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Hotel guests at the Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia will have no need to go out on safari, after a hungry herd of elephants wandered into their lobby.
The safari lodge happens to be built next to their favourite mango tree, and the elephants always visit when the fruit ripens every year.
Ian Salisbury, from Lancashire, general manager of the lodge in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, managed to get the incredible pictures.
According to the Daily Mail, he said: “This is the very unusual, and quite unique phenomenon of an annual elephant trek through the lodge’s reception/lobby area.
“From late October every year, families of elephants visit the lodge grounds to feed on the fruit of a ‘wild mango’ (Cordyla africana) tree which grows in the lodge courtyard.
“Whilst the elephants can access this tree by a variety of routes, they often choose to take a shortcut through the actual building.”
“Whilst the tree is fruiting, through November and into December, the elephants visit at all hours of day and night.”
He said the elephants are usually very relaxed adding: “We have had one mother elephant bring her new born calf to the lodge when only two days old, that same baby is now four years old, but still confidently returns each year, which is great to see.”
The elephants have been making their trip to the fruit tree for years. Back in 2008, then-director Andy Hogg told the Telegraph: “This is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans.
“The elephants start coming through base camp in late November of each year to eat the mangoes from our trees.
“When they are ripe they come through and they stand about for four to six weeks coming back each day or second day to eat the mangoes.”
Andy added that the lodge was unwittingly built on the path, and they had no idea the animals would insist on returning.
