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…
The Burchell's Zebra is quite common in the Eastern Cape and the majority of game reserves would have them. Have you ever wondered if a Zebra was white with black stripes or black with white stripes? How do you differentiate between a male and female zebra without turning them upside down and looking at the obvious? The males are black and white and the female are white and black.
There is just something majestic when you see a giraffe. Tall and graceful and extremely photogenic. I took this photograph at Seaview Game and Lion Park just outside Port Elizabeth. Did you know? A giraffe has seven neck vertebrae. The same amount as a human. I wonder why I can't see over a six foot wall.
The Seaview Game and Lion Park is situated just west of Port Elizabeth. They have a white lion breeding program. The lion cubs are all hand reared by the staff who give them their bottles, sit up with them at night and even take them potty. Ok not potty. In their case its lawny, or grassy or sommer behind the bushy. LOL. Why I say that is that when a cub is small the mother would lick their thingies (for…
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…
Staying on the Big 5 series, today's animal is probably the one that most tourists would like to see in the wild. The lion is always referred to as the king of the jungle. Groups are normally made up of female and young with a dominant male hanging around. Other males would live in small groups and from time to time a male would challenge the dominant male for his position. The hunting in the groups are done by the…
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.…