A newborn South African Giraffe is ~1.8m (~6ft) tall. After a few hours of birth, the calf can run and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old.
Mothers with calves will often gather in nursery herds. In such a groups they may sometimes leave their calves with one female while they forage and drink elsewhere. This is known as a “calving pool”.
Have a pleasant weekend!
#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari
Fish for lunch?
This *African Fish Eagle* caught his meal just in front of our boat.
For many people its distinctive and shrill cry represents the true spirit of Africa. This magnificent creature appears in the coat of arms of Namibia, Zambia, and South Sudan, as well as on the flags of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
And just in case you wondered: African Fish Eagles are related to the North American Bald Eagle and look quite alike, but they are two different species in the same genus.
They are both considered sea eagles not true eagles.
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Outside its native range it thrives in areas with mild climates. It can cause severe damage to agricultural crops and native plants. This snail is listed as one of the top invasive species in the world.
The African Giant Land Snail is also a simultaneous hermaphrodite (being male and female at the same time). Snails of similar size can transfer sperm both ways when mating (bilateral mating). If the the two mating partners are of different size then the larger specimen acts as female and the smaller as male (unilaterally mating).
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Have you ever wondered why Impalas usually look so immaculately groomed?
The answer is allogrooming (grooming one another with specially designed teeth). Impalas appear to be the only ungulates to display self-grooming as well as allogrooming.
I took this picture of a group of recently born and very cute Impala fawns during this afternoon game drive.
Have a good week!
#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari
This young *Cheetah* female was very alert when I took this picture. She made a quick bark-like sound as we came a bit too close for her comfort. As we backed off she relaxed and stayed for a photo session.
Interesting Cheetah fact: Cheetahs cannot roar. Non-roaring cats like Cheetahs have a one-piece hyoid bone. Only four of the 38 wild cat species can roar: Lion, Tiger, Leopard and Jaguar.
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A few days ago I took this picture of a *Tawny Eagle* perched in the late afternoon, backlight by the sun. Tawny Eagles (Aquila rapax) are large, long-lived birds of prey. Like all eagles, they belong to the family Accipitridae. It is estimated that these beautiful birds can reach the age of 16.
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Please note: Follow the Inkanyiso Creche on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/inkanyisocreche/
The kids at the crèche had a great time since they returned from their holidays.
As they arrived back they encountered their new jungle gym. What a success! Every morning there is now a small stampede – once the crèche gates open – to get to the slides, swings and climbs.
And now they get every morning a bowl of flavored porridge with full cream milk to get them ready for the day.
But the best thing that happened last week was that Olivia joined Lungy (our crèche teacher) to help her teaching the kids. Olivia is an Australian primary school teacher who signed up as an Ulwazi volunteer (Ulwazi is Thanda Safari’s volunteer organization). She and her boyfriend Will, who is also a teacher, are in South Africa for four weeks to work with us at Thanda. Will is a very talented photographer (@willkentphotography) and works as my assistant for four weeks. If our ‘photo work schedule’ permits he also spends time with the kids at the crèche.
Lungy benefits greatly from learning modern teaching methods and how to use resources to provide a stimulating environment for the kids. It is very encouraging to see these two young people from overseas investing their time to help our rural communities.
I hope you will enjoy these few pictures from this exciting week! More updates about the next projects will come soon!
My heartfelt thanks to all friends of the Inkanyiso Crèche around the world who enable us with their donations to help these children.
Thanda Safari guests and followers on social media often ask about the possibility to help with donations. For more information contact me at christian@sperka.com.
Any donation – small or large – helps to make the life of these little ones a bit better.
Picture credits: Will Kent, Justin Van Doorene, Christian Sperka
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Back on Thanda! Day 4 was another productive day with great sightings. The highlights of the day were two male Lions at sunrise on a newley burned area and a herd of more than 120 Cape Buffalo drinking at a waterhole as the sun set.
Feel free to ask any questions (as comments) or contact me at christian@sperka.com.
Major sightings:
⁃ Spotted Hyena
⁃ Cape Buffalo
⁃ Lion
– Giraffe
⁃ … and many more mammal and bird species
Previous blogs:
https://sperka.info/2019/09/11/imagine-four-nights-custom-luxury-safari-at-thanda-safari-day-1/
https://sperka.info/2019/09/12/imagine-four-nights-at-thanda-safari-day-2/
https://sperka.info/2019/09/13/imagine-four-nights-custom-luxury-safari-at-thanda-safari-day-3/
This a series of posts to document all drives and excursions during a four day stay at Thanda Safari. I hosted two guests from Germany on a Private Photo Safari with me as the guide, Bheki as the tracker and the Green Mamba 1 as the Luxury Safari Vehicle.
For day 3 of our safari experience an all-day excursion into iSimangaliso Wetland Park was on the schedule. After a morning Hippo and Croc Cruise on Lake St.Lucia and lunch at the Ski-Boat-Club – overlooking the estuary and the sand-dunes of the Indian Ocean – we returned through the western shores part of the park to Thanda Safari.
Feel free to ask any questions (as comments) or contact me at christian@sperka.com.
Uninvited lunch guest …
Major sightings:
⁃ Hippo
⁃ Crocodile
⁃ African Fish Eagle
⁃ Waterbuck
⁃ Reedbuck
⁃ Bushbuck
⁃ Giraffe
⁃ Kudu
⁃ Wildebeest
⁃ Zebra
⁃ Saddle-bilked Stork
⁃ Brown-headed Snake Eagle
⁃ Long-crested Eagle
⁃ Burchell’s Coucal
⁃ … and many more birds
Previous blogs:
https://sperka.info/2019/09/11/imagine-four-nights-custom-luxury-safari-at-thanda-safari-day-1/
https://sperka.info/2019/09/12/imagine-four-nights-at-thanda-safari-day-2/
This a series of posts to document all drives and excursions during a four day stay at Thanda Safari. I hosted two guests from Germany on a Private Photo Safari with me as the guide, Bheki as the tracker and the Green Mamba 1 as the Luxury Safari Vehicle.
Getting up at 5:30 is a bit hard if one is not used to it. But if the weather is good, the luck on one’s side, going on an early game drive is very rewarding.
Day 2 of our safari experience could be called the Elephant Day! We had two excellent sightings with two different herds. But many other species were seen as well!
Feel free to ask any questions (as comments) or contact me at christian@sperka.com.
Major sightings:
⁃ Elephants
⁃ White Rhinos
⁃ Lionesses
⁃ Kudu
⁃ Cheetah female
⁃ Burchell’s Zebra
⁃ Red-billed Oxpecker
⁃ Scrub Hare
⁃ … and many more general game species and birds
This one of a series of posts to document all drives and excursions during a four day stay at Thanda Safari. I hosted two guests from Germany on a Private Photo Safari with me as the guide, Bheki as the tracker and the Green Mamba 1 as the Luxury Safari Vehicle.
See also the day 1 blog:
https://sperka.info/2019/09/11/imagine-four-nights-custom-luxury-safari-at-thanda-safari-day-1/
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 