The Matriarch : Mothers about love

On a warm winter’s afternoon, around twenty minutes into game drive, myself and my guests came across a very large breeding herd of elephants. This breeding herd comprised of roughly forty to fifty individuals who were all being led in one straight line towards a small waterhole close to a riverbed and the one female leading the entire herd was the matriarch. A highly organised society comprising of family units of related females (known as cows) and their offspring called calves, along with the lack of mature males as they do not associate themselves within the breeding herds. Now, all these females and their calves within this dynamic herd are led by an older, most mature and knowledgeable female which is referred to as the matriarch.

This female is usually the mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother of all the individuals within the breeding herd. The matriarch is a very important link in a breeding herd, like all mothers they are there to raise, protect and love their family. From leading the herd to areas of nutritious, palatable vegetation, especially in the winter months and drier seasons to discover water - all the way to caring for each individual/member of the herd. For loving, protecting and keeping the herd as strong as possible in daily quests and survival as the largest land mammal on the planet. These are qualities that all mothers have for their children, the exact same as a matriarch for the rest of her herd. I’d like to tribute this “Pic of the Week” blog to all those caring mothers, “keep being the matriarch of your herd, as every member of your family appreciates you and relies on you, just as I do my mother and an entire elephant breeding herd do for their matriarch.”

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D mk ii
• Lens and Focal length – Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM at 70 mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 320
• Aperture – f2.8
• Shutter – 1/1250

Editing used on this image

With this image I used the beautiful lighting that was streaming upon the subject (elephant cow) through the canopy layer of the trees above as it contrasted perfectly with the dark background of the thick vegetation of the drainage line. I then decided to put such image into sepia as the contrast of the highlighted and the darken areas were clashing to bit too much. Such image may seem as if I cropped out the bottom of half of this elephant cow, however that is not the case, this image gives us a good example of how close such gentle giants come to the visitors giving myself and the guests a once in a life time experience.