Where to for our rhinos?

41 Replies

The 22nd of September marked the ninth World Rhino Day. We were in the Kruger National Park on the day, appreciating and enjoying the opportunity to see these wondrous creatures in real life in their natural habitat.

White Rhino (photo by Joubert)
Where to for our rhinos?
White Rhino (photo by Joubert)
Magnificent White Rhino bull

Sadly, the scourge of rhino poaching is still very real and present, with South Africa losing a total of 769 rhinos in 2018. While this is an encouraging decline of 25% from the numbers lost in 2017, the war has by no means been won yet. In the first six months of this year, we’ve already lost 318 more rhinos, 190 of which from the Kruger National Park. We continue to rally behind our rangers looking after these animals day and night, placing their lives on the line to ensure the survival of these animals so future generations may also experience the wonder of seeing the grey behemoths walking Africa’s savannas.

We also recently had the opportunity to visit a rehabilitation centre where rhinos injured or orphaned through poaching activities are cared for. It was a sobering experience to say the least; seeing with our own eyes the horrors inflicted on these beings by humankind, and the lengths their caregivers will go to to try and save them.

A white rhino at a rehab centre
This white rhino’s leg was shattered by a poacher’s bullet. It is permanently groggy as it has to be sedated regularly for veterinary staff to tend to its wounds.
Adult Black Rhino at a rehab centre for poaching survivors

We disappeared into the bush again…

37 Replies

But we are back now, fresh from another jaunt in the Kruger National Park. It almost goes without saying that there are lots and lots of photos to share and stories to tell over the next few weeks, so let us start off with a little gallery of pictures taken by Joubert to get you all excited for what is to come.

Buffalo Bull (photo by Joubert)
Fish Eagle (photo by Joubert)
Ground Hornbill (photo by Joubert)
African Hawk Eagle in silhouette (photo by Joubert)
Sparring hippos (photo by Joubert)
Spotted Hyena clan on the move (photo by Joubert)
Graceful Kudu bull (photo by Joubert)
Leopard cub (photo by Joubert)
Lilac-breasted Roller (photo by Joubert)
Lioness on a sand bank in the Sabie River (photo by Joubert)
Lion cub at Lubyelubye (photo by Joubert)
Martial Eagle (photo by Joubert)
Plains Zebras (photo by Joubert)
Sausage-Tree flower (photo by Joubert)
Waterbuck close-up (photo by Joubert)
White Rhino (photo by Joubert)
Beautiful impala lily flowers

Impala Lily

33 Replies

Adenium multiflorum

An Impala Lily in full bloom must be one of our most beautiful succulent shrubs, especially as it blooms in an otherwise drab and dry winter in the hot savannas of the Lowveld and northern Kwazulu-Natal, the only places it occurs naturally in South Africa, where it grows in well-drained brackish and rocky soil. North of our borders they are found up to Zambia and Malawi. They are extremely drought resistant and can grow to 3m tall, though such large specimens are rare. Being toxic, it was once used as poison for arrows by the San people. However, some animals are able to browse on the Impala Lily without suffering any apparent ill effects. It is also used in a few traditional medicine concoctions.

Beautiful impala lily flowers
Impala lily and aloe thorns
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily (Photo by Joubert)
Impala Lily
African Veined White slurping nectar from an Impala Lily flower
Impala Lily
Impala Lily seedpod
Impala Lily
Impala Lily seedpod and flowers
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Beautiful impala lily in bloom at Skukuza’s reception (photo by Joubert)
Impala Lily
Impala Lily
Impala Lily (photo by Joubert)
Impala lily flowers
Impala Lily blooming in the veld

Red-billed Teal

17 Replies

Anas erythrorhyncha

Being a quite common inhabitant of our freshwater dams and pans (and sewerage ponds), the Red-billed Teal can be expected at any inland open water body in South Africa that provides emergent and submerged vegetation. They feed on grass, seeds, waterplants and aquatic invertebrates, mostly at night – by day they rest on the water or at its edge. Apart from South Africa, the species is widely distributed over the rest of southern, eastern and central Africa as well as Madagascar.

Red-billed Teals congregate in enormous flocks at times, especially during their annual month-long flightless moulting period, but are usually seen in pairs when breeding, which may occur throughout the year but mostly follows the rainy season, nesting in thick vegetation on dry land near temporary or permanent expanses of water. Clutches consist of 5-12 eggs, and are incubated for a month by the female only, the male by this stage having long abandoned the family. The chicks take to the wing for the first time about two months after hatching.

Adults grow to a length of about 46cm and both sexes weigh just over half a kilogram on average. The Red-billed Teal is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN.

Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teals
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teals
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teals and a Three-banded Plover
Red-billed Teals
Red-billed Teals
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal family
Red-billed Teal family
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teals
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal (photo by Joubert)
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teal
Red-billed Teals

Thread-waisted Wasp

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Ammophila

We have about 18 species of the genus Ammophila in South Africa, and finding a female Thread-waisted Wasp from this genus on the hunt can be an absolutely engrossing experience. Before setting out, she digs a short tunnel in sandy soil, ending in a wider nest chamber. She then searches for caterpillars and other soft-bodied invertebrates, which once found are paralysed with a series of stings and then, depending on the size of the prize, is carried in flight or dragged along the ground back to the nest. One or more incapacitated victims are provided per nest, the female wasp laying a single egg on the first prey item stored in the nest. Once the larder has been sufficiently stocked to provide adequately in the needs of the larval wasp, the female closes it up with pebbles and grains of sand, taking great care to expertly hide the tunnel from view. She then starts the process all over again at a suitable nesting site elsewhere.

Thread-waisted Wasp

The two galleries below were taken at Marakele National Park and Tembe Elephant Park respectively, and show the fascinating process of a female wasp provisioning her offspring with a food store.

Thread-waisted Wasp and prey at Marakele National Park
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp and caterpillar prey at Marakele
Thread-waisted Wasp closing up the nesting tunnel after depositing the caterpillar and laying the egg (at Marakele NP)

The Tembe sequence:

Thread-waisted Wasp preparing her larder
Thread-waisted Wasp preparing her larder
Thread-waisted Wasp flying off to capture her prey
Thread-waisted Wasp returning to the nest with a paralysed victim
Thread-waisted Wasp closing up the nest-burrow
Thread-waisted Wasp closing up the nest-burrow
Thread-waisted Wasp closing up the nest-burrow

Unlike the larvae, adult Thread-waisted Wasps feed on nectar. They measure 2-3cm in length.

 

Olive Sunbird

17 Replies

Cyanomitra olivacea

The shy but vocal Olive Sunbird is a forest denizen by habit, and usually the most commonly encountered sunbird where they occur. They nest throughout spring and summer. Adults weigh only between 8 and 15g, measuring around 15cm long. Not much else is known about these tiny nectar-feeders.

Due to its very specific habitat preferences, the Olive Sunbird has a very restricted distribution in South Africa – here they are found only along the Indian Ocean coast from East London through to northern Kwazulu-Natal, and in a small corner of Mpumalanga around Nelspruit and Barberton. Further north into Africa they are widely distributed through east, central and West Africa. The IUCN lists the species as being of least concern, despite the threat of habitat loss due to uncontrolled deforestation in much of its range.

Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Olive Sunbird
Grey-tit Flycatcher and Olive Sunbird, with Samango Monkeys in the background
Grey-tit Flycatcher and Olive Sunbird, with Samango Monkeys in the background
Grey-tit Flycatcher and Olive Sunbird, with Samango Monkeys in the background
Olive Sunbird (photo by Joubert)

Mopane

28 Replies

Colophospermum mopane

Anyone who has visited the northern Kruger National Park would be well acquainted with the Mopane, a tree that proliferates in hot, dry, low-lying areas. Apart from the Limpopo Valley and northern Lowveld in South Africa, the Mopane is mainly found south of the Kunene and Zambezi Rivers. In dry, shallow soils the Mopane grows as a short shrub, dominating the landscape, but in deep, damp alluvial soils they may grow to 30m tall, forming beautiful woodlands. The trees are a favourite for many browsing animals, with elephants especially being very fond of every part of the tree, including the rough bark.

Mopane wood is hard and termite resistant, making it sought-after as a building material, for fences and mining, railway sleepers and for making furniture. It is also one of the most widely used trees for fire-wood where it occurs. The Mopane is probably best known though as the food source for a uniquely African delicacy; the protein-rich Mopane Worm – more correctly the caterpillar of the Mopane Moth Gonimbrasia belina.

Mopane leaves are uniquely butterfly- or spoor-shaped
Mopane tree
Mopane shrubs
Mopane tree
Mopane tree
Mopane leaves
Mopane trees line a road through Shingwedzi
Mopane tree
Mopane tree
Mopane leaves
Elephant moving through Mopane scrub
Giraffe in a sea of Mopani
Mopane Worm (Mopane Moth caterpillar)

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

25 Replies

Buphagus africanus

Inhabiting savannas and open woodlands, most often near a reliable water source, Yellow-billed Oxpeckers are reliant on populations of large game (mainly buffalo, giraffe, black and white rhinos, hippos and large antelope) and untreated livestock from which they can glean the ticks and other ectoparasites on which they subsist. They will also feed on blood dripping from open wounds on their hosts, often hampering their healing and recovery.

Adult Yellow-billed Oxpeckers measure around 20cm in length, with a weight of about 60g. Pairs are monogamous and breed in holes in trees during spring and summer, raising clutches of 2-3 chicks, often with the help of immature birds from previous broods.

Exterminated from South Africa as a result of the rinderpest epidemic of the 1890’s, Yellow-billed Oxpeckers naturally recolonized the Kruger National Park from Zimbabwe only in the 1970’s. They were also introduced to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in northern Kwazulu-Natal in the 1980’s but as they’re not being seen there any more this was probably not successful. Today they are still classified as Vulnerable in South Africa and the Lowveld remains the only reliable place to see the Yellow-billed Oxpecker in our country, though the IUCN lists the species as being of Least Concern overall, indicating a patchy distribution that spans much of southern, eastern, central and western Africa.

Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Tired old cow further burdened with a load of Yellow-billed Oxpeckers
Yellow-billed Oxpecker on a festering wound
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker (immature)
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellowbilled Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpecker on an African Buffalo
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Cape Crow

11 Replies

Corvus capensis

The Cape Crow inhabits a wide range of habitats, from beaches and arid scrublands to mountain grasslands and savanna, but is most common in open habitats with a scattering of trees. They follow an omnivorous diet, feeding on anything from seeds and berries to tortoises and chickens and scavenging at rubbish dumps and road kills. They are less frequently associated with urban environments than the Pied Crow but are very common in many agricultural areas. Fully grown, Cape Crows measure about 50cm in length and weigh around half a kilogram.

Pairs are monogamous and territorial, but occasionally Cape Crows congregate in flocks of 50 or more birds outside the breeding season, which spans spring and summer. Their nests are large bowl-shaped constructions built by the female, using materials sourced by the male, on top of trees, utility poles or cliffs. The parents take turns to incubate the clutch of 2-4 eggs over a 3 week period. The chicks stay in the nest for up to 6 weeks, and may stay with their parents for up to 6 months after fledging.

The Cape Crow occurs widely in South Africa, being absent only from the Lowveld and Limpopo Valley and seen very infrequently in parts of the Free State and Northern Cape. They are also found in Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe, with a separate population in eastern Africa, from Tanzania to Eritrea. The IUCN lists the Cape Crow as a species of least concern.

Cape Crow
Cape Crow
Cape Crow
Cape Crow
Cape Crow
Cape Crow
Cape Crow

Cape Bunting

13 Replies

Emberiza capensis

Cape Buntings inhabit dry scrub, heathland, grasslands and woodland in rocky terrain, often in hilly and mountainous areas or along dry watercourses. They’re also familiar in the parks and gardens of villages within their distribution range, becoming quite tame around humans and even entering homes in search of food. They forage on the ground, their diet including seeds, insects, berries, and flower buds.

Cape Buntings occur singly, in pairs or in small family groups, with no records of larger aggregations. Pairs are monogamous and build their cup-shaped nests close to the ground in a thick shrub or bush. They breed throughout the year, with a distinct peak in nesting behaviour during the spring months. The clutch of 2-5 eggs are incubated for a period of two weeks, with the chicks leaving the nest even before they are 2 weeks old. Adults weigh around 20g and grow to a length of about 16cm.

In South Africa, Cape Buntings are found in every province, though they are much more numerous in the central and western parts of the country. They also occur widely in Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and marginally into Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Swaziland and Botswana. It is considered of least concern by the IUCN.

Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting on our stoep (photo by Joubert)
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting
Cape Bunting