How close, is too close? "elephants in chobe"

How close, is too close "elephants in chobe"

Elephants are often called gentle giant's and the chobe region is home to more of these beautiful giants then any other spot on earth, numbering well over 100000
Since these majestic animal's are for the most part seemingly gentle, does this mean that one should drive up to them, try get as close as possible? Common sense says no, yet sadly it seems that when people see these giants out in the wild or in chobe national park, the first thing they want to do is see how close they can get!
Are they adrenaline junkies? Are they trying to get Instagram selfies? What are the doing?
It doesn't really matter what they trying to do, the fact is that these types of people, are not only putting themselves and any one in there vehicle in danger, but also putting the lives of the elephants and the lives of future visitors to chobe in jepody!

So how close is too close?

Well lets use a picture to illustrate the different zones around an elephant, for now we will just highlight three zones,

1. The danger/kill zone
In our picture this area is in red, however the size of this area can change, being larger or smaller depending on the elephant in question, for example an elephant with a baby or an elephant that has been harassed in the past will often have a larger red zone, whilst often old bulls, can be a lot more tolerant,

2. The warning/mock charge zone
In our picture i have made this orange, step into this zone, and the elephant will warn you that you getting too close to the red zone, and will often mock charge, basically saying "back off, get out of my space" should one ignore this friendly warning the red zone may well grow larger and you may well find the warning mock charge becoming a real charge!

3. The tolerated zone/ safe zone
When you in this zone, you are an observer and the elephants are relaxed and show no signs of discomfort,

In the end one cannot put a number, as to how close one can get to wild elephant's each one is different, very much like us humans we all have our comfort zones and we expect others to respect our space,