From me and my special Thanda Easter Bunny 🙂
… which is actually a young Scrub Hare.
After the fighting break (see yesterday’s blog message) the two Thanda Giraffes bulls continued their fight. We left them at it after observing the slow but intense quarrel for quite a while.
This collage shows the flexibility of their necks and the strategic positioning needed to strike a significant blow.
These two adult Giraffe bulls took a short break from their rather serious fighting and stared for a while across the beautiful Thanda landscape.
As for most male animals the reason for this fight was a lady in oestrous. These two were both possible mating candidates.
When Giraffes fight they will stand very close facing the same direction. In a strategic opportune moment they will try to swing their necks like long clubs at one another’s neck. If a blow is properly targeted the ossicones (the horn-like skull-extensions on top of the head) will impact with a loud thump. Adult male giraffe are actually bold on top of ossiconses from all the sparring and fighting.
If one of them has enough of the rather vicious blows, he will move off and leave the winner to claim his price.
Tomorrow’s blog message will show some images of the fight itself. Stay tuned!
This Water Monitor Lizard was enjoying the sun at Thanda’s largest waterhole. These intelligent reptiles are very shy and usually disappear quickly into water or high grass as soon as one approaches.
This specimen had a “trusting day” and stuck around for a lengthily photo session 🙂
What a morning.
Leaving the lodge for a drive a bit later than usual we were first looking for our dominant male Lion. He had been sighted not far away from the Thanda Safari Lodge so we thought this would make a perfect first encounter of the day.
After we had a good look at this large cat, Bheki, one of Thanda’s expert trackers, suggested to have a closer look into a nearby drainage line. He had spotted some movement as I was turning the vehicle to leave the sighting.
And trough the thick bush we saw not only one of Thanda’s North Pride females but also her very small new cubs.
Keeping a respectful distance we made our way slowly around the location where the Lioness was resting, to an open area on the opposite side. After about ten minutes of patience the Lioness decided to present her new cubs to the world.
She brought them right into the open, lay down in the middle of the small pan (facing away from us, which showed how comfortable she was with our presence).
The three youngster, which we estimate to be 1.5 month old, watched us very critically as their mother was proceeding with the morning bath for the little ones.
After they had a good look at this “huge green animal with the round legs and the many eyes” they disappeared back into the shaded shelter of the thicket.
Mum kept enjoying the morning sun as we left the scene. My guests, Bheki and I were very happy. We were the first humans to set eyes on these beautiful little cats – the three newest members of the Thanda Lion family.
This elderly Giraffe lady had a good look at this “noisy animal” before she decided to move off into the bush following the rest of her Journey (Journey is the proper term for a group of Giraffe).
Giraffes are one of the Thanda game drive favorites, especially for younger children, who seem to have a special place in their heart for these long-necked, gentle creatures.
In the past month we played our special “music” to the Thanda Lions on numerous evenings. (Also see our blog message about two young male Lions which are to be transferred to another game reserve – BUSH DISCO ? – http://thandablog.com/2014/03/01/bush-disco/).
A few times they joined us for dinner but often nothing happened. Every time we asked Mike Toft, our veterinarian for this Lion capture operation, to be there during these call-ups, the Lions decided not to respond. A few days ago, just as the sun came up, they came out to a road and decided to take a break right in front of our vehicle. But we had to race off to a very important meeting and the vet was far away. So darting was out of the question. And as usual, when we had everything in place, they were gone.
The next day we found some fresh tracks of these Lions and as we were setting up the speakers for another call-up a giraffe ran towards us and a lion’s head popped out from behind the bushes. By the time our vet arrived they disappeared into the long grass. Luckily one of them came back and Mike managed to dart him. But he disappeared into the bushes almost immediately. Not good 😦 To be continued…
The picture shows one of the young Lions in twilight and veterinarian Mike Toft with his dart gun.
Story and picture by Mariana Venter – Thanda Wildlife Management Team
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I spent another great weekend at Pakamisa. This very special Private Game Reserve combines five star luxury with horseback safari. It is one of my favorite places in South Africa.
Above is a picture from today’s photo shoot. The aim was to get a good image of riders on Horses, close to Giraffes. Mission accomplished 🙂
Isabella Stepski (the owner of Pakamisa) took this funny picture of Slinky, me and Bully on our way to the horse photo shoot and she also captured me on Badger, doing some “horse-back photography”.
And I love this image of the riders returning to the stables at sunset.
Another very enjoyable Pakamisa weekend! www.pakamisa.co.za
Hardy!
But this Thanda Lioness nibbled on grass for quite a while. That sort of behavior can mostly be observed after heavy meals, apparently to help with a full or upset stomach.
The Thanda guests were quite impressed to see this method of Lion “self medicating” 🙂
I have had many different offices in my life – some with very nice views out of the window, some facing a parking lot and some with no view at all. But nothing compares with my office view at Thanda!
I was sitting at my desk working on images and email when I heard a faint splashing sound from the nearby waterhole, which, due to the recent heavy rains, is full for the first time since I have arrived on Thanda. I had a look out of the window and saw Elephants having a swim. I grabbed a camera with a long lens, walked down to the Thanda house fence and took some pictures of Elephants enjoying themselves in the water.
As the light faded, all of us at Thanda house stood there and watched until the last of the Elephants had left the waterhole. What an evening!
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 