Elephants are gentle giants, intelligent and emotional, but in the wild they can be dangerous if you get too close.
As a park visitor you find yourself on the elephant’s home ground, so it’s up to you to be a considerate guest. For your own safety, give ellies lots of personal space when you encounter them.
At Wild, we’ve heard from several wildlife lovers who have witnessed not-so-ideal game viewing behaviour. Cars encroaching on elephants, people hanging out of windows and even the occasional hoot. Can you blame the elephants for getting grumpy?
But if you know better, you do better. Wild editor Romi Boom spells out the guidelines for safe elephant viewing.
How to approach elephants
- Always slow down as soon as you see elephants. Never rush up to them.
- Switch off the engine, sit quietly and enjoy their company.
- Elephants must be viewed at a minimum distance of 100 metres. This is the most comfortable distance for the ellies, therefore the safest for you.
- If you suspect that a bull is in musth (see below) the minimum recommended viewing distance is 100 to 200 metres. Testosterone levels make them short-tempered.
- Always assess the elephants’ direction of movement. Do not block them, cut off their escape route, or come between a mother and calf. Allow them a clear path away from the area.
- Never park your car over any elephant footpaths leading off from the road.
- Keep an eye on both sides and the rear of the vehicle for approaching elephants.
- If you accidentally drive into a herd, remain calm and quiet. Look for the first opportunity to retreat to a safe viewing distance.
- Give the elephants space to move off the road before driving past them. Never drive closer than 40 metres to the nearest elephant.
- Retreat slowly if the elephants are showing any signs of unease or mild threat.
- Never hang out of the window or sunroof.
Be a patient game viewer
No matter how impatient or hurried you are, remember that elephants have right of way. They appreciate silence and slow, steady movements.
- Never drive for extended periods behind elephants that are walking along the road.
- Never rev the engine when elephants are present.
- Never try to push elephants off the road.
- Never drive off the road.
- Never make any noises or fast, jerky movements to attract their attention.
Do not endanger your own life, or that of other visitors. Elephants responsible for damage, injury or death may have to be destroyed, whether or not they were provoked. Their future lies in your common sense.
Look out for signs of aggression
Assess the elephant’s frame of mind by looking for signs of stress or aggression. Its posture, stance and gestures will reveal uneasiness when the elephant is deciding on a flight-or-fight response. There are early warning signs that an elephant is feeling uneasy:
- Swinging the front foot.
- Chin slightly up and ears slightly spread.
- Breaking vegetation without feeding on it.
- Coiling and uncoiling of the trunk.
- Twisting the trunk tip back and forth.
- Touching its own face with its trunk.
- Smelling in the direction of the vehicle.

An elephant showing signs of annoyance.
The ideal situation is to pick up on these more subtle signs and to keep your distance or move away. If you don’t, the elephant may become increasingly annoyed. If the animal displays any of the following signs, it’s best to beat a hasty retreat:
- Turning towards vehicle with ears spread out 90 degrees from the body. Not to be confused with slow, gentle ear flapping which relaxed elephants do to keep cool.
- Throwing dust, branches or objects towards vehicle.
- Tail swished vigorously or held at right angles to the body and arched.
- Standing tall with head raised high, peering over tusks, ears cocked and trunk hanging at an acute angle.
- Vocalisations such as trumpeting.
- Head shaking abruptly so the ears flap and crack.
- Tusks pointing towards opponent with ears spread. This is more serious than standing tall.
- Threat display by bending down with front of body onto knees and pushing head towards the ground or uprooting vegetation.
- Bush bashing and tree pushing to demonstrate strength. Not serious when feeding on the roots or leaves.
- Ear fold, when the lower half of the ear is forced under and backwards so that a horizontal ridge appears across the ear
- Warning charges can often transition into real charges and should be taken very seriously.
- Real charge when the elephant rushes towards opponent or vehicle with ears not fully spread, which they do for greater speed. The trunk is usually tightly curled up, the head held low, and tusks pointing towards the opponent. It is fast, abrupt and silent, so pay attention and respond to early warnings.
What is the situation with a bull in musth?
Musth, a periodic state of dominance in bull elephants, can lead to unpredictable behaviour and increased aggression. Reverse if a musth bull is in front of you, don’t drive past nor let him walk towards you. To recognise a bull in musth, look for:
- Profuse streaming of oily fluid down the cheek to the chin, from the temporal gland located between the eye and ear. Musth males often rub the glands against trees. Temporal gland secretions alone are not a reliable indicator of musth, they can also indicate stress or excitement, so look for co-occurrence with other signs.
- Swollen temporal gland. At the peak of musth, it will be at least the size of an orange. Musth males often drape their trunks over the tusks to relieve pressure on the tusks.
- Constantly dribbling urine or wet hind legs. Look for dark streaks running down the legs.
- A strong, musky odour, distinctly different from the typical elephant or dung smell.
- A swaggering gait, chin tucked in.

An oily fluid streaming down from the elephant’s cheek to the chin. A sign that the elephant bull is in musth.
We are privileged to be able to view elephants in the wild. Make the most of any opportunity by treating elephants respectfully and enjoying their gentle presence. Happy elephant viewing!
Also read: The Last Elephants: are these majestic animals facing extinction?
I wish all visitors to a park were given these guidelines. Would help prevent all the panic and disturbance at ellie sightings
I was recently at Tembe Elephant park and so enjoyed the ellies. They even came right up to the vehicle and touch it. No one even moved a hair and let the ellies ‘snif’ around.
Wonderful but also nerve !!!
Suggest that more information be displayed at all the gates regarding on how to approach Elephants.
As a regular park visitor, I have often seen people placing themselves and others in danger.
What a great article! I agree with the first comment – perhaps SANParks should reproduce the article and hand it to park visitors as they check in. I have one additional tip – it is not uncommon to find vehicles reversing away from a bull Elephant as it walks towards them down the road. After having done a 70 km detour to avoid a road-blocking bull one time in Kruger, we then realised that we were equally likely to meet an Ellie blocking our alternate route! The next time it happened we rounded all of the vehicles up and retreated out of view with them about 2 kilometres down the road with engines off, windows up and no loud talking. This works – the bull becomes bored with no one to intimidate, and walks off into the bush. After about 15 minutes after breaking contact we all ventured back to where the bullying bull had been to find him gone.
I agree all visitors to a park should be given this information!
Have enjoyed visiting parks for many years now but recently have become very nervous of elephants! Would appreciate more information about how exactly to “Retreat to safe viewpoint area”. It is hard to switch off engine incase one needs to do a (slow) hasty retreat!
Thank you for the great advice.
I have had quite a number of incidents where I had to turn my car around for a large bull in the road.
The trickiest situations is when you come around a corner and the elephant is right in front of you.
Safe viewing everybody!!!
thank you for the information. the more we learn the better for the animal and us
The park rangers an Honorary Rangers should be more visible to ensure visitors do not step over the line of the Parks rules and endangers the lives of others visitors and upsetting the animals.
100% agreed Andre. A more visible presence of authorities would definitely help deter rule breakers that detract from others viewing and also endanger both wildlife and visitors.
When viewing elephants please do not block the retreat or forward movement of the vehicles in front of the elephants on or near the road, this allows the vehicles to reverse or move off out of the way when in danger or finished viewing and allows others to view the elephants safely.
I have seen vehicles completely blocking the road in both directions, with elephants on both sides of the road!
Please be considerate and leave some space for the elephants and vehicles to move off safely!