You gotta problem buddy?

“I fix problems. You could say that I make problems... disappear. Never had a problem that I couldn’t fix.”

When I was young, there were some older elephants who had a problem with me. But you know what? As soon as I started growing up, I took care of them all... one by one. You know what I mean? Now everybody bows down... to me, the King of Yala. Nothing stands in my way now; no trees, no elephants, no cars, no houses and especially, no humans. They call me “The Bulldozer”, but I prefer Sando, that’s the name my mama gave me and I love my mama more than anything in this whole wide world. Call me what you want, but don’t call me a bad guy, that’s not who I am. See, I’ve got nothing against you or anyone or anything. Just let me be and let me go where I want, and you and me buddy, we won’t have a problem. Capisce?

Fun Facts

Look, I’ll make it easy for you. I like Yala... all of Yala. But sometimes I like to relax over at Kumana and I always take the same route to get there. Now you know where I hang out and how I get there. So… stay outta my way. Take your pictures and videos, but just keep your distance or else we’re gonna have a problem. Be like those people at Explorer by Mahoora Camp in Kumana, because they know how to respect my space and leave me alone. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go clean myself up in the lake because I just took care of a little problem called Gemunu and things got a little... messy.

Story of the photo

Wildlife photographer Kushan Jayasundara, was on safari at Udawalawe when he was alerted to Sando’s triumphant return to Yala after his altercation with his nemesis, Gemunu. Fortunately he was able to get there in time to capture this candid photo. Witnesses report that it was a brutal but one-sided fight. Sando had a few wounds, but Gemunu was worse off and lost a tusk in the fight.