Four-striped Grass Mouse

Rhabdomys pumilio

The diurnal Four-striped Grass Mouse is easily identified by its distinctive coat markings. Including their tail they grow to between 18 and 21cm long and weigh between 30 and 55g.

Four-striped Grass Mice have a very wide habitat tolerance provided there is a good covering of grass, occurring from desert fringes to mountains up to 3,500m high. They are also often found in close association with human habitation (quite unafraid around humans) and can become a pest. They excavate a system of burrows, usually shared by a few individuals, with the entrances hidden among vegetation (or in the lodges of the Bush Karoo Rat), and use a network of pathways radiating from the burrow to search for food. Four-striped Grass Mice are omnivores, feeding mostly on a wide range of green plants, seeds and invertebrates, but have also been recorded consuming bird chicks, eggs and even babies of their own kind.

Females give birth to litters of 2 to 9 helpless young in the summer months after a 25 day gestation, usually in grass nests within their burrows. They can have several litters in a season. The little ones start exploring when they are 2 weeks old and can start breeding when they’re 2 months old. Their life expectancy in the wild is only 18 months.

The Four-striped Grass Mouse is distributed patchily in eastern and central Africa but occurs widely over Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa (except in the Lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo). The IUCN describes it as abundant and lists the Four-Striped Grass Mouse as being of least concern.

Four-striped Grass Mouse

Four-Striped Grass Mouse

Four-striped Grass Mouse

Four-striped Grass Mouse (photo by Joubert)

Four-striped Grass Mouse

Karoo Prinia

25 Replies

Prinia maculosa

The diminutive Karoo Prinia (adults weigh only about 9g) inhabits Karoo scrublands and fynbos both in flatlands and in mountainous areas, often at or near drainage lines and wetlands, and is being seen more and more in gardens and plantations of alien vegetation as well. They feed almost exclusively on insects and other invertebrates.

Pairs of Karoo Prinia defend their territories year-round. They build an oval grass nest with a side entrance deep in a dense bush or shrub and lined with a dense layer of soft plant material and fur. They breed almost throughout the year, with a distinct peak in spring and early summer. The female alone incubates the clutch of 1-5 eggs for a period of about two weeks but the chicks are cared for by both parents after hatching. They fledge about two weeks after hatching.

Despite noting that their population is probably declining due to grazing pressure, the IUCN describes the Karoo Prinia as being common to abundant throughout its range, and considers it of least concern. The Karoo Prinia occurs in Lesotho, South Africa (Free State, Western, Eastern and Northern Cape) and marginally into Namibia.

Karoo Prinia

Karoo Prinia at Jack’s Picnic Spot

Karoo Prinia

Karoo Prinia (photo by Joubert)

Can you spot the Karoo Prinia among the mussel shells? (photo by Joubert)

Karoo Prinia

Southern African Ground Squirrel

29 Replies

Xerus inauris

The Southern African Ground Squirrel is a common animal with a stable population (to the point of being considered a pest in many agricultural areas), and listed as being of least concern by the IUCN. They’re found widely in Namibia, Botswana and marginally into western Lesotho. In South Africa they are to be seen in the Northern and Eastern Cape, Free State and North West Provinces. This distribution reflects the species’ preference for arid to semi-arid open scrublands with a hard substrate. They feed chiefly on a wide variety of plant species, consuming bulbs, tubers, roots, leaves, grass, stems, flowers and seeds, but also some insects. They are independent of drinking water, gaining enough moisture from their diet. Adults are about 45cm long (including the bushy tail) and weigh around 600g.

Southern African Ground Squirrels are diurnal and highly gregarious. Colonies number up to 30 individuals, usually with no more than 3 adult females and a coalition of unrelated males in attendance. Colonies construct elaborate burrow systems with as many as 30 entrances, in which nesting chambers are lined with grass. These burrows are often shared with meerkats and yellow mongooses, though these species do at times prey on the baby ground squirrels. They will only rarely climb into bushes but will use termite mounds as lookout points instead. While out foraging in the hot sun they often hold their bushy tails above them like a parasol. Southern African Ground Squirrels easily become habituated to humans.

Southern African Ground Squirrels breed throughout the year, though most litters are born in summer. Litters number between 1 and 4 babies, born after a gestation of 7 weeks. The young are weaned at about 7 weeks old. Females usually have a single litter annually, but may have as many as three under favourable conditions. When they’re about 8 months old young males leave their maternal colonies to join neighbouring groups, but females may stay with their birth colony throughout their life. In the wild they have a life expectancy of 4 to 5 years.

Southern African Ground Squirrel

Ground Squirrels

Ground Squirrel burrows in the Kalahari

Southern African Ground Squirrel

Southern African Ground Squirrel (photo by Joubert)

Ground Squirrel

Southern African Ground Squirrel

Southern African Ground Squirrels

Karoo Scrub Robin

17 Replies

Tychaedon coryphoeus

A common inhabitant of Karoo scrublands and fynbos, the Karoo Scrub Robin grows to around 15cm in length and 20g in weight. They feed mainly on insects and spiders.

Karoo Scrub Robins are usually encountered in territorial pairs, which are often assisted at their nest by helpers from a previous brood. They breed in spring and summer, when the female builds a cup-shaped nest in a large heap of twigs placed at the base or in the foliage of a dense shrub, ably assisted in the provision of building materials (dry grass, leaves, fur and so on) by her mate and helpers. The female incubates the clutch of 2-4 eggs for around 2 weeks, during which time the male regularly provides food to her. The chicks fledge before they are 3 weeks old, but often stay with their parents to assist in the rearing of the next brood.

The Karoo Scrub Robin occurs only in southern Namibia, western Lesotho, and South Africa’s western provinces (Northern, Western and Eastern Cape as well as drier western parts of the Free State). The IUCN lists it as being of least concern.

Karoo Scrub Robin

Karoo Scrub-Robin

Karoo Scrub Robin

Karoo Scrub-Robin

Meerkat (or Suricate)

47 Replies

Suricata suricatta

The Meerkat, or Suricate, is one of the best known mongoose species, thanks to the lovable character Timon in Disney’s The Lion King and the long-running documentary Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. Adults average about 50cm long and can weigh up to 960g.

Meerkats inhabit open, dry areas, usually with a hard substrate. They feed mainly on invertebrates, but will also consume small amphibians, reptiles (including venomous snakes, to which they appear to have a high degree of immunity), eggs, rodents and succulent plants, which provides their required intake of water.

Suricates are diurnal in habits, though confining most of their activity to the cooler hours of the day. They live in colonies with up to 40 members of both sexes and all ages, with the adult males aggressively defending the group’s territory. Within this home range there are several nesting burrows as well as hundreds of bolt-holes, into which they flee at the slightest sign of danger. Nesting burrows are often shared with springhares, yellow mongooses and ground squirrels. While the group is out foraging they take turns to act as sentry, climbing into trees and bushes up to 7m high for a better vantage point. Meerkats love to bask in the sun on cold mornings.

In small colonies only the dominant female will breed, but in larger groups there may be two or three females with babies. Females give birth at any time of year (though mostly in summer) to litters of 2-7 pups, and can raise up to 3 litters annually in favourable conditions. While out foraging, the mother will leave the babies in the care of a babysitter at the nesting burrow until they start foraging with the group at about a month old. All the group members help to look after young and sick or injured troopmates. Meerkats have a life expectancy of up to 12 years in the wild.

The IUCN considers the Meerkat of least concern. They occur from south-western Angola through Namibia and Botswana to South Africa, where they are found in all provinces except Limpopo and Kwazulu-Natal.

Meerkat sentry

Suricates (or meerkats) are frequently seen

Meerkat family

Meerkat / Suricate

Meerkat

Meerkat family

Curious Meerkat

Meerkat

Meerkat Family (Suricates)

Meerkat

Meerkat keeping watch

Meerkat digging furiously

Meerkat

Meerkats searching for food

Meerkat sentry

Meerkats foraging

Meerkat sentry

Meerkat

Meerkats

Meerkat (photo by Joubert)

Meerkat

Meerkat (photo by Joubert)

Meerkats

Meerkat

Karoo Korhaan

14 Replies

Heterotetrax vigorsii

As its name suggests, the Karoo Korhaan is a species that favours arid scrublands, preferring areas with a good ground cover and stony ground where its camouflage renders it very difficult to detect. It has also recently adapted to parts of the fynbos-biome as well the as planted croplands in that area. They follow an omnivorous diet, consuming flowers, fruit, leaves, bulbs and a wide range of invertebrates. Adult Karoo Korhaans weigh up to 2kg, with males quite a bit larger than the females.

These small bustards move around in pairs or small groups of up to 5. Breeding attempts have been recorded through most of the year, but summer appears to be the peak breeding season for the Karoo Korhaan. Pairs are monogamous and stay together throughout the year. The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground, usually hidden between shrubs and rocks. They lay a single egg, incubated by the female alone. Chicks leave the nest soon after hatching to forage along with their parents.

Thanks to a large and apparently increasing population and no apparent threats despite most of the population occurring outside formal conservation areas, the IUCN considers the Karoo Korhaan to be of Least Concern. They occur only in southern Namibia and parts of the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape Provinces in South Africa.

Karoo Korhaan

Karoo Korhaan are excellently camouflaged in the arid landscape

Karoo Korhaan

Bush Karoo Rat

32 Replies

Myotomys (Otomys) unisulcatus

The Bush Karoo Rat occurs in the drier parts of South Africa’s south-west (Northern, Western and Eastern Cape) and marginally into extreme southern Namibia. Their preferred habitat is areas with good vegetation coverage, such as that found along drainage lines, in the arid Karoo scrublands and semi-desert of the west coast. They feed on the seeds, berries, flowers, leaves and bulbs of a wide variety of plants (up to 60 species have been recorded for some populations), with succulents providing their required water intake. Including their relatively short tails, Bush Karoo Rats grow to an average of 24cm in length and weigh around 125g.

Bush Karoo Rats are mainly diurnal in nature, living in family groups numbering up to 11 rats that share a “lodge” – a large structure built of sticks, twigs, grass, kelp, bones, fur, and even shells and human litter, usually in or under the protection of a thorny bush. From the lodge a network of paths used to gather food radiate into the surrounding vegetation, with family members often bringing food back to store at the lodge. They will also readily climb into trees and bushes to reach food and to sun themselves. Bush Karoo Rats breed throughout the year, with litters of 1-5 young born after a 38 day gestation. They have a short life expectancy of less than 2 years in the wild.

The IUCN lists the Bush Karoo Rat as being of least concern, describing it as abundant in suitable habitat.

Bush Karoo Rat

Bush Karoo Rat female with young

Camdeboo National Park

24 Replies

In 1975 the Southern African Nature Foundation (today WWF-SA) established the 165km² Karoo Nature Reserve virtually all around the historic town of Graaff-Reinet. It was only in 2005 that the Karoo Nature Reserve was transferred to the stewardship of South African National Parks, and officially proclaimed as the Camdeboo National Park. Additional land was incorporated into the new Park, enlarging it to 194km². Some parts of the reserve consists of inspiring mountain topography, and yet others of wide open arid plains. The Nqweba Dam, previously known as the Van Rhyneveld’s Pass Dam and built in the early 1920’s, occupies a large section of the Park (up to 1000 hectares when full). The vegetation of the Park is a mix of Karoo scrub, grasslands, thorn savannas and succulent thickets, consisting of over 330 species.

Memorial to Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius

Sunset over the Camdeboo

A view over the Nqweba Dam

Camdeboo landscape

Gemsbok roaming the plains of Camdeboo

Camdeboo National Park scenery

Camdeboo National Park’s most celebrated natural feature, and a declared scenic national monument, is the Valley of Desolation, an awesome cleft over 100m deep, bordered by imposing pillars of stone and cut by natural forces over a period of 240-million years into the side of the mountain looming over Graaff-Reinet. A tarred road leads to the toposcope and viewpoints right at the top, where visitors have an opportunity to enjoy the magnificent vistas over the expansive Great Karoo and the small frontier town situated in an oxbow bend of the Sundays River below.

Making sense of the toposcope at the Valley of Desolation

Graaff-Reinet seen from the toposcope on the way to the Valley of Desolation

Spandaukop

Camdeboo’s Valley of Desolation

Taking in the scenery at the Valley of Desolation

The Karoo Nature Reserve and later Camdeboo National Park was stocked with several large game animals that used to occur here historically, and today Cape Buffalo and Cape Mountain Zebra count among the 43 kinds of mammals that can be seen here. All told, there’s no less than 225 kinds of birds, 34 reptile species and 8 varieties of frogs and toads that has been recorded within the Park’s borders.

Acacia Pied Barbet

Ant-eating Chat chick at nest burrow

Black Wildebeest

Blesbok

Bush Karoo Rat

Cape Robin-Chat

Caracal in th dark near Camdeboo’s campsite

Cardinal Woodpecker

Crowned Lapwing

Familiar Chat

Four-striped Grass Mouse

Gemsbok

Common Duiker

Southern Grey-headed Sparrow

Ground Agama

Southern African Ground Squirrel

Helmeted Guineafowl

Karoo Korhaan

Karoo Prinia

Karoo Scrub Robin

Kudu

Leopard Tortoise

Malachite Sunbird (unusually dark form)

Meerkat

Namaqua Dove

Neddicky

Ostrich family

Pale Chanting Goshawk (Immature)

Pied Crow

Pririt Batis

Red Hartbeest

Red-billed Firefinch

Red-billed Quelea

Rock Kestrel

Scrub Hare

Springbok Ram

Springbok Lamb

Southern Masked Weaver

Steppe Buzzard

Vervet Monkey

White-backed Mousebird

Overnight guests have a choice between the four basic two-bed safari tents at the Lakeview Tented Camp, which make use of a communal ablution block, kitchen and lounge, or the Nqweba Campsite which has fifteen sites for caravans and tents (each with a braai stand (barbeque) picnic table and electric point). There’s a limited network of gravel game-viewing roads available to sedans, a few more 4×4 trails, hiking trails, fishing and other watersports on the Nqweba Dam, a bird-watching hide (unfortunately really only of use when the dam is full), and rustic picnic sites. Graaff-Reinet has shops, restaurants, fuel stations and more.

Camping at Camdeboo National Park, December 2017

Safari Tent at Lakeview

Communal kitchen and lounge for the use of visitors staying in the safari tents

Communal showers for the use of visitors staying in the safari tents

Viewing platform in the camping area

Camdeboo National Park was the final stop on our December 2017 holiday tour through eight of South Africa’s national parks. The easiest access to Camdeboo’s Nqweba Campsite, Lakeview Tented Camp and the main game-viewing area is from the gate on the N9, just a few kilometres north of Graaff-Reinet, while the gate to the Valley of Desolation lies on the R63 to Murraysburg.

Grey-winged Francolin

14 Replies

Scleroptila afra

A fairly common inhabitant of fynbos and mountain grasslands and scrub to elevations as high as 2750m above sea level, Grey-winged Francolins move around in groups of up to 25 birds, but more usually between 3 and 8. Insects and bulbous plants make up the majority of its diet. Adults grow to 33cm with a weight of up to 520g.

The breeding season in Grey-winged Francolins spans spring and summer, reaching a peak between August and November. Females lie 4-8 eggs, though nests with up to 15 eggs have been noted and must be the result of 2 or more females sharing a nest. The hen incubates the eggs for 3 weeks and the chicks start moving around with their parents soon after hatching.

The Grey-winged Francolin occurs only in Lesotho and South Africa, where it is distributed through most of the Western and Eastern Cape and into portions of the Northern Cape, Free State, Kwazulu-Natal and Mpumalange where suitable habitat is found. The IUCN considers the Grey-winged Francolin of least concern despite it being a popular hunting bird in parts of its range.

Grey-winged francolin

Grey-winged Francolin

Grey-winged francolin

Grey-winged Francolin

Double-banded Courser

24 Replies

Smutsornis africanus

The mainly nocturnal Double-banded Courser inhabits rocky and sparsely vegetated semi-arid scrublands and grasslands as well as desert plains, where they subsist on a diet comprised of insects, particularly ants and termites. Adults weigh up to 100g and have a wingspan of about 45cm.

Double-banded Coursers are usually seen singly or in pairs, with larger groups of adults being a very rare occurrence. This species breeds throughout the year with a peak in the summer months. No nest is built and instead the well camouflaged single egg is laid directly on the ground, surrounded by pebbles, plant material or antelope droppings. Both parents take short turns to incubate the egg over a period of 3 weeks. The chick fledges when it is 5 to 6 weeks old.

The IUCN considers the conservation status of the Double-banded Courser as of least concern, with a stable population. The species occurs in two seperate parts of the African continent: one in East Africa and the other in the arid west of Southern Africa. In South Africa they are found in the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape, Free State and North West Province.