This little Cape Buffalo calf obviously does.
Mud baths are used by many mammals to help them to cool down in Summer, protect them from the sun and deter insects from being too friendly 🙂
This little bull was looking for his mum, hence the puzzled expression on his face. He found her very soon after I took this picture.
Have a good weekend.
Yesterday I spent a few hours at Mkuze Game Reserve. My main aim was to get some good bird pictures. The day was not as productive as a Winter’s day at Mkuze but I got some images of Pelicans, Bee-eaters, a Sparrowhawk, an Ibis and a small Crocodile. Not bad for a hot morning!
Especially during the Winter month Mkuze is one of the best birding places in Kwazulu Natal. It is only 45 minutes from Thanda and always worth-while an excursion.
Pink-backed Pelican
Black Sparrowhawk
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
Hadeda Ibis
Nile Crocodile
This morning’s game drive was amazing. We left the Lodge with the intention to track a herd of Buffalo. But on the way out we decided to have another quick look at our dominate male Lion and the oldest female of the South Pride (“Grandma”), who we saw the previous evening on top of hill.
When we arrived there we met eight Lions – three Sub-Adults (“Uncles” and “Aunt”) and a young Lioness (“Mum” with her two – eight month old – cubs (“Boy” and “Girl”), the Thanda Dominate Male and “Grandma”. This was the complete South pride. Over the next three hours we observed family life and family drama.
“Mum” had kept away the cubs from the rest of the pride for a long time. It was clear after a few minutes that the Thanda Dominate Male had accepted these cubs as his own, but “Mum” would not allow any of the “Uncles” and the “Aunt” near the cubs. (Note: The cubs were fathered by a male that is no longer on Thanda).
Every time one of the “Uncles” approached “Mum” became very aggressive and the Thanda Dominate Male joined her in defense of the cubs. “Grandma” sided with the three sub-adults and was also quite aggressive towards her grand-kids.
We observed “Mum” fighting for her cubs, the cubs playing, the “Aunt” climbing a tree, one of the “Uncles” mating with the “Aunt” (when the big male was not watching), all of them growling a lot at each other and the “Uncles” and “Aunt” in an attempt to hunt for Impala.
The Thanda guests on my vehicle, Behki and I have seldom enjoyed a game drive more, even so we only drove a few hundred meters during the three hours 🙂
I hope you enjoy this picture documentary!
PS: I have a included a “family chart” to make it easier to understand the relationships.
“Mum” disciplining her younger brother “Uncle 2”, who tried to get to close to her cubs.
The Thanda Dominate Male was watching the family drama from a distance.
The two cubs were playing while the adults were arguing about them!
The “Aunt” was observing the scene from a nearby tree.
Mating!
The (not successful) Impala Hunt 🙂
“Mum” getting upset again!
The Thanda South Pride.
Quite a few people have asked me how I spend my Christmas and New Year at Thanda. The answer is simple: Working…
This is one of the busiest times of the year at a game reserve as many guests want to spend a special “Wildlife” Christmas or New Year.
But – as I enjoy being in the bush and guiding people in this beautiful Big Five reserve – working over the holidays is not a sacrifice.
Yesterday I went with two guest families to the Elephant interaction at Bayete Game Reserve. This is one of the regular excursion we do with our guests. Everyone enjoyed interacting with Rambo, Rachel and Jabulani. These three “semi-wild” Elephants which roam freely on the game reserve show up every day for their “human interaction”.
I hope all of you enjoy the festive season, wherever you are!
It is hard to believe but I had four great Leopard sightings in one week. That is more than in the six month since I started working at Thanda.
Today’s sighting was especially good. The young Leopard in the picture above stayed around a waterhole for half an hour and then joined a second Leopard in the bush nearby.
Below are pictures of all five Leopards which featured in this week’s sightings 🙂
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
With my best wishes for the holiday season from South Africa – Christian
PS: The picture is of one of the North Pride Lion cubs at Thanda Private Game Reserve …
.. and the reason why I have not blogged since 16 December is that my internet connection was down for a few days.
White stripes on black background or black stripes on white background?
It was previously believed that Zebras were white animals with black stripes, since some Zebras have white underbellies. Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal’s background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions.
The pattern on every Zebra is unique, very much like fingerprints. And sometimes the white stripes are wider or narrower. The faint stripe in between the black and white is called a “shadow stripe” and is typical for the Burchell’s Zebra (a sub-species of the Plains Zebra).
These images are part of my “Without the Five” series:
Each image features a species, which is usually not in the safari limelight. So they will be no images of Lions, Leopard, Elephants, Rhinos, Buffalo, Cheetahs …
Enjoy the “without the Five” series
While I was filing images which I have taken over the last few weeks I came across this picture of an Elephant Bull fight.
I remember that we were quite close to these two young bulls when they started sparring. Ignoring us completely they impressed the Thanda guests on my vehicle with their strength and fighting skills.
Today we had an excellent Leopard sighting on Thanda. This beautiful large male was first hiding in thick bush but then decided to rest in the open. He had a few wounds which suggests that he has been in a fight recently.
On the same game drive we saw Elephants and Lions. A very productive afternoon 🙂
I do not often post two pictures of the same series (bush photo shoot :-)), but after looking through all my images from that afternoon I really liked this picture of a Lion cub, being observed by Thanda guests from a game viewer.
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 