Where the antelope(s) play

 I never realized just how bereft of antelope we are in this country. I don't know how many different species of antelope reside in Africa but we saw a bunch of them and I am sure we barely scratched the surface! Being prey animals, they were quite difficult to photograph in most cases. By far the largest number of any single species we saw on our journey was impala and yet I have few decent shots of the beautiful creatures.

The top two shots are of blue wildebeest, an animal I will admit I never even thought of as an antelope. What look like wrinkles in the neck are largely darker stripes. I love a number of things about these animals: The unusual tail, the unique head shape, the amazing twisted horns….

 This beautiful antelope, below, is a Greater Kudo cow. Look at those ears!

 To the left and below are the impala. This was one case where I was trying to get a butt shot as the markings on their rear ends are so beautiful.

The buck shows off the long, graceful horns indicative of this species.

 The next two shots are of the male and female Nyala. The markings on the face of the buck are especially striking.

 We saw several species of the group known as "dwarf antelope" including this small steenbok ewe (below) trying to disappear into the grass.

One of the most regal looking antelope is the common Waterbuck. At least until you find out their other name is the "toilet seat antelope", so called because of the distinctive white ring circling the animals' rump!

Spots and Stripes

 For some strange reason, I really wanted to see a hyena in Africa. As it turned out, we saw several and - as I should have guessed - they are quite beautiful in real life. The animal in the top two photos was encountered very close to a hunting leopard and he was trying to sneak up on the cat, possibly to steal her meal, while keeping a close eye on us as well.

 Despite their resemblance to dogs, hyenas are not canines. They form their own family: Hyaenidae, which has four members including this one, the spotted hyena.

 The animal in the last three photos was large and he came up behind us as we were sitting in the jeep watching the elephants at a watering hole, startling both the guide and the tracker. As soon as the elephants caught sight of him they charged him, en masse, causing him to turn and run as you see in the last photo.

 Although we did not see the large herds of zebra encountered during migration in the Serengeti, we did see quite a few small groups, mostly as a distance. These particular animals are Plains Zebras. One way of identifying this species is the presence of "shadow stripes", light grey lines that appear between the black and white stripes.

Giraffes

 On our last game drive in Sabi Sands Game Reserve we were on a mission. Each jeep contained 6 guests, a guide (who was also the driver) and a tracker. Most of the people in our jeep wanted to see a giraffe. We met up with other groups at dinner each evening and all had stories to tell of the herds of giraffe they had seen and how impressive the animals were. Our group had not seen one.

We spent several hours driving to and then searching a remote section of the reserve in hopes of finding  the large animals. You would think they would be incredibly easy to spot from a distance but that is not so. Since they tend to hang out in the areas of taller trees, they are remarkably invisible until you are right on top of them.

We drove by many other animals in our search, foregoing the opportunity to observe others in our quest for the tall, elusive giraffe. Our tracker was obviously unhappy. He repeated numerous times that in 20 years of working he had never NOT been able to find giraffe for his guests. Then the radio crackled and another guide who knew of our search came on to report he had spotted one large lone bull. Not only was it in an area some distance from our location, it was moving into an area belonging to another camp where we could not follow. The next 20 minutes or so were exhilarating as our driver told us all to hold on tight while he took the jeep to maximum speed over rough tracks and cross-country in an effort to got to the animal before it was out of our reach.

Once we arrived at the general location where the big bull had been seen, we stopped to figure out our next move. Then, as we were sitting quietly, the giant animal suddenly appeared beside us as if by magic. It was the most "Jurassic Park" like moment of our trip. Everyone knows giraffe are big but all I can say is "Wow"! This guy was breathtakingly tall and on a mission of his own. We were able to get off a dozen shots before he disappeared into the forbidden territory of the other camp. Was it worth it? You bet!

Not only was he tall, he was somewhat battered - probably from a fight with another bull. An oxpecker was working hard to clean bugs from a wound on the giraffe's neck and he had a cut on his face that was still bleeding.

 He was kind enough to look back one last time as he headed off into the sunset. See the oxpecker now traveling on his head?

 Another surprise of Africa was in discovering that they have many different types of starlings and all are beautiful. We are so used to the rather annoying invasive groups of colorless starlings in the US that I never realized there was so much more to the species. There are 13 different types of starlings in southern Africa. Pictured here are the Cape Glossy (above) and the Violet-backed (below).

Gentle Giants

 My original plan for today was to write a joint post covering both hippos and rhinos but the news out of Africa, recently released, that 2014 was the worst year in many for poaching of these incredible gentle giants, made me change my mind. So this post is dedicated to the magnificent white rhinos of South Africa.

The white rhino differs from the black rhino not in color, but in size and the shape of its head. One train of thought is that the early English visitors to Africa misunderstood the Dutch name for the animals that included the word "wijd"or wide, referring to the shape of the animal's mouth. The name white rhinoceros stuck and so when a second species was discovered it was named black rhino in order to distinguish the two.

There are two classifications of white rhinos: Southern and Northern. Northern white rhinos are on the very brink of extinction with only a handful left. More bad news this week reported the death of one of the last two remaining fertile males, making continuation of the species almost impossible.

The southern white rhinos have had much more success but are under constant threat from poachers after their horns. The horns, which are made of keratin - basically the same material as human fingernails - sell on the black market for a higher price than gold!

On our first evening game drive we left the small group of lions at dusk. As we headed up a hill to make our way back to camp we suddenly spotted a mother and baby white rhinoceros feeding on the grass of the plains. The low light combined with their constant movement meant getting a sharp image was a challenge but I did capture a few, including one (top) that has both animals in the shot. The second shot, to the right, shows just the baby as it scrounged around for the best grass. It was easy to see how these animals could fall prey to poachers as they seemed totally unconcerned by our close proximity.

Mama stayed fairly close to her baby most of the time.

 It was tough to get a shot with the animal's head out of the grass but eventually mama did raise up for just a second.

This red-billed oxpecker started  working at the rhinos nose and slowly made its way up the head and onto the animal's back, picking off insects as it went.

 On day three we came across this massive, mud-coated male rhino (above) at a watering hole. The guide explained that the animal was exercising another method of insect - particularly tick - extraction. If you look at his sides you can see streaks where he has rubbed against a stump, knocking off mud and with it, the ticks that were clinging to his thick hide. The guide took us to a mud covered stump where he was able to pick out several fat ticks, still wriggling.

 On our way back to camp for lunch we came across this duo lounging in a dried up mud hole. This image is actually huge as it is a two shot panorama. I can't wait to print it as a large canvas!

Cats - 2

 My second cat post from Africa showcases the leopards of Londolozi. There were several surprises about the game drives but the biggest was probably in realizing just how close we could get to these wild animals as long as we were in a jeep and didn't make any sudden moves.

There are many, many game lodges in South Africa and we were lucky enough to be positioned in Tree Camp, part of the Londolozi complex bordering Kruger National Park. Books have been written about the leopards of the area. I can't begin to describe the thrill of witnessing these beautiful cats in their natural environment.

We saw three separate leopards while we were there. Two are pictured in this post. The female in the first three images was spectacular in her coloring and markings. She was in the process of hunting and was not about to let our presence upset her goal.

 I actually love this shot, above, even though her face is partially hidden. It is amazing to see how she seems to disappear into the environment.

We came across the male captured in the last five photos totally by chance on day three. He was sitting quietly in the brush near a trail and it was only due to the very sharp sight of our tracker that we saw him at all.

According to our guide, he was patrolling the border between his territory and that of another big cat and for that reason he spent a lot of time marking his territory as he went along. At one point the herd of elephants we had been watching earlier charged him and he turned around and headed back directly towards us. As he came alongside the jeep he lifted his tail and marked a bush on which our rear tire was sitting and exactly where Ken was sitting as quietly as possible. Not many people can claim they have been marked by a wild leopard!

 Some of my personal favorite photos of these cats are ones that I know will not necessarily appeal to most people. In the shot below you can see him rubbing his head against a tree stump - so similar to what I have witnessed from our house cat many times!

Cats - 1

 There are always compromises when you are out on a game drive. There is only so much time and the areas covered are huge. You are trying hard to stay away from other groups in the area and yet everyone wants to see everything there is to see. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to view the female lions with their cubs that others in nearby camps saw but on the other hand, we had two amazing opportunities to see a group of four male lions - brothers, according to our guide.

Apparently the four are pretty mature and they have been hunting together since birth. Both times we observed the animals there were three who spent most of the time sleeping while the largest animal in the group was more active. Most of their hunting is done at night and just like house cats, they spend a considerable portion of each 24 hour period resting and sleeping. In the first photo above you can see two of the brothers doing what cats do. The animal in front is obviously very relaxed and oblivious to our presence.

 The largest, most active brother was battle scarred, especially on his nose. When we saw him the first evening he was relaxed but aware.

 When we came across the group in a totally different area the next morning, the three were again snoozing while the larger lion seemed to stand guard. Blood from his night-time kill was obvious on the hair of his chin and as we watched he did another very cat-like thing - he threw up a "hairball" that we discovered contained a considerable amount of bone and fur, probably from his prey.

 It was a little unnerving to see the big cat lick his lips as he looked our way but I don't think it had anything to do with us. And the pose below may look fierce but in reality it was just a great big yawn!