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My South Africa Adventure; From Cape Town via Garden Route to Zululand
Topic Started: Nov 9 2016, 01:36 PM (5,050 Views)
Jony
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Thanks guys. :)
@ZTFR: So, you have seen leopards in the wild? That's cool. I didn't (one more reason to come back to South Africa :P ) and I even worked in a leopard project...

Day 24 to 28: Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park - Part 2

Today's update is something for bird fans (*cough*Dylan*cough*) as the next day wasn't very successful in terms of mammal sightings but in terms of bird sightings.
A bird highlight in the morning: A Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) was visible! It was the only time I could see this species...
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A bit landscape
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And impalas
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This Tawny Eagle (Aquila rapax) was very photogenically. ;)
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In our camp there was a very big "flower tree" which was inhabited by many birds.
The loudest birds were the Village Weavers (Ploceus cucullatus).
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In addition, I hoped for pictures of sunbirds. An indeed, I could take a good picture of a male Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis). :)
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Behidn the tree there was path leading to a rock from wgich you had a fantastic view on the savannah an dthe Hluhluwe River which was almost completely dried out during my visit. As I said before, Zululand suffered from a long drought but now the river is filled again due to a lot of rain in the last past weeks (as I read).
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That's all from this day, so let's continue with the next one. ON that day we could see a lot of vultures.
A pair of white-backed vultures nesting. :)
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You can see, it was another very nice and warm day.
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Details of Hluhluwe River.
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Another flock of vultures
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While searching for a pack of wild dogs, we came across a very big flock of white-backed vultures.
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Who can spot the wilddog ion this picture?
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We could spot a big pack of wild dogs in a distance of about one or two kilometres. They had a big litter of pups. :)
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Finally, a picture of a plains zebra who wanted to be a mountain zebra. :P
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The day wasn't over though, it were just a lot of pictures, so I decided to make another update which will be the final one of Hlhuhluwe-Imfolozi.
So, stay tuned and see you soon.
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Dylan
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Ah... Birds are always the best way to update. That sunbird was stunning.

Those painted dogs are beautiful. Great to see they are breeding
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Once again , a marvelous update . Nice birds as Dylan said. :)

Yeah , we saw a female and its cub on the first in Timbavati (and I can tell you the female was agressive , it adopted a kind of ''warning behavior'' and couldn't stop growling :P )
Edited by Zoo Tycooner FR, Jan 4 2017, 02:51 PM.
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Anton
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King of Cotingas

First of all, can I just say those galago pictures just made me incredibly jealous? :P
Really nice animals, that I sadly only heard, didn't see :/

In 2015 I was in Hluhluwe NP as well! We were only there for about 1,5 days though. We saw lots of elephants, rhinos, buffalo, white-backed vultures and a pair of lappet-faced vultures. At night we slept in a bungalow inside the park, a very nice spacious place where at night, while we were preparing dinner, a hyena came extremely close to us... Very scary, but probably one of my most interesting experiences in Africa! No lions and/or dogs there for us, though :P

Either way, keep these updates coming! I'm really loving them, and there's some absolutely amazing pictures in there! :D
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Imperator Furiosa
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Chaos Theory

Wonderful pictures, I'm so jealous haha ;) But in all seriousness you're incredibly lucky that you got to see these animals in the wild, and so close too. I love the bird pictures, especially the eagle in this update.
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Jony
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You guys rock! Thank you very much for your encouraging comments and that you are still following this topic. :)

@Anton: Uh, that hyena experience sounds scary. I haven't seen hyeans that close, just a few times for a few seconds during the dust or night. And I don't have any pictures sadly...:(


Day 24 to 28: Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park - Part 3

After this amazing wild dog sighhting we drove a to another Hide at a water and mud hole.
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There wasn't much to see. Just a few smaller birds.
Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca)
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African wattled lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)
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Cape turtle doves (Streptopelia capicola)
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Just after we left the Hide, we could see some Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). I have seen them several times, also during the Garden Route tour but I only managed to take pictures of them this one time. :P
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The morning session was over and we drove abck to camp. It also was very hot now, so it was necessary.
In the afternoon we drove out another time.
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Something different: a closer look at the foliage. You can primarily see thorn bushes.
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The goal of this seesion was finding some wilddogs (how surprising! :P ). A pack was in an easy accessible area.
After some time on eof the dogs came out of the bushes for a few seconds.
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Then he or she disappeared again but the signal said that the pack was following the route of the road, so we followed them.
Then the pack came out of the bushes and was walking on the road, so we could just ride behind. :)
After about 45 minutes, they left the road and disappeared in the bushes. That was definetly special to follow them for such a long time.
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The day ended with another beautiful African sunset. :)
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The next day we left Hluhluwe-Imfolozi because our actual aprk was another one. We only were in HiP because the accomodation in the other park wasn't available in those four days. So, during these days there were two volunteer teams which really facilitate the work in this very large reserve.
In the morning we did a final, short game drive.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi really has a beautiful landscpae, doesn't it?
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Female sunbird. It's nearly impossible to determine the right species because the females of all sunbird species look very similar. And the dark picture doesn't make it easier. :P
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Warthog
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We have also seen another female white rhino with her calf.
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Yellow-billed kite (Milvus aegyptius)
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Finally, some more landscape pictures.
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That's all form HiP. It's definetely worth visiting this park and I would have loved being there for a longer time, although the other reserves were really cool, too.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this update and stay tuned for the next time as we gonna visit another park. No details yet though. :P
Edited by Jony, Jan 9 2017, 08:34 AM.
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Amazing update once again!

Yeah baboons are everywhere in SA , especially in Cape. :P
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Dylan
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Even more birds. Love it

The Egyptian geese are so beautiful. Seen them in Hyde park.
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Jony
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Thanks you two. :)
Finally, we can go on with the next reserve. And just to say it: the next updates are something for ungulate fans. :P

Day 28 to 38: iSimangaliso Wetlands Park - Part 1

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iSimangaliso Wetlands Park is a reserve located between several big lakes and the Indian Ocean. Therefore the climate is much wetter, so swamps, wet savannas and a kind of coastal rainforest are the primary habitats. The fauna is a bit different, too, having hippos, crocodiles, typcial swamp and forest ungulates like waterbucks, reedbucks, bushbucks and different species of duikers as well as a lot of waterfowl. In addition, you could see both species of rhinos, elephants, zebras, wildebeest, greater kudus and African buffaloes.
The biggest predator is the leopard since lions as well as cheetahs and wilddogs are missing here.
Unless the other reserves, this is just a temporary project of a collaboration between Wildlife ACT and Panthera (which is an organisation focusing on the conservation of cats). The goal is to find out more about the population of leopards in SA / KwaZulu-Natal. Since a monitoring of leopards with collars and stuff is nearly impossible (they are too shy and you couldn't even find them with collars), camera traps are the primary primary utensil. Our job was to change the batteries of the camera traps, download the data and evaluate the pictures.

After entering, I was so impressed by the green landscape. I had to take several pictures of that. :P
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The first animals whcih we have seen was a herd of buffaloes.
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In Hluhluwe-Imfolozi white rhinos were evry common. In this park greater kudus are very common. You can see them like around every corner. :P BUt they are really buetiful animals, aren't they?

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Sall stop at a lookput. Fanatstic landscape, huh?
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Then we drove into the forest to our accomaodation. We were greeted by South African banded mongooses (Mungos mungo mungo). Unfortunately the pictures aren't the best. :/
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Our monitor told us that sometimes one can see bush pigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) and Samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albogularis labiatus) in this area, the former often come when people having barbecue in teh late evening.
Inded we were lucky in the first night and we didn't even have a barbecue! Some bushpigs were around the house and one was very curious and came to the fence. :) That was a great sighting!
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That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for the enxt time. :)
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PJ_Garcia_YT
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3D Moddeler

Very very good photos.
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Anton
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King of Cotingas

Another park I visited as well! I'm very jealous of the bushpigs, really great pictures!
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Haven't visited this one haha! It looks so lush and beautiful. :)
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Dylan
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Looks so lush. Are the pigs dangerous?
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Sam92
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Beautiful pictures of the greater kudus, one of my favourites c: . Very professional photos, hope you enjoyed your trip. I went with my college for a two weeks tour and I've never been to a country quite like it. Would love to go back :D
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Jony
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Thanks for your comments once again!
@Sam92: Yes, it's a fascinating country. Definetely want to go back, too. :D
@Dylan: Yes, they can be quite aggressive. I was glad that this one was calm and that there was a fence between.

Day 28 to 38: iSimangaliso Wetlands Park - Part 2
The enxt morning started with another ungulkate highlight: a Common Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia)!
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On our way to the camera traps we drove along this road whioch is one of the management tracks, that means normal visitors aren't allowed to drive there.
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Around one of the cameras we spotted this frog. Does someone have an idea which species it is?
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We came across an Elipsen Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus).
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That's how the camera traps look by the way:
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There are always two cameras in one place (one for each side of the road/track) to capture both sides of a leopard or any other animal.
We always took some extra cameras with us because sometimes one is not working anymore. This one was smashed by a hyena. The last pic of the camera has shown the open mouth of the hyena :D :
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A bit landscape. As I said, there are a lot of swampy areas like this one.
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At this camera site all the volunteers had to stay in the car because our monitor spotted one specimen of the most dangerous animal in Africa: a Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)!
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Great Egret (Ardea alba)
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The main prey of the leopards in this aprk are Bushbucks (Tragelaphus sylvaticus). The picture shows a male.
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More landscape.
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There are also warthogs.
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Some animals are hard to spot in the tall grass like the Black-bellied Bustard (Lissotis melanogaster).
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Finally, a white rhino. :)
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That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed it once again and as always I appreciate comments and likes. Thanks for watching!
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