Recently I have been very fortunate to undertake 6 months in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Whilst on this adventure I have witnessed the 'Big 5' in action and for those who do not know the 'Big 5' that's African Lion (
Panthera leo), Leopard (
Panthera pardus), African Elephant (
Loxodonta africana), White Rhino (
Ceratotherium simum) (Although Originally it was the Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis)) and African Buffalo (
Syncerus caffer). The point of this Blog, is to share some of my best parts of the trip and show some of my photos off. I hope you enjoy reading and I shall try to throw some facts in along the way.
Top 5 Moments: Number 5 A birders paradise:
Undoubtedly one of the many moments for me was the birding aspect. One of my passions is birding and it was amazing to see a huge diversity in another country. Overall in my trip I managed to see over 170 birds. Yet this is a relatively small number considering South Africa has over 500 recorded species. A milestone I personally hit was recording 300 birds in the wild worldwide. For me number 300 turned out to be a Secretary Bird (
Saggitarius serpentarius). This bird stalks through the grass looking for prey, once finding it it will use its bare legs to kick the prey until it dies. The bird life in
South Africa is unbelievable rich, due to the differing environments, biomes and weather conditions, it allows birds to fill all kind of ecological niches. It is also a huge hotspot for migratory birds. With all these factors plus plenty of food and nesting habitats its hard to not see why South Africa is perfect for Birding. If your passion is birding I would fully recommend a trip to see how many you can record.
Number 4: Amazing supporting cast:
Granted most people go to Africa to see the 'big 5' but these animals would not be here if it wasn't for all the others that fit into this environment. General game is often over looked but can also provide fascinating behaviour and interesting moments. I was exceptionally lucky to see a wide variety of antelope, smaller carnivores, Zebra, Giraffe and some creatures that are difficult to see such as Aardvark. For me this was part of the trip some days you would only see these creatures and it still made the trip. Especially when you see them interact with members of the same species or other species.
I was lucky to have good rains whilst staying in South Africa, resulting in a baby boom. As you can see from this picture with a new born baby Zebra.
Number 3: A Carnivore Bonanza:
Everybody wants to see predators, who wouldn't. I was so fortunate I had carnivore sightings nearly every day, I got to see a lot of action. Hunting behaviour, feeding behaviour but sometimes just a pride of lions lying around doing nothing. Either way it was amazing to see these creatures in action. One morning I saw a leopard finishing strangling its unsuspecting victim a Bushbuck (
Tragelaphus sylvaticus) in this case.
One of the highlights was a trip to find Wild Dogs (
Lycaon pictus). The Latin name means painted wolf. Anybody who knows wildlife will know that this is one of Africa's rarest mammals. I was fortunate enough to have several sightings with this being one of the best. They are also one of Africa's most successful predators.
Number 2: Dinner time!
Whilst in South Africa I was able to spend a lot of time with a pride of lions. In this time one of the females had cubs, which put the pride at twelve. With all these mouths to feed the lions had to go big. In this case they bought down a male Giraffe. On the morning they killed it we arrived at this grisly scene. The cubs had been feasting and playing in the Giraffe's rib cage. The lions stayed on the kill for a couple of days, but eventually left. After this I was lucky enough to camera trap the kill. In this sighting I recorded Vultures, Hyena and Jackals. Many species benefitted from the Lions bringing down the Giraffe. Its important to find vultures here as they are an endangered species and we had no less than four species which was impressive. Hopefully some work can be done in preserving vultures further down the line.
TOP MOMENT! AN INTERACTION AT 04:30AM!
My top moment of the experience was an early one. We were driving around a river and startled two Hyena, they had treed three leopards who were father and cubs, on their Bushbuck kill. To sit with these animals for a time and experience the behaviour will stay with me forever. Leopard and Hyenas are sworn enemies and to see them interact over the scraps left on the kill was insane.
Although the pictures are not clear, you can see the male Leopard in the tree with the Bushbuck kill, and below the Hyena trying to sneak closer to get the scraps. The noise from the animals and the intense atmosphere will make this one of my best experiences in the field, potentially for the rest of my life. The trip was amazing and I would do it all again, I saw some amazing wildlife, met some amazing people, who will be a part of my life forever. I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventure, feel free to ask any questons, or if you want I can post more details at a later date.
