Recently the other researchers and I took another busman’s holiday, being taken on a game drive on the nearby Karongwe reserve with a researcher there. We are a bit used to the normal game drive animals, and luckily the researcher was looking for particular animals for the daily data collection.

The first was a cheetah, exciting enough by herself but add in her four cubs and we were buzzing with anticipation. We were not let down. The adult is habituated to humans walking near her so we managed to get roughly 10-15m away from her and the cubs, who were absolutely adorable! Climbing trees, climbing mum, licking mum, being licked by mum, scrambling on a termite mound … they were spectacular. We all agreed that there isn’t much cuter than a cheetah cub – so fluffy!

Tree climbing

So much cuteness

Not long after we tracked down the male lion, who was sound asleep. I think that maybe he twitched his ears when we approached in the vehicle. We were told that he had been eating a zebra kill for the last couple of days. We couldn’t see the zebra, but could definitely smell it!

We were finishing up the game drive, having seen some of the usual game such as giraffes and zebras, and were driving back to the house. However, not long before reaching it (in fact, just as we were about to turn into the driveway), we heard an almighty crashing noise and realised that there were a bachelor herd of elephants nearby. In the dark. Whilst we were in an open top game drive vehicle. Between us and the house. Nervous doesn’t cover what I was feeling. A couple of the boys ambled out of the darkness towards us, with an unusual surprise. One of them had a rug and another had a foam mattress – stolen goods! The one with the mattress flipped his trunk and tossed the mattress onto the back of his neck. Despite the nervousness and shock, we all ended up giggling away madly. I think it was definitely one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos as we were using a red spotlight to see, and my camera isn’t suitable for low light settings. Oh well, the memory lives on in my head! They wandered off not long after and we drove back to the house, finding that they had pulled up the water pipe! Thank goodness there are no elephants where I am!

After having just seen four different species that all made me very aware of my own lack of power by being a human (elephant, lion, crocodile, hippo), you might consider the next species to be somewhat uninspiring but I beg to differ. It was a Lilac-crested Roller Bird, and man, I was inspired. If you look at the photo below, I think you can see why. What a beautiful bird, with such colours! Take into account that I’m mesmerized by pretty much all birds, and you can see why I would be even more so enchanted by this species.

What a stunner

A quick aside – why am I mesmerized by birds? How could anyone not be? True, there are some very plain-looking ones and ones that can get very annoying (I think of my local park at home and the Canadian geese), but take a moment and think about the birds themselves. They’re very existence is amazing. To wonder how they evolved in such a way to exist in their form, and the adaptations that each species has. Beaks, feathers, wings! Then the differences in the types of beaks between different birds. When I start thinking about things like this, I just get slightly overwhelmed by how truly astonishing nature is. And that’s just thinking about one group of animals – take into account the mammals, the reptiles and such. Then go further and include all the plants, the fungi and a seemingly unending amount of bacteria. That’s not taking in the environment and then all the other science-y bits, the chemistry and the physics that make up our world and beyond. Overwhelmed doesn’t really cover it. Anyway, enough of going along that tangent and let’s return to Kruger and the wonders there.

Our next sightings were mostly repeat species – waterbuck, a crocodile, giraffes and an impressive male elephant. But repeats are fine with me. I absolutely love waterbuck. They remind me slightly of the red deer in the UK with their bearing, plus they have those heart-shaped marks on their noses – very endearing. This viewing was also quite exciting as they were at a waterhole with a crocodile. Slightly macabre, but I was half-hoping to see an attack. Not that I wished injury or death on the waterbuck of course, yet it would have been interesting to watch in a behavioural researcher kind of way.

For a while after this, the sightings were much the same – waterbuck and zebras. As mentioned, I love the waterbuck and if you know me even vaguely, you’ll probably know that I am slightly obsessive about zebras (my undergraduate dissertation was on their behaviour). One thing did bring me out of my general excitement and into curious mode – the zebra in the photo below (apologies for the slightly unfocussed quality of the photo). I’ve not yet seen a zebra with an ear like that – seemingly partially folded over. Maybe a birth defect or injury? If you’ve seen it before and it is neither of those, then I admit my mistake but until then I shall wonder.

Funky ear

Following an increasing number of zebra and waterbuck sightings, we came across three gorgeous kudu bulls who helpfully provided a scenic photo opportunity. I was hoping that they would walk back towards us and I could catch them all in the same position, but unfortunately not. Such is wildlife. 

Further sightings: bustard (a bird), zebra (including the adorable youngest below), an unidentified snake on the road, hippos and kudu. Our last Big 5 animal sighting before leaving the park was a very flaked out white rhino. He was so still then we initially worried that he might have been dead. Thankfully he flicked his ear and we gave a sigh of relief.

As dusk started to settle in, we headed for the gates, keeping an eager eye out for any last sightings and hoping that we’d see a leopard. Our luck was out for that, but we did see a dwarf mongoose group as they arrived back at a sleeping refuge. Being slightly obsessed with them, we stopped the car and watched them for a while. Which caused amusement amongst us, as this in turn meant that other cars would stop near us and look for our sighting. Whether they saw the mongoose, I don’t know. If they did, it is likely they were quite puzzled at us stopping for such a small animal. Hopefully, they appreciated them, though I doubt it could be as much as we did.

Our last sightings as dusk fell were an ostrich, a steenbok and a vulture (unsure of the species). Driving out of the park, we felt very satisfied with our day, despite not seeing some of the animals we had hoped to see. However, we had come to the park with the full knowledge that wildlife does as it wants. On the drive back I watched the stars come out, appreciating the waning moon and the evening star, before contentedly falling asleep.

And that my friends, brings my day out at Kruger to an end. But I should warn you, I went on another game drive later in the week and if the events from that aren’t worthy of a blog post, I don’t know what is! For now, I shall say – prepare yourselves to be jealous.

I wanted to add more photos to this post, but the internet is playing up I’m afraid.

At the dwarf mongoose project, we work 6 days every week and the day off is always something to look forward to. Now that’s not to say I dislike the work, in fact it’s the complete opposite. I love working with the mongoose, how could I not? They’re gorgeous and fascinating, not to mention the rest of the bush and the fact that I’m in South Africa! (I remind myself of this often, yet it still hasn’t sunk in properly, I mean… South Africa!!)

But I still enjoy a day off, whether it is chilled day with the rare occasion of using internet properly or celebrating Christmas in the bush. However I think that the most recent day off definitely tops the list as we drove an hour or so, having got up ridiculously early and left the house at 5am, and went on a day trip to Kruger National Park. Luckily we aren’t too far away and we are just over an hour’s drive from the one of the main entrances (Orpen Gate). Before we even got there I was marvelling over something, this was the second time that I’d got up before sunrise here and it was still fully dark with an amazing view of the stars. I even saw Orion, which I didn’t realise could be seen from the southern hemisphere (showing my lack of knowledge of stars!). I would’ve taken a photo, but my camera isn’t suitable for that (or I just haven’t worked out how to do it).

Kruger itself was just fantastic. Our first sighting was a group of giraffes not long after sunset which provided a very atmospheric photo opportunity. I find giraffes so interesting, and having worked with them, watched a post-mortem of one and written university essays on them, I have found that my regard for them has just increased each time. But I shall save my praise for another time.

An atmospheric start

Not long afterwards we came across a stunning kudu bull who we estimated to be roughly 6 years of age (due to the number of twists in his horns, but none of us know much about kudus so we may be wrong). Our first good bird sighting was a Pearl-Spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum) perched in bush not far from the road, presumably on the lookout for a small mammal or bird.Our first of the ‘Big Five’ was a duggar African Buffalo bull. A dagger bull is an old solitary male who is past breeding age and has left the herd.

The duggar buffalo bull

Our fifth sighting caused much excitement amongst us. Can you guess what it might have been? No doubt you’re thinking something big or rare – elephants, leopards, lions, cheetahs, rhinos? I’m afraid not, it was in fact a group of dwarf mongoose! Yup, we were getting excited at spotting the animal we work with day in and day out. I would say that could be conceived as slightly sad, but to me, I think it just shows how awesome dwarf mongoose are. It was at 8am in the morning, quite an early time to be spotting them during the winter but perhaps they were keen to get foraging before the heat of the day set in.

Further sightings that I shan’t go into too much detail about were: steenbok, waterbuck, black-backed jackal, vulture (possibly a White-backed), baboons and lilac-crested roller bird.

We came to our first dam, where a fish eagle circled overhead two of the animals I’d been longing to see. In the water, with just the tops of their heads visible, were a number of hippos. We have been hearing them in the river outside our house and they apparently graze on the lawn in the early morning, though I’ve not seen them yet. So I have been hoping to see one, and here were a whole group of them! In addition, there was a large crocodile lying on the bank and relaxing in the morning sun. I think I caught of glimpse of one at the reserve where we work, but it was quite a brief viewing. I was very impressed by this one and a discussion about their death rolls and larders quickly reinforced my opinion of the species.

Eek!

Further sightings for part one: another Pearl-Spotted Owlet, a second group of dwarf mongoose (yippee!), wildebeest, giraffes and zebras (if you know me, you’re probably surprised that I am not writing a long essay about zebras, but don’t worry I’m just saving it up for another time).

I shall wrap up this post and tease you with a couple of details from part two – a suckling youngster, and close encounters with a Big Five animal.