Thanda Private Game Reserve’s Tented Camp has been nominated for Best Safari Experience in the SATOA awards. Please vote for Thanda: www.satoa.com/best-safaris-experience. Thanks!
Mami, not so fast!
One of the youngest Thanda Elephants had to move fast to catch up with its mum. We had an excellent sighting this evening when the breeding herd crossed the road right in front of our vehicles.
Five of the Thanda bull were trailing the herd. The two young bulls in the picture below gave us a good look before they moved on.
Bheki’s Bush Talks: A Bush Tooth Brush!
Bheki Ngubane, one of the most experienced trackers on Thanda Private Game Reserve, explains in this short video how to make a bush tooth brush and tooth paste from a Blue Quary Bush. Looking at Bheki’s white teeth the method works :-)!
This is a first video clip in a new series called Bheki’s bush talks, in which Bheki will reveal some of the traditional Zulu ways of using nature’s products.
Bheki and I are working together as a guiding team on Thanda Private Game Reserve since September 2012.
I can see it!
“Mami, Mami – I can see it – I can see it – move faster, pleeeease!”
Well, this little Baboon was standing up on his hind legs to get a first glimpse of the waterhole, which he and his mum were approaching.
I thought the quote above would be what he would tell his mum if he could speak 🙂
Have a good week!
Young Guests
This is a picture of three of the youngest guests at Thanda’s Villa iZulu and myself. I was teaching them about nature and wildlife on a Sunday morning.
Kids of all ages are welcome at Thanda Private Game Reserve – for more information go to http://www.thanda.com/kids.html
BIRDS – Emerald-spotted Wood Dove
For the many bird lovers among my blog audience I am starting a new posts series. The first image is of two Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, small doves with beautiful emerald-colored markings on their wings.
I am planning to post at least one special bird image per week.
Cheetah at Lunch!
Thanda’s two male Cheetah killed a female Nyala. The pictures shows them right after they started their meal.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
Taylor was a wedding guest at Thanda Private Game Reserve when she sung this short version of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the first part of the South African National Anthem. She is only three years old. Well done Taylor!
It feels so good!
“I love it when these birds come and clean my ears out. All these ticks are such an nuisance!
Oh, great – a bit more to the left for the bird on the right and a bit deeper please for the bird on the left – there we go.
Oxpeckers are great!”
If this Buffalo cow could speak I think it would sound like this 🙂
Rhino Communication Center
If you think that this White Rhino bull is just scraping his dung around you are mistaken. He is actually adding important information to this Rhino Communication Center, called a Midden. The same location is used by many Rhinos to place their dung and with it to place information.
A dominant bull will mark his territory and he will scrape the dung to show his dominance.
Females in the area by will leave their droppings, but they will not scrape. They leave a scent message for the dominant bull in case they are ready to mate. If that is the case he will pick up the info at his next visit and look for the lady.
Any young bull pathing through the territory will also leave his message (a distance away from the big guys’s stuff) without scraping to tell the dominant bull that he does not want to challenge him.
If another bull puts his dung on top or near the dominant bull’s droppings and scrapes them around then he declares his intention to challenge the territory holder. As soon as they meet they will fight!
So, if you see dung in the bush, it is not always just waste 🙂
