The Thanda wildlife team joined Wildlands Conservation Trust representatives at the unveiling of the latest “Rhino Parade Art” at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport.
Read more at ISIBINDI – Rhino Parade.
Welcome back!
We had not seen the Thanda Cheetah female and her cubs for quite a while. So it was exciting moment for the Thanda guests, the tracker and the guide when the Thanda Wildlife Management announced over the radio that the three Cheetah had been spotted.
When we arrived at the scene the female had just killed a baby Impala. Her two cubs – a boy and a girl – started feeding immediately while mum kept a watchful eye on the surrounding.
We stayed for almost an hour observing these beautiful cats.
The Cheetah mum catching an baby Impala.
The young boy is smacking his lips after a good meal.
The little girl is having a look at bird flying by.
Cheetah family assembled for breakfast.
Strange scent!
Some of Thanda’s Cape Buffalo came for their evening drink to a waterhole. And while they were drinking and mud-bathing some of them picked up a scent they did not like. Many heads went up and with ears directed forward they were trying to establish a possible threat.
After a few minutes they all stampeded away from the waterhole. The Thanda guests on my vehicle enjoyed the show, even if we were not able to figure out what had bothered them 🙂
Want a ride, my dear?
Well, it is Dung Beetle season. In this warm and humid weather these insects are getting very active. This makes for a great “small” sighting during a game drive.
The males of this Dung Beetle species creates a large dung ball which then attracts the ladies. Once a female has approved of a ball she hitches a ride while he rolls it to an appropriate “burial site”.
When a spot with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the ball, then mate underground and the female lays eggs inside the brooding ball.
Dung beetles go through a complete metamorphosis. The larvae live in brood balls made with dung prepared by their parents, feeding on the dung surrounding them.
Delay – no problem!
In a five-star lodge service delays are not acceptable. So normally the game drives start just in time! But the rules change when the Thanda Elephants get involved.
Today a few of Thanda Elephant bulls were making their way to the Lodge when guests spotted them from the Lodge deck just before game drive.
Everyone waited patiently for the giant creatures to arrive. And only after they finished their drink at the water feature in front of the Lodge did the guests depart for the evening drive.
Half an hour late – quite acceptable when caused by Elephants 🙂
In front of the camera :-)
Photographers seldom end up on pictures. Well, there are not very many pictures with me in them, especially not during interesting wildlife operations.
But at this Rhino darting operation one of the subjects of my pictures (it was actually Kingsley Holgate, a well known South African explorer, humanitarian and author – who was present during the operation) took the camera away from me and shot this image. Thanks!
And then a member of the wildlife team took this image with all the guides, trackers, game guards and the Rhino boy involved in this procedure.
So, two picture with me in it in one day – must be a record 🙂
Stay where you are!
This small Thanda Elephant bull wanted to make sure that we came no further towards the herd. All the adult females were very relaxed when this little one showed us that he is a big Elephant already.
We adhered to his wishes and approach no further. He shook his head in “big bull fashion” and turned away to continue with his feeding.
A very memorable Thanda Elephant encounter 🙂
The Small Things!
It is not all about the Big Five. A game drive on Thanda is much more than just looking at the “famous grand creatures” of the bush.
Enjoying the presentation of a Scorpion by Bheki, one of the experienced Thanda trackers, spotting a male Southern Tree Agama in its “ready for mating” coloration or viewing a African Blood Lily growing in a burned area after the first rains of the season are just some of the special sightings of “Small Things” which make every day in the African bush very special.
Catching and Releasing a Mozambique Spitting Cobra!
Well, a lot of you got it right! (see previous blog)
I use these goggles when catching or releasing spitting snakes (or if I do know which snake I might encounter). In this case I caught a Mozambique Spitting Cobra (in Zulu:Mfezi) which had strayed into a room at Thanda house late at night. Today I released it onto another part of the reserve.
This collage of images shows the release of the snake. Thanks to Warren Beets for taking the pictures (I could not take any myself – I was busy :-))
PS: I will add a GoPro camera to my equipment set so I can record these sort of procedures on video – from my view-point.
Be prepared?
It looks like a silly picture, but I was preparing for something serious!
What was I preparing for? Have a guess?
I will blog the answer this evening 🙂
Picture by Warren Beets
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 