An angry elephant took exception to having his picture taken - nonchalantly destroying thousands of pounds worth of camera equipment.
The seven-tonne bull elephant casually threw the gear into a mud hole after discovering it near his watering hole.
Photographer Paul Souders was trying to take close-ups of a herd of males in Chobe National Park, Botswana, when the giant mammal struck.
But the costly lesson did not deter the American as he went through several expensive cameras, ranging between £395 to £3,945.
He said: 'Elephants are intelligent and curious creatures so I wasn't surprised that he inspected the camera with his trunk, sniffing at it delicately.
'But the utter contempt and disdain when he picked it up and gave it a toss, that hurt my feelings a little.'
He added: 'If I had to guess, he was merely annoyed that there was this silly, clicky thing in the way of where he wanted to drink.'
Mr Souders also placed cameras in Nxai Pan National Park and along the Botete River in Makgadigadi Pans National Park.
He planted them at the edge of watering holes, using his past experience to guess where the elephants would wander.
The 52-year-old then operated the camera by remote from a truck 30-50m away.
There might be someone crazy enough to lie down in a mud pool and try to photograph elephants from five feet away - but I'm not that guy any more,' added Mr Souders, who comes from Seattle.
'So I put the cameras out there and let them take the risks. It's all off-the-shelf gear that anyone could buy. You just have to be willing to watch it get destroyed.
'It's sort of a Buddhist thing I've unintentionally cultivated of late, avoiding attachments to material things.'
Fortunately Mr Souders was able to get all of his damaged cameras repaired following the trip - but added: 'Next time I try this, I will plan a little better and protect my cameras in waterproof cases.'
Source : dailymail
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