It is amazing how beautiful some animals are. The tiger, leopard, cheetah, giraffe and a couple of others must heave been in the front of the row when God created the animals and were dishing out the skins. Poor warthog must have been standing close to the back. Here are a couple of close-ups of animal skins. All of these animals were (and hopefully still are) alive when I took the pics. CheetahCrocodile Giraffe
I found this little guy sitting on the side of a rock in a small pool while rock hopping up the gorge at Sleepy Hollow just outside Port Elizabeth. He blended in quite well into his surroundings and I probably would have stepped on him if I didn't look down at the last second. I checked my books but aren't sure what type he is though.The chicken came into the library and said: "Book". The librarian gave her a book,…
When we were small we used to find chameleons in the garden all the time, but that was then and this is now. These days I don't get to see them anywhere as much as I would like to, so it was a big surprise to find this little guy on the stoep of the Protea Hotel Tsitsikamma Village in Storms River the other day. I was really scared that somebody would step on him, so I picked him up…
Walking on the beach the other day I found this little dead fish that had washed up on the beach. There were a couple of these "Plough Shells" all over it, but this one caught my eye. It was busy licking the fish's eye.
On a recent camping trip one of the folk in the group encountered this little guy behind the tents. I have never had the opportunity to take a picture of a scorpion, so I was on him like a rash. It is a Cape Rock Scorpion from the family Liochelidae.It belongs to the group commonly referred to as the thin-tail scorpions. These scorpions and are not venomous to people and a sting from one of them should, at worst, be…
Mud prawns are abundant in estuaries around the low tide level where burrows are easily visible. They are filter feeders who feed from their U-shaped burrows. Mud prawns are very popular for bait fishermen are often seen on sandbanks with prawn pumps collecting them. I have to admit that they are ugly buggers and I wasn't too keen picking one up the first time I was given one, but it wasn't that bad.
Standing at one of the view points when I visited the Valley of Desolation near Graaff Reinet recently, I found this little guy sunning himself on the rocks. As I got closer he ran down the side of the rock to hide. Literally seconds later he was back and as I got myself comfortable and in a position to take a photo, off he went again. But again seconds later he was back. Either he was really enjoying his spot…
This Nile Crocodile was one of the characters we encountered at Bayworld last weekend. Or would it sound cooler if I started with: On my last expedition down the mighty Zambezi River we encountered this croc next to our camp just after sunrise. We barely escaped with our lives... but not before I snapped the following pics. Yeah, the last one sound much cooler. Strike a pose (cool bit: He appeared stealthily out of the water...) I can see you…
We decided to take the Rugrats to Reptile World at The Boma today to experience some slithering serpents. Well, guess who had a legen... wait for it... dary time and who was hiding at the door. The visit starts with a guided tour showing you all the different snakes. This guy is the most common snake we find in this area. Its called a Puffadder and is a distant cousin of the Rattlesnake. It is responsible for a lot of…
Karin posted a pic of her son holding one of those snails that live in the tidal zone on Picture this! by Karin yesterday and I went scratching for my Plough Shells pics. A little while ago we went camping at Cape St Francis. While taking a walk on the beach we found literally hundreds of these snails. They live under the sand within the tidal zone. After a wave washes over them they come out of the sand to…