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My South Africa Adventure; From Cape Town via Garden Route to Zululand
Topic Started: Nov 9 2016, 01:36 PM (5,051 Views)
Dylan
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I can't decide what is cooler. All those birds or the elephants and lions.

The drongo looks like a fork-tailed drongo
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Jony
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Thank you Dylan. ;) I also would say fork-tailed drongo but due to the point of view it's difficult to see how deep the notch of the tail is because that's the main thing to differentiate between those two species.


Day 10 to 24: Mkhuze Game Reserve - Part 5

When new animals of the priority species come into a reserve, they are being kept in a so called "Boma", a temporary holding exhibit. All new animals will be kept there for about six weeks.
When I was in Mkhuze, there were three young male brother lions in the Boma who came from the Etosha National Park. Unfortunately Mkhuze lost all adult male lions by snaring, that's why three new males came in. Almost every day we did a boma check to see if evrything is alright with the lions and the fence in general and the electricity of it in particular.
While I can't find the pictures of the exhibit itself, I still have those of the inhabitants. ;)
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Let's continue with another predator, the African wild dog. As I previously said Mkhuze has two packs, a small one which I already show to you and a big one.
The other day we finally found the big pack which had 15 puppies this year :) 14 are still alive but unfortunately they didn't want to come out when I was there. But anyways I enjoyed the adult dogs and how calm they were. They were running around us and didn't really mind us. It felt like we were part of the pack. :) That was cool!
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That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed it. :)
Just two more updates to go, then we will go on with the enxt reserve. ;)
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Dylan
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Some truly fantastic images. I love the mosaic of colour on their tummy
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Anton
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King of Cotingas

Absolutely lovely pictures of wonderful species! When I was in South Africa last year I didn't get nearly as lucky regarding carnivora... Only saw 2 cheetahs once very briefly, a total of 4 lions (a small pride and a single male), and no dogs. :(

Really nice bird pictures as well! :D
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Emortalnight
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Amazing photos!
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Jony
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Thanks guys!
@Anton: That's the good thing when you are a volunteer in such a project and when you are staying a few weeks. You have a very high chance to see wild dogs, lions and cheetahs more often. ;)


Day 10 to 24: Mkhuze Game Reserve - Part 6

We are already at day 11 in MKhuze (so day 21 in total). :) Onn this day we were ven more lucky regarding lions. We could find the bigger group consisting of two sisters and three cubs. Until this day we were always too late and they were already sleeping somewhere. :P
They just were just next to the road. :)
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Sun rise, fog and giraffes. :)
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Burchell's zebras, not really a common species in Mkhuze.
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Vervet monkey, obviously a male. :P
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There are not only beautiful animals but also impressive plants like this "flower tree" (I don't know the real name xD ). Sunbirds often visit this kind of trees.
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The next day was very dark and cloudy.
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Fighting impala bucks.
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And another elepahnt herd crossing the road. It was two herds to be precised (with about 50 elephants in total) and it took more than 5 minutes. :P
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We also saw the small wild dog pack this day but the one dog was still missing and the other three had some bite wounds and were really anxiously.
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Our monitor guessed that maybe hyenas attacked the dogs and killed the missing one but that didn't explain why his collar didn't send any signal. That's why we planned sth special for the next day to find out where the dog is and what happened to him.
This will be part of the next and final part of Mkhuze. So, stay tuned and see you soon. :)
Edited by Jony, Dec 21 2016, 11:07 AM.
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Again , one impressive update .

As Anton said , observing so much carnivora species is just awesome (I had to go 2 times to SA, to finally spot a cheetah at Kgalagadi transfrontier park :P )

The giraffes photos are breathtaking as well , good job!
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Dylan
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The lion images are eerie. That is a lot of elephants. Is poaching a problem in Mkhuze?
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Jony
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Tanks for the comments once more!
@Dylan: Unfortunately yes. As I said, the three adult lions were poached and in addition, wild dogs, rhinos and cheethas are also often being poached. For the elephants I'm not sure but I think it's not as bad as for the rhinos and the predators.

Day 10 bis 24: Mkhuze Game Reserve - Part 7

In the evening we could see the lions again. Te cubs were playing on the street with a glove that someone lost.
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Then, later someone of the reserve management brought us a dead impala that he shot. We needed it for the next day.
[The picture of the dead imapa is in the spoiler because there may be people having a problem with blood and stuff]
Spoiler: click to toggle


Why did we need the imapala? Well, we were still searching for the missing wilddog. One of the dogs of the pack has a satellite collar that sends over all the data that shows where the pack was. Unfortunately the collar wasn't working properly, so we couldn't download the data becuas eth esignal was too weak. That's why our monitor myde the plan to put a dead impala binding to the tree. In the tree he wanted to put the download antenna.
The dogs know these procedures of being fed with a tied animal. This "bait training" is being done regulary, so that the vet can dart the dogs more easily if necessary.
After we found a good place to tie the impala to a tree, we attract the dogs with sepcial noises.
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Then, after about 30 minutes they came. :)
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At first, they were shy and hesitated, but after the alpha dog started to eat, the other two followed.
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After less then 30 minutes, the data were successfully downloaded. They showed that the pack very often visited a place near by the borders of the reserve. So, we drove to that place.
Sometimes the road was very bumpy though. :P
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Unfortunately, the place was not accessible by car, so our monitor and two other from the reserve walked to the place but we weren't allowed to walk with them. After two hours of waiting they came back with a very bad news: the dog is dead, he was taken in a snare where he died of thirst. :(
He's the fourth dog to be snared in Mkhuze this year, three more are losta nd haven't been seen for months, so they are probaly dead as well...

The whole session took 13 hours, it was the longest day out in the bush without a break for me. We all were hungry and tired and depressed of course...

After a long sleep, we were motivated for the last full day in MKhuze. On that day we could see the pair of brother cheetahs again. :)
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The day and the time in Mkhuze ended with another beautiful sunset.
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But the next morning before we left the Mkhuze Camp, someone coud spot a Thick-tailed Greater Galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus). :)
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That's all for today and from Mkhuze. Next up is Africa's oldest national park, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi-Park. We will explore it after the Christmas days.
So, for now I wish all of you merry Christmas! :santa: :candycane:
Edited by Jony, Dec 23 2016, 07:52 AM.
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Dylan
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Shame to heard about the dog. The person who spotted the galago must have incredible eyes
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

What an incredible update once again. :)

As Dylan said it's a shame to hear about the wild dog's death ...

Spotting a galago in the morning seems unusual to me , the 2 species we saw in SA (Thick-tailed Greater and Moholi) were spotted in the middle of the night haha

I can't wait for Hluhluwe-Imfolozi , I've been there and it's one of my favourite , except for maybe Kgalagadi , Cape and Timbavati parks . ;)
Edited by Zoo Tycooner FR, Dec 23 2016, 11:23 AM.
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Goldblum
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Those are amazing Jony! I love the Galago pictures!
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Jony
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Thanks guys :)
@ZTFR: It is unusual. I have seen the galagos a few more times but always during the night, the sighting during the day was really lucky.

I hope you all had great holidays and happy new year everyone! :) Today we gonna explore the next reserve!

Day 24 to 28: Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park - Part 1

This national park was established in 1895 being the oldest national park in Africa. Originally there were two smaller reserves, namely the Hluhluwe park and the Imfolozi park. Over the time they grew in size, until they were combined in 1989. In Zululand it's the biggest reserve with about 960 km² and the best known one.
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As for animals, the 2,000 Southern white rhinoceroses are the most inconic animals. You can see them very often.
By the way, in the 1960s the Imfolozi part used to inhabite the last wild Southern white rhinos, hence the "operation rhino" started distributing the last population to zoos and other reserves and a breeding program was established. It was very successful: from the last 10 rhinos the population grow to 20.000 today.
There are also about 100 lions and six packs of wild dogs in the park.
Already a few miuntes after entering the park's entrance we could spot the first rhinos. :)
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Grey heron
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It wa salready late afternoon when we entered the aprk, so soon the sun began to set.
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The next and first full day was very beautiful and very successful. ;)
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Leopard tortoise
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Then, the first male lion. He was sleeping (of course :P ) but our monitor said that he probably will stand up to walk to the shadow because it was hot already at 9 am in the morning. So, we waited.
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And indeed, he stood up. :D
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Not even half an hour later, we spotted the next lions, a pair, who was laying next ton the street. They didn't look healthy though.
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The lions weren't alone...
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...because behind them was a small bachelor herd of African Buffaloes (Syncerus caffer).
The buffaloes came closer.
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About 1 to 2 kilometres behind this scenes more lions were spotted. One male and four females were chilling under a big acacia tree, some females even lay on ethe branches. Climbing lions is not something you see very often.
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In the meantime, the buffaloes moved on and the lions didn't show any sign of action,, so we moved an as well.
On the way we could see the buffaloes again.
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There was also an older buffalo bull.
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And a female rhino with her calf and another rhino were standing next to the road. :)
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What's better than seeing lions and rhinos?
Rhinos and lions at one place! :P Further down the road there was another pair of lions and three white rhinos next to them.
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The lions were working on the next generation :P
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Finally, a picture of the landscape with a rhino in the foreground.
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This day really was incredilble: Ten lions in four places, several white rhinos (I didn't eben photographed all haha :P ) and some buffaloes.
The next day wasn't as successful as this one though but that's part of the next update, so stay tuned and see you soon. :)
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Hehe 3 big fives in one day , the only time I could do better was in Timbavati where we luckily spotted 4 of them (and buffaloes the day after) haha . :)

Interesting update once again , thanks for posting it .
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Dylan
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I've only ever seen leopard tortoises in zoos.

Always great to see lions and rhinos are working on the next generation. xD
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