Film | The Elephant Who Learned to Stand Tall – Robert E Fuller

In Zimbabwe, I search for an extraordinary elephant who’s learned to stand on two legs to reach the highest leaves.

African Elephants are the largest land mammals on earth, standing up to 11 feet tall, weighing over 6 tonnes, and living in huge herds of up to 100 individuals.

By standing on their hind legs, a few elephants have taken their strength to a new level

Mana Pools, Zimbabwe

Mana Pools is home to 12,000 elephants - the second largest concentration in Zimbabwe - and a few individuals here are known around the world for the unique ability to stand on their back legs. The technique gives them the edge over competitors since they can reach high up into the trees to feed when vegetation lower down has dried up. One of the amazing things about Mana Pools is the ability to observe wildlife on foot. With the help of a knowledgeable local guide you can get really close!

An elephant named Fred
And it's not long before our expert guide introduces us to a large bull elephant named Fred. Fred is one of the individuals here who has mastered the skill of standing on his back legs - in fact he was named after Fred Astaire because of the delicate way he dances as he shifts his weight into his back legs. Unfortunately for us, there was enough vegetation within reach so he didn't perform for us the day we spotted him.

Boswell

But our guide takes us across the savannah and soon we find Boswell, an elephant so well known for this trick he was named after a South African circus. Boswell has become famous around the world after appearing on YouTube performing this skill and he's easy to spot. One of his tusks is larger than the other and he wears a tracking collar which helps conservationists keep track of his herds' movements. He also has a very short, stumpy tail! Watching him rock backwards to shift his weight on to his back legs, and then reach up into the branches of a tall tree you can see why he's so admired.

It can't be easy getting his weight off the ground, but when another bull elephant tries to feed from the same tree you can see that it's worth the effort. Boswell clearly has the advantage over the others in the herd.

Elephants

Elephants can eat well over 100kgs of food a day and they also drink up to 200l of water - at a rate of three litres a second - and looking around you can see how the landscape has been shaped by these goliaths. Once the lower leaves have been stripped, younger elephants follow Boswell, keen to take advantage of his feeding strategy!

I came to Zimbabwe with the hope of witnessing this remarkable behavioural adaptation and Boswell has given so much more!