Loxodonta Africana (African elephant), Botswana/ Okavango Delta.
An hour before sunrise I found myself perched 12 meters up an enormous spruce of open mopane ridge dotted with ebony and sycamore fig trees, with no moon in the overcast sky, darkness and silence enveloped.
Somewhere nearby I could hear some footsteps of a large animal on thick muddy papyrus of the Okavango Delta. The darkness hide it so well, but soon the unmistakable sound of growling bull betrayed the animals identity. I peered through the darkness hoping to locate a shadow in the nearby trees, but to no avail, light came slowly with the sound of the back snapping off from giant jaws as he made his way over a distant to Xobega Island.
Eventually day light began to expose the bushes and trees, and soon a large Pachyderms became visible about 7 meters west of my stand, red billed francolin and squirrels began their day light activity. In the distance hyenas and jackals could be heard. Quietness takes on a new meaning in this land where the sound of your unshaven face scraping your collar seems deafening to someone who has never been in the bush before.