These two Cheetah brothers have a strong bond since many years. Unlike female Cheetah, who are always solitary, Cheetah males often form coalitions. Being able to groom one another is one of the advantages of such a relationship.
Let’s play, Bro!
This young juvenile Lioness is playing rough with her brother. I “found” this picture when I was organizing my pictures which I took before the rains. I like the action.
We have two Lion prides on Thanda. One in the North of the reserve and one in the South.
Have a good week!
Dogs and Neighbors!
Our African Wild Dogs decided recently to slip through the fence of the reserve and take a “vacation” on a neighboring farm. The owner is not very happy about his visitors – not surprising as the six adult and nine puppy dogs eat a lot of meat!
We are currently capturing the dogs and bringing them back to Thanda. They will be kept in a boma until the fence has been fixed.
The first picture shows the dogs in the twilight on the neighbor’s land.
The second picture is of one of the cubs. It squeezed through the boma fence and took a little day trip across the savanna – but never going far from the boma with the adults in it.
And then the sky opened!
I do not know that my Land Rover Driving course experience would come in useful so soon. Today the sky opened up during game drive and within minutes hard rain converted some of our roads into streams. We were in an area with predominately clay based soils far away from the lodge. With a lot of momentum and the superb bad-road-condition-capabilities of the Land Rover Defender I got us home safely. We were all wet to the skin 🙂 The four children on the vehicle thought that the drive was a great adventure.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is for 100% rain. Another hectic driving day coming up!
I got no pictures from the drive (I was busy negotiating soapy roads!), so I thought you would enjoy the picture of these two Eagles I took earlier this morning. The first is of a Tawny Eagle and the second is a Wahlberg’s Eagle.
The Last Walk!
Goodbye Mpumalanga!
The last few days were very busy and I had no time to blog, but now I am back on Thanda. And it is hard to believe it is the same place. The recent rains have turned the place green, as you will be able to see in up-coming pictures.
But today I post the last pictures from my recent trip. The first is a picture of a African Goshawk who was – sitting in a tree – giving us the farewell from Nkombe camp.
The second is a collage of my last walk on Sabi Sands. For part of the walk I was in the lead guide and we encountered two Elephant bulls and a male White Rhino.
I enjoyed all my courses very much, but I am glad to be home 🙂
PS: The pictures in the collage were taken by Craig Fitt and Ross Hawkins – As I was walking Lead or Backup with a rifle I was not able to take pictures – Thanks for letting me use them.
Buffalo – up close and personal!
Today we had three encounters on foot with male Cape Buffalo. They can be extremely dangerous and aggressive. We got proof of that today!
The first encounter was with two quite calm animals (the one in this picture).
Then we “bumped” into another bull only 15 meters away from us. He took flight and we extracted to a save location. On the way back to the camp another group of “Dugga Boys” spotted us and chased us across a dry riverbed. We had to take a longer route to get back to the camp. Enough Buffalo for one day – up close and personal!
There are no picture from encounters two and three. We were busy dealing with the situation and with getting back in one piece to the camp – no time for pictures 🙂
PS: If you like to know more about the Trails Guiding Course go to http://www.africanaturetraining.co.za. A great experience, even if you do it for fun and not for professional reasons.
Almost mating!
It was a rainy day today and the morning started with a walk in cold and wet conditions. We heard a pair of Leopards mating. So we fetched a game viewing vehicle to have a look at the mating pair (as it is not a good idea to view mating Leopards on foot :-)).
We watched them for quite a while. The female was quite eager, but the male was not interested at the time. He was just grooming himself intensively. The short video shows a mating attempt initiated by the female. It was the first time that I saw a male and female Leopard together in the wild.
PS: I only had my “Point and Shoot” camera with me on the walk, so the picture and video are not SLR quality, but I thought some of you might enjoy the experience.
Pied Kingfisher
This morning I spent a few hours at Panic Dam in the Kruger National Park, before the start of second Trails Guiding Course in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve.
My favorite picture of the day is of a Pied Kingfisher taking a bath. I also caught him with a fish in his beak.
It was great to spend a few hours at the hide without rushing around and without assessments 🙂
I will be very busy the next few days preparing for my theoretical trails guiding exam. So there may not be as many blog messages as usual until next week.
Cobras, Pythons, Boomslangs and Mambas
I had a very exciting day and I am very happy that I got my snake handling competency certificate. This morning started with working on various staged situations where I had to remove snakes from various places (Gardens, rooms and trees).
The first snake was a Puff Adder, followed by two Snouted Cobras and two very fast Mozambique Spitting Cobras (I had to catch these on the run!). In the afternoon I learned how to catch African Rock Pythons and how to get a Boomslang and a Black Mamba out of a tree.
One of the Khamai staff members took a few pictures of me working with the Python, the Boomslang and the Mamba (see below). In an assessment at the end of the course I had to capture two snakes (a Puff Adder and a Snouted Cobra) from a garden shed. I passed the assessment! I learned a lot and I hope that I will be able to help with needed snake captures once I am back in Kwazulu Natal. It was an excellent course.
Pictures (2): African Rock Python Capture
Picture: Boomslang Handling
Picture: Black Mamba Capture from a Tree
For more information on about reptile and snake handling courses go to www.khamai.co.za.
No Glass!
Puff Adder, Snouted Cobra, Boomslang and Black Mamba!
From my days at the Nashville Zoo I was used to see venomous snakes only from behind glass or from a great distance. During my first open-air session at Khamai Reptile Centre (www.khamai.co.za) I had some great encounters with a few venomous snakes. The snake handlers at Khamai were very competent and I learned a lot about the animals.
And I got some great photo opportunities. All pictures were taken from eye level (= me lying in the grass on my belly :-)). The only exception was the Black Mamba pictures which I took standing up during a feeding session. In the picture you only see the tail of the mouse, but you can see the black color of the mouth lining which gives the Black Mamba its name.
Today I already got to handle a Puff Adder. Tomorrow follows a full day of snake handling – I am looking forward to it.
PS: Rick, Heather, Dale and Steve from the Nashville Zoo: You would love it out here 🙂
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 