Tag: elephant

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The Big Five in One Drive!

After two weeks of rain, wind and cold we had some great drives in the last few days.

During the bad weather it was very difficult to find animals. They all were hiding in the thick bush from heavy rains,  very strong winds and many thunderstorms.

But this morning we got rewarded for our hard work and patience. When we left the lodge we spotted a Leopard just as we left (he did not stick around, but we got a good look). Then we met our dominate male Lion on to of a hill. We tracked our Buffalo herd and just as we left them we saw two White Rhinos (mother and daughter) in an open area. Before we headed back to the lodge we went to the area where we saw the breeding herd of Elephants last. We did not find them but we found  one of our oldest Elephant bulls. After observing him for a while we turned back to the lodge.

We also saw Giraffe, Zebra, Impala, Nyala, Kudu, Waterbuck and Wildebeest.

It seemed that all the animals wanted to make an appearance after the long absence from the Safari stage 🙂

PS: All pictures above were taken today!

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Bull Fight!

Today we had a very nice sighting of our breeding herd of Elephants. They were walking up a hill in front of us. I took these pictures of two young bulls at the end of the herd having a bit of a fight (sparring would be a better word).

Have a good week 🙂

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Elephant Road Block

When I left Thanda House today to drive over to Base Camp I hit a bit of traffic. But my delay was not caused by other cars but by our herd of Elephants. And just as I stopped the car and got my camera out – never leave home without it 🙂 – our youngest herd member crossed the road. He got a bit excited and I could confirm that we got a little boy!

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Bush Statistics :-)

Today I put together my Thanda sighting report. I had a total of 183 major/special game sightings since I arrived at Thanda in June.

Here are the detailed numbers 🙂
42 x Lions / 40 x Elephants / 34 x Cheetah / 32 x Buffalo / 23 x White Rhino / 3 x Spotted Hyena / 2 x Leopard / 1 x Black Rhino / 1 x African Wild Dog /5 x Others (Jackal, Python, Puff Adder, Vultures)

And here are three of my favorite pictures from this week …

… our Elephant herd moving away from me. Please note the little one (2 weeks old) in between!

… two Zebras biting one another “lovingly”

… one of the Cheetah brothers walking close to my camera (on the savanna)

 

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Have a drink!

These are two pictures of our “Thanda Youngster” enjoying a drink. The mums patiently provide the milk.

The Elephant calf is two weeks old and the Lion cubs are about three month old.

Have a good week 🙂

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One week old!

Today I saw our newborn Elephant calf for the first time (born last week). It was difficult to get any pictures of the little one, because the cows surrounded it at all times.

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Green!

I have promised to post some pictures of Thanda after the recent rains.

These three pictures of Giraffes on the savanna, a White Rhino  on a grassy hill top and an Elephant bull in between Fever trees show Thanda animals in their “new juicy” environment.

 

 

Have a good weekend!

PS: If you are wondering why most of the Giraffe stare in the same direction. They were watching two Cheetah males lying under a tree :-).

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Large and Small

This morning we had two visitors in the camp. A breeding herd of Elephant and a Chameleon.

The herd walked around the camp and then they took dust baths on the road nearby.

The Flap-necked Chameleon spent its time sunning next to the road.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Crossing fast!

I usually do not post more than once a day, but I had such a great game drive tonight, that I wanted to share one of my favorite pictures with you.

The drive started with two male Cheetahs greeting us on the savanna, then two Elephant bulls made their appearance and had a good meal on some acacias. And while we were watching them the breeding herd crossed the savanna very quickly (Elephants with young ones do not like to be in the open). We then viewed a Lioness sleeping while Wildebeest were feeding near by. And on the way home we viewed a herd of Buffalo resting near a waterhole.

What an afternoon!

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Bath Time!

Sorry that there were no blog posts on Friday and Saturday, but I drove all weekend with guests at the Lodge and had no time to blog.

One of the main reasons for not blogging was that, when I was on my way home just before noon on Saturday (to work on some pictures …), the breeding herd of Elephants crossed the Savanna just behind me. They were on their way to our largest waterhole. So I spend the next 1.5 hours there.

After arrival they not only drank, but they swam, sparred and mud-bathed.

It was incredible to see how the females took care of the youngsters and how our oldest bull made sure that no other mature bull (or any Land Rover :-)) came to close to “his family” while they were enjoying themselves in the water.

They young bulls in the group were sparring quite a bit …

 

… and once the breeding herd had moved of the mature bulls took a mud-bath. Especially the “old guy” enjoyed himself once everyone else had left.

I also recorded some video footage. A YouTube video will be published soon.

Enjoy the pictures and have a good week!

PS: Besides me a herd of Buffalo, a journey of Giraffe and a group of Wildebeest were watching the scene and waited for their turn to drink. The Elephants would not tolerate anyone else near the waterhole during their bath and the old bull made me re-locate a few times before he accepted my presence and I could shoot in peace 🙂

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