Park was proclaimed in 1931, a time when just 11 Elephant roamed the area.
Today, however, over 550 Elephant makes the park its home, as well as Cape Buffalo, Black Rhino, a variety of antelope species and the unique flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. Addo National Park is indeed a unique and diverse wildlife sanctuary, and plans to expand and transform Addo is already in motion.
At this Eastern Cape game park you will experience an unrivaled natural diversity, boasting 5 of South Africa's seven major vegetation biomes. Addo is also home to the 'Big 7' namely Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Whale and the Great White Shark.
Dust baths are an important part of an elephant's daily skincare routine, and for baby elephants they are fun activity too. The soil helps protect the skin against the sun and biting insects.
The Ralston Company's automotive roots stretch right back to the 1910's, but it wasn't until the late 1920's that the low-volume products offered really shone.
Like all luxury automotive companies, however, the Wall Street Crash and ensuing Great Depression upset the grand plans that they had put into place. Prior to WWII the Ralston Group was still based in Finland, where the assembly of it's cars took place. Many of the systems, however, were sourced from other makers or suppliers.
The Ralston Type 8 was launched in 1928 (just in time for the financial crisis), and used the Engine and Driveline supplied by the Cord-Auburn-Duesenberg Corporation, based in Indiana USA. The engine was the mighty straight-8, as used in Duesenbergs, though at this stage the engine was not supercharged. The driveline was fitted to a chassis made by Ralston Engineering works, and bodies were supplied by the world's leading coachbuilders.
The first 'Rhino' model again used systems from Duesenberg. Now upping power with the addition of a supercharger. The more interesting addition was a front axle drive unit developed for the Cord L29. This allowed four-wheel-drive, fitted with the standard bodies (and marginally lengthened wheelbase frame), or more spectacularly, six-wheel-drive or half track options. Along with the front driven axle and transfer case (resulting in the need to offset the engine to the left side within the frame), the car also required a second driven axle at the rear. The two rear axles were approximately located either side of the standard Type-8 rear axle location. This produced a car that was necessarily longer, but also only allowed the fitting of two-door body styles because of the forward position of the first rear axle. Weight was increased significantly over a 'standard' Type-8, by as much as 3/4 ton.
Other fixtures were changed according to purpose - many cars sporting removable fuel tanks mounted outboard ahead of the front doors. Depending on model, fuel consumption varied from horrendous, to abysmal.
The Ralston Rhino Type-8R was an immensely accomplished off-road luxury vehicle. Fit-for-purpose allowed Ralston to charge sums of money unheard of for a motor vehicle. The six-wheel-drive and half-track versions were able to go almost anywhere, and had been designed to do so for very specific reasons.
The Ralston's native Finland is a beautiful place, but not the easiest to traverse by motor vehicle. For much of the year the ground is covered by snow, or if the snow has melted the ground can quickly turn to a mudbath. The ice, snow and mud of Finland is only one location - the other - was Africa. Ralston Industries founder Xavier was fond of big-game hunting. Along with gaming, the luxuries to which the aristocratic class deemed necessary, meant that an appropriate vehicle was of grand proportion, grander power, and in the case of the Rhino - grand capability. The six-wheel-drive prototypes had proved their value on the African Savanah, as well as the North African desert marches.
Alas, the car was launched as the Great Depression took hold. The Cord-Auburn-Duesenberg group was struggling financially also, though the supply of the front drive unit for the Rhino (based on the Cord L29 system), allowed C-A-D to develop a second generation unit for the V8-engine Cord 810/812 'Coffin Nose' for 1935.
The 'Tiger' line was to have gained access to the C-A-D V8 of the 810, but the financial collapse meant the program was delayed, and the vehicle was launched with Cadillac power in 1938, and without the additional front drive unit available.
Ralston had pre-bought enough front drive units for the limited volume Rhino Type 8R though, and had enough supply to continue buidling limited volume of the Rhino Type-I, all the way into the late 1950s at their Finnish works. Some cars had been specially built during WWII, and many cars that were already in private hands were converted to military staff cars.
The car was launched in 1932, when a mere eight vehicles were produced, reached its peak in a minor update for 1936 at thirty four cars. After the war, Ralston produced an average of five Rhino MkI (D & E) Type 8R vehicles until 1958.
This Rhino MkI Type 8R-32 (1932) Tourer Half Track has be built on Lego miniland scale for Flickr LUGNuts 77th Build Challenge, - 'Designing the Ralston Rhino' - a challenge to design the fictitious Rhino 'Truck' model for the fictitious Ralston company. The model must feature a 'X' in the styling, and also follow the themes developed in LUGNuts Challenge 63, - 'Designing the Ralston Tiger'.
Day 4 - A local walk for local people.
No rain - that day - but plenty previously. To say it was a bit wet underfoot was an understatement. Most definitely welly weather.
Not sure how far it was, probably only 3 or 4 miles, but that's plenty far enough in those conditions, don't recommend going too far in steel toe capped wellies!
A Happy New Year oder auch einen guten Rutsch !
African Elephant / Afrikanischer Elefant (Loxodonta africana)
after a mud bath in a swampy area along the Zambezi River.
Lower Zambezi N.P., Zambia
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Member of the Nature’s Spirit
Good Stewards of Nature
Another one from my archives, back in my pre-DLSR days (2003), pre knowing ANYTHING about photography, just playing with my Olympus and learning as I went along. This is a friend of a friend relaxing on the beach after we all got nude and covered ourselves in mud on the wonderful, quiet, perfect island of Formentera, off the coast of Ibiza.