One way to tell the desert adapted elephant from other elephants is the shape of their ears. Yes, they are in the shape of Africa. Watching elephants in the African desert is ominous. They are huge, playful, smart, and seem purposeful.
You see them alone sometimes as seen in these first images. Scroll down to see them in families and larger groups AND playing in the mud.

Seeing mama and baby or families is exciting.

They play in the mud. Actually they throw water and mud on their backs to help cool them down from the strong sun and protect them from insect bites and sunburn.

It seems that mama is teaching her young to throw mud.

And here they are digging in the mud.

I guess we need to call these two images x-rated.

In the following images the elephants are throwing the mud from a termite mound on their skin.