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Congregated at the waterhole, playfully splashing and spouting plumes of water over their wrinkly hides to cool their bodies, or whilst flapping their ears like huge fans as they amble along browsing for food, the majestic African Elephant may seem to have not an enemy in the world.
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All males have tusks, as do most females.
Even at birth, calves have a tiny pair of "milk tusks". At about a year, these are replaced with a permanent pair which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
Large elephants can attain a mass of about five tons with tusks up three metres in lenght.
They consume huge amounts of food in the form of grass and leaves - often selected from the tops of trees - and depending on availability can digest up to 200 kilograms in a day.
The elephant lacks sweat glands and if it were not for its large ears which constitute about 20 percent of its body surface area it would not be able to cope with the intense heat of the African sun.
The ears are richly supplied with blood vessels and are the ideal avenue for heat loss.
Flapping the ears dissipates body heat, as well as producing a cooling breeze over the skin.
This gentle flapping action has the effect of cooling five to twelve litres of blood flowing through the ears every minute.
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Other methods of keeping cool include spraying the body with water and drinking approximately 150 litres a day, climatic conditions permitting.
In the dry season, elephants may have to travel up to 80 kilometres a day in search of water, which is sucked into the trunk, and then squirted into the mouth.
Highly destructive in their feeding habits, elephant bulls will push down whole trees to reach a few leaves, and will strip the bark from certain species, particularly acacias, sometimes damaging them beyond regeneration.
Male elephants occasionally indulge in serious fighting over a female. Living in a matriarchal society, the females and their young associate in closely-knit groups, combining with other family groups to form the breeding herd.
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A single calf may be born at any time of the year following a 22 month period of gestation and its lifespan will average about 60 years.
These extremely intelligent animals are endowed with a conscious sense of family unit.
The mother, especially, will show great affection for her young, and when danger is imminent the calf will be hidden under her belly.
Elephants have only man as their enemy, since even the lion will only attack a small calf if it has strayed too far from the herd.
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The Leopard is essentially a shy animal and a sighting can be considered a rare privilege.
The spots, for which he is known, are set in symmetrical rows and combine in rosette-like clusters to form a dappled camouflage.
Food of choice is small buck and baboon but unfortunately, as its natural territory diminishes it has often been forced to poach domestic stock which has resulted in retribution by man.
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Lion, "The King of the Beasts"...... !
His eminence instills fear, awe and respect in both man and beast.
On the prowl The King is in full command and the atmosphere becomes charged with tension as all lessor creatures take on the heightened awareness of danger and the need for self preservation.
Such is the strenght and power of this animal, the largest of all African cats, that even the mighty elephant needs to be on guard.
Large male lions can stand 1,25 meters at the shoulders and have a mass of almost 250 kilograms. This weight is used to great effect when hunting to drag prey to the ground.
His fearsome appearance is enhanced by his large mane which can be almost black, especially in those found in the north -western region of Southern Africa.
The male lions main function is to protect the pride and to fend off predators such as the opportunistic hyena.
The lioness has the greater responsability for hunting and food requirement - even though the hunt is usually a cleverly orchestrated team effort by all members of the pride.
The agile adult females will spread out to enable them to attack from different directions.
They will simultaneously charge at the opportune moment and select one unfortunate animal to relentlessy bear down on until it is brought to ground.
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The larger males will be quick to feed on a successful "kill" and often thoroughly gorge themselves before allowing lionesses and cubs to partake in the feast.
In the meantime it is likely that other predators such as hyena and jackal will have started to gather nearby, not to mention vultures and other birds of prey also quick to fulfil the role Nature gave them in the food chain.
For the smaller members of the lion pride the ravenous hyena can be a serious problem, and though gorging on the carcass the adult male lions will always keep a wary eye on these unwelcome mealtime guests.
It is the size of the lion group, which can number up to about thirty members, that determines how often a "kill" will be necessary.
Lions will usually hunt in the night, cool of early morning, or late in the afternoon as they are loath to exert themselves in the midday heat.
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One of the mammalian wonders of the Namib is the Cape fur seal colony at Cape Cross, but the combination of noise and smell is not for the faint-hearted.
Up to 100.000 of these large fur seals may be present on this rocky promontory at certain times of year but in October, when the mature bulls fight for the right to become "beach-masters" and establish harems, things are at their most interesting.
From late November to early December the small black pups are born and the bulls assert their right to mate.
Black-backed jackals and brown hyaenas patrol the fringes of the colony, feeding on dead or weak seal pups and debris. Kelp gulls also grab any morsel.
Great skeins of Cape cormorants, flying just above the waves, wing north and south along the Namib coastline, moving between the pelagic fishing grounds and their roosting sites.
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In the Namib Desert there are also small numbers of game animals and their predators.
During times of good rain orix penetrate deep into the dune system to feed on the grasses whose seeds may have lain dormant for several years.
Springbok also take advantage of this short-lived bounty, moving in small herds along the inter-dune plains, or streets, nibbling the new growth.
As the hot winds blow the land dries out and the orix and springbok leave the dune fields to disperse over the gravel plains in the direction of the Khomas Hochland where higher rainfall ensures the availability of grasses for a longer period.
It is here that the Hartmann's mountain zebra has its stronghold.
This once common species has been hunted so ruthlessly that only a few thousand survive along the Namib fringes.
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There are also several species of very flat, rounded beetles of the genus Lepidochora, wich have developed an even more ingenious method of water collection.
This small coleopterans construct narrow trenches on the surface of the sand that run perpendicular to the direction of the fog-bearing wind.
The ridges of these trenches absorb more water than the surrounding undisturbed sand surface and the beetles return to extract the water from the sand ridges that they built.
But it is not only the fog that enables the great diversity of animal life to survive in the Namib; there are also large quantities of wind-blown plant and animal detritus that catch in the lee slopes of the sand dunes and provide food for many invertebrates and a few vertebrates.
Apart from numerous species of tenebrionid beetle and fishmoths that partake of this wind-delivered feast, there is also a lizard that specialises in feeding on the seeds of one bush, Trianthema hereroensis, which have been carried by the winds; this is the shovel-snouted lizard.
Sitting on the crest of a sand dune at between two and five o'clock in the morning, with a cold, moisture-laden wind beating against one's face and clothing doesn't appeal to everyone, but this is when the seemingly barren Namib Desert is at its best.
The powderpuff-like golden mole has been moving around on the surface of the lower dune slopes, seeking out beetle larvae and legless lizards.
The web-footed gecko and the white lady are also out hunting for insect prey.
The web-footed gecko is so named for an obvious reason, and this adaptation allows it to "swim" under the soft surface of the dune sand as well as walk more easily on the surface.
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The white lady is a large spider that shelters in burrows during the day, emerging in the hours of darkness to stalk its prey on the slopes of the sand dunes, but what is unusual about this desert arachnid is its escape mechanism. When threatened it forms its legs into the shape of a wheel and rolls rapidly down the dune slope.
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In the battle for survival many species have evolved to utilise the Namib's fog, the only regular source of moisture.
Most incredible of all are a number of the flightless tenebrionid beetles that have developed unique methods of harvesting the minute water droplets.
The "head-standing" species Onymacris unguicularis is diurnal, spending the nights under the dune sand, but as the heavier fog rolls in from the cold ocean during the early morning hours these beetles have to make their way laboriously to the top of the dune slipface.
Here they turn to face into the fog-laden wind, with the hindquarters raised so that the water droplets run down to the mouth.
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