One of my favorite parts of being a tourist guide used to be sitting in Addo Elephant National Park and watching the elephants do whatever... Coming down to the water, eating, walking along, standing around, ripping a bush apart, little ones playing, big ones stamping out there authority, whatever... At one stage I used to go to Addo up to 5 or 6 times a week and I never got tired of seeing these huge animals. Pity I didn't have…
When visitors to Addo Elephant National Park find the elephants they get very excited, but when they find elephants with tiny little babies like this one, they go absolutely gaga.
The Addo Elephant National Park has recently launched its new Interpretive Centre at the main rest camp. Unfortunately the day we were there it wasn't open yet, so I didn't get any inside pictures. On one of the outside walls visitors will find the Wall of Bones. The wall contains the bones and horns of a number of animals that are found in the Greater Addo Park. With the completion of this centre, a webcam has been added overlooking the…
We visited the Addo Elephant National Park last Sunday for the first time in way too long. There was a time that I went there quite often, so it was very exciting to get back there. Addo had some rain a couple of weeks ago and the park seems to be slowly recovering from the devastating drought that is hanging over our area. We found this young bull at the Spekboom waterhole. At Spekboom you can actually get out of…
Addo Elephant National Park is probably the most popular destination as a day trip out of Port Elizabeth. Visitors can either go to the park in their own vehicles or with a tour operator. Once at the park you can drive through the park in the vehicle you came in as it is a national park, or you can book an open vehicle game drive guided by a game ranger. In the days when I was still a tourist guide…
There was an article in the newspaper this morning about one of the younger big elephant bulls in Addo Elephant National Park killing one of the older ones. It made me go and have a look at my elephant pictures to see if I had a nice picture of an elephant bull. I found this one that was taken a couple of years ago when I was still tour guiding. We were in Addo in a 11 seater minibus which…
Addo Elephant National Park is home to the Flightless Dung Beetle. This specific species are a protected species and are only found in Addo and surrounding game reserves. The make use of elephant dung to make their dung balls in which they lay their eggs. Due to the elephants being shot out in the early part of the 1900's, the number of dung beetles also took a drastic dip. Today the numbers are slowly increasing and there is even a…
The last in the Big 5 series is the Cape Buffalo. Buffalo are normally found in big herds while old bulls lead a solitary life. Buffalo are grazers and mostly found in the open. The buffalo in the Addo Elephant National Park is, or was, a bit different. Due to the fact that they were so extensively hunted in the late 1800's and early 1900's, they turned nocturnal. They only came out during the evenings and spent their days in…
Today I feature the rhino in my Big 5 series. There are two kinds of rhino. The White Rhino (pictured above) as well as the Black Rhino. The difference between the two has nothing to do with colour. Black rhinos are generally smaller and more aggressive than their cousins. They are browsers and generally live in the bush. White rhinos are grazers and is just about always found in the open. The Dutch called them the Wide mouth rhino and…
Port Elizabeth is situated in Big 5 country. Addo Elephant National Park as well as a host of private game reserves boasting the Big 5 are all situated within an hour to ninety minutes from the city. The Big 5 was named so as they were the five animals that were the most dangerous to hunt. I decided to do a series on the Big 5 and post a picture of each of them over the next couple of days.…