Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

Every afternoon for 10 days, John Banovich went to the banks of Botswana’s Khwai river, where families of elephants gathered to eat and drink and bathe. With 25 trips to Africa under his belt, he’d seen alot of elephants but he wanted to see more, to learn more. Like the time he spotted a baby that had lost its trunk, perhaps to a lion attack, and he saw its mother break off branches to feed the infant.

“I’d never seen animals care for a handicapped individual before,” Banovich said. Then, on the eleventh day, he decided to join a group of 12 bulls in the river, slipping into the chest-deep water, among the hippos and crocodiles, trying not to think about mysterious bugs and parasites.

The hippos rose, gave him the eyeball and moved on. The crocodiles stayed hidden, which wasn’t exactly a comfort, since visibility in the water was just a few feet. But the elephants paid no heed and went about their business, which included ignoring Banovich.

“As long as I stayed low in the water, I looked like a white hippo,” he recalled. And that was just fine with him, because getting close was the whole idea. The giant bulls allowed him to approach within eight feet, something you could never do on dry land, not without provoking a charge, a flight or some type of reaction.

“In the water, they were completely relaxed,” he said, because they have no water-dwelling...