What better excuse to take another look at the 83 species of South African wildlife that we featured here at de Wets Wild in the past year than World Wildlife Day?
Beautiful African Leopard (Phalanta-butterfly)
Village Weaver (male)
Single-striped Grass Mouse
Violet-backed Starling
Rainbow Skink (male)
Gaudy Commodore (dry season form)
Brown Snake Eagle
Common Orange Tip (male)
Wood Sandpiper
Broad-bordered Grass Yellows
Amur Falcon
Common Hottentot Skipper (male)
Black-backed Puffback
Serrated Hinged Terrapin
Common Meadow White
Black-chested Snake Eagle
Small Orange Tip (male)
Buffy Pipit
Spotted Jokers congregating on rotting fallen fruit in Mpila
Purple Heron
Layman butterfly
Honey Bee on Cape Honeysuckle
White-throated Robin-Chat
African Common White
Ruff
Guinea-fowl Butterfly
Knob-billed Duck female
African Wild Cat
Male Lesser Masked Weaver
Geranium Bronze butterfly
Southern Black Tits
Swazi Lily
Brown-headed Parrot
Leprous Grasshopper
Cut-throat Finch male
Mating Purple Tips
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver in Satara
Wattled Starling (male in breeding colours)
Turner’s Thick-toed Gecko
Black Stork
A huge bush cricket (Clonia wahlbergii) that shared our open-air shower at Mapungubwe National Park
Diederik Cuckoo
Common Diadem (male)
Green-winged Pytilia (male)
African Migrant (Butterfly)
African Migrant (female form florella)
Little Bee-eater
Senegal Lapwing
Solifuge a.k.a. Sun Spider
Spotted Eagle Owl
Yellow-throated Plated Lizard
African Hawk Eagle
Free-tailed Bats roosting beneath the thatch at Mooiplaas’ ablutions
Lesser Striped Swallow
Sycomore Fig
Long-tailed Paradise Whydah
Male Red-backed Shrike (photo by Joubert)
Tree Creeper Scorpion
Green, or Red-billed, Wood-hoopoe
Variable Skink
Black-crowned Tchagra
Black-winged Stilt
Dung beetles
Little Swift reinforcing a nest
Spectacled Weaver
Patrician Blue
African Harrier Hawk
Common Dotted Border
Giant Plated Lizards
Matabele Ants
Ashy Flycatcher
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Forest Beauty
Fulvous Whistling Duck (photo by Joubert)
Red-faced Mousebird
Guttural Toad
Squacco Heron
Little Sparrowhawk
Brown Hyena at the junction of Thuthlwa and Tlou drives in Pilanesberg
Thick-billed Weaver
Greater Red Musk Shrew
Ghost Crabs
Crowned Eagle (captive)
DeWetsWild 
What a fantastic celebration! Long may our wild places be protected.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Carol, and knowing how many people work so very hard every day to keep these places and their inhabitants safe for the benefit of all South Africans I am sure they will.
What a glorious tribute to World Wildlife Day 2021, beautiful captures!
Thank you so much, Donna!
there is absolutely no way I could ever pick a favorite… so… I’m happy you included so many fantastic creatures… what a blessing!
Thank you very much, Jane. We’re blessed to call this country home.
Beautiful collection of wildlife images! Thanks for sharing but a sample of your work captured in a year that has been, shall we say, less than hospitable for travelers.
Thank you very much, John!
The variety is mind boggling!
South Africa’s very rich in wildlife!
Very nice gallery of a variety of animals. Thank you, D. 🙂
Thanks, H.J!
So ‘n wonderlike verskeidenheid van al die diere en voels in ons land! Die skoenlappers en die uile is so pragtig!
Baie dankie, Aletta. Ons het darem maar n ryke verskeidenheid lewe wat Suid-Afrika met ons deel.
Ons is sommer bevoorreg.
Ah! I have been expecting a gallery from you to mark this occasion and I am not disappointed. You have provided us with a beautiful array of choices,
Thanks very much, Anne. There’s still so much more to see and learn of our country’s wildlife, so I hope we’ll be able to do the same again next year.
I must have missed half of your posts, Dries. I can’t recall seeing many of these beautiful creatures. What an extraordinary year it has been!
Certainly helped keep my mind in positive territory, Tracy!
What a wonderful display of wildlife, Dries. The header photo and the falcon stand out for me but I enjoyed them all.
Thanks very much for your ever complimentary contributions, Janet!
What a wonderful collection of photos. I have to say the falcon in my favorite. He ( or she) has such a wise look in his eye.
Thank you, Anne. Apart from their good looks the Amur Falcon is a fascinating long-distance migratory bird!
GREAT collection!
Thank you, Kathy!
Lost for words now, …fabulous!
Thank you, Ann-Christine!
The Amur Falcon is such a pretty one.
And when they congregate in their hundreds it’s a sight to behold, Lois!
Lovely images! Was the sycamore Fig a test? It’s an unusual animal 😉
🙂
Thanks, TasView.
Some time ago the term “wildlife” was usually used in reference to undomesticated vertebrates specifically, but these days its definition is much more broad and, to quote from the World Wildlife Day website “UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.” I think it’s good that the entire wild ecosystem gets attention.
Makes sense, it is alive and wild 🙂
Beautiful,beautiful butterflies but the header image of the Bee-eater is a gem!
Thanks, Brian!