What better way to celebrate World Wildlife Day than to look back at the 301 species of South African wildlife we featured here at de Wets Wild over the years?
Click on the first image, scroll through the gallery and by the end of it you are sure to believe, as we do, that South Africa is a treasure chest of beautiful creatures that you absolutely have to visit, and fully deserving of its reputation as one of the ten most biodiverse countries on the planet!
Plains Zebra
Cape Mountain Zebra
Ground hornbill
Black rhinos
White Rhinos
Kudu
Nyala bull
Bushbuck
Eland
Buffalo bull
Von Wielligh’s baobab in summer
Lion Kings of Addo
Oribi ram
Southern Reedbuck are extremely common around Lake Saint Lucia
Mountain reedbuck ram
Grey Rhebok
Waterbuck, S100, Kruger National Park
Variegated slug eater
Male Samango Monkey
Red duiker
Elephant crossing the Napi Road (H1-1)
White-backed Vulture
Palm-Nut Vulture, Umlalazi Nature Reserve, March 2016
Cape Vulture
Lappet-faced Vulture
Bearded Vulture
White-headed Vulture
Hooded Vulture
Common Duiker
Springbok Ram
Klipspringer in typical habitat
Crowned Hornbill
Trumpeter Hornbill
Red-billed Hornbill
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
African Grey Hornbill
Sharpe’s Grysbok
Steenbok Ram
Impala Ram
Cheetah, S41, Kruger National Park
Black Heron “canopy feeding”
Crimson-breasted Shrike
Blue wildebeest are curious creatures
Black wildebeest
Blesbok ram
Tsessebe in thornveld vegetation in Ithala Game Reserve
Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest
Dominant Red Hartebeest bull
Gemsbok in the Karoo
Roan Antelope Bull along the Nshawu marsh in Kruger Park
Ostrich male
Standing proud
Blue Crane in Ithala Game Reserve
Grey Crowned Crane
Secretarybird
Kori Bustard
Red-crested Korhaan
Crested Guineafowl – iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Curious Helmeted Guineafowl
Marabou in flight
Saddle-billed Stork
African Openbill
Yellow-billed Stork at Sunset Dam
Woolly-necked Stork
Hamerkop
African Sacred Ibis
We had daily sightings of the rare bald ibis on the Oribi Loop at Golden Gate
Ground Woodpecker
Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon
Bush Blackcap in Thendele
Mauritian Tomb Bat, Nyalazi Gate, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park
Wild dogs on the hunt (Hluhluwe-Imfolozi 27122014)
Spotted hyena
Leopard on the Maroela Loop, near Skukuza in the Kruger Park
Hadeda Ibis
Glossy Ibis
African Spoonbill
White Stork
Juvenile African (Edible) (Lesser) Bullfrog
Grey heron at Lake Panic
Goliath Heron
Black-headed Heron
Great Egret
Red-billed quelea
Western Cattle Egret
Little Egret
African Darter in flight
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Shimuwini Bushveld Camp – Hippo
Egyptian Goose
African Stonechat male
Northern Black Korhaan male
Lilac-breasted Roller
Swainson’s Spurfowl
Black-backed jackal
Southern Masked Weaver
Red-billed Oxpecker
Yellow-billed Duck
Red-winged Starling
African Fish Eagle flypast
Red-knobbed Coot
Evil-looking juvenile Baboon
Laughing Dove
Black Crake
Grey-headed Gull
Pearl-spotted Owlet
Pied crows at the remains of the blesbok
Warthogs drinking from the Sabie
Natal Spurfowl
Cape Glossy Starling
White-bellied Sunbird Juvenile Male
Reed Cormorant
Pied Kingfisher
Water Thick-knee
Cape Robin-Chat
Blacksmith Lapwing
Bold crocodile near Olifants
African Black Duck
African Jacana
Tawny Eagle
Pink-backed Pelican in flight
Chinspot Batis (male)
Dark-capped Bulbul
White-fronted Bee-eater
White-faced Whistling Duck
Common Moorhen
Crowned lapwing
Vervet Monkey
Blue waxbill
Black-shouldered Kite
Leopard tortoise feeding on fresh shoots next to the road
Cape Weaver
Three-banded Plover
Rock hyrax, or dassie
Verreaux’s Eagles at Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens
Banded Mongoose
African Green Pigeon
African Wattled Lapwing
Crested Francolins
Scrub Hare
Burchell’s Coucal
Grey Go-away-bird
At night, Skukuza’s bushbabies come out to play
Scarlet-chested Sunbird (male)
Crested Barbet
Yellow Mongoose
Black-headed Oriole
African Scops Owl
Tree squirrel at the day visitors picnic spot
Yellow-billed kite
Pied Starling
Cape Grassbird
Male Double-banded Sandgrouse
Woodland Kingfisher
Cape Longclaw
Yellow-fronted Canary
Ant-eating Chat
Greater Blue-eared starling at Skukuza
Burchell’s starling
Bateleur (female)
Bearded Scrub-Robin
African Barred Owlet
Speckled Pigeon
Mocking Cliff Chat (male)
Chorister Robin-Chat
Karoo Long-billed Lark
African Penguin emerging from the surf
Black Girdled Lizard
Hartlaub’s Gull
Cape Sugarbird
Cape Grey Mongoose
Cape Spurfowl
Cape Cormorant
White-fronted Plover
Bontebok
Angulate Tortoise
African Oystercatcher
Knysna Turaco
Kelp Gull
Swift Tern
Cape Bulbul
White-browed Sparrow-weaver
Namaqua Sand Lizard
Double-banded Courser
Grey-winged francolin
Bush Karoo Rat
Karoo Korhaan
Meerkat / Suricate
Karoo Scrub Robin
Southern African Ground Squirrel
Karoo Prinia
Four-striped Grass Mouse
Steppe Buzzard
Red Bishop
Familiar Chat
Long-tailed Widowbird
Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake swallowing a skink in Shingwedzi
Spotted Thick-knee
White-throated Swallow
Dwarf mongoose in Pretoriuskop
Cape Sparrow male
White-breasted Cormorant
Cardinal Woodpecker
Karoo Thrush
Red-eyed Dove
Tree Agama in Crocodile Bridge
Speckled Mousebird
Cape Wagtail
Southern Boubou
Cape White-eye
Sable Antelope
Red-headed finch (male)
Bronze Mannikin
Southern Black Flycatcher
Green-backed heron
Water Monitor
The cute and tiny lesser bushbaby
South African Shelduck (male)
Temminck’s Courser
Pin-tailed whydah
Fiscal Flycatcher
Painted Reed Frog
Caracal
Striped Skink
Brubru
Southern Grey-headed Sparrow
Sunrise over the Augrabies landscape shows a lone Quiver Tree
Pale-winged Starling
Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra
Namaqua Fig
Orange River White-eye
Augrabies Flat Lizard male
Large Namaqua Porkbush
Pririt Batis
Western Rock Skink male
Sociable Weaver
Camel Thorn tree
Swallow-tailed Bee-eater
Pale Chanting Goshawk
White-backed Mousebird
Karasburg Tree Skink
Bat-eared Fox
Shepherd’s Tree
Burchell’s Sandgrouse (male)
Bibron’s Thick-toed Gecko
Kalahari Scrub Robin
Barberton Girdled Lizard
Eastern Nicator
Red-eyed Bulbul
Scaly-feathered Finch
Namaqua Dove
Marsh Terrapins at the hide in Karoo National Park
This trusting Golden-tailed Woodpecker distracted us from our breakfast at Tshokwane
Groundscraper Thrush
Verreaux’s (Giant) Eagle Owl
Fork-tailed Drongo
Bold honey badger at Nwanetsi Picnic Site
Cape Rock-Thrush (male)
African Dusky Flycatcher
African Pied wagtail
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Epauletted Fruit Bat at Skukuza Airport
African Snipe
Common Fiscal
Bokmakierie
Raucous Toad: Storms River Mouth has an amazing variety of toads and frogs that show themselves after dark
Collared Sunbird (male)
Green Milkweed Locust
White-crested Helmetshrike
Magpie Shrike
Rufous-naped Lark
Spur-winged Goose (male)
Red-necked spurfowl
Brown-hooded kingfisher
White-necked Raven
Foam Nest Frog
African Purple Swamphen
African Paradise Flycatcher (male on nest)
Is this how slender mongooses give a “high 5”?
African Mourning Dove
European Roller
Umbrella Thorn
Arrow-marked Babbler
Greater Striped Swallow
Sombre Greenbul
African Firefinch (male)
Golden Orb Web spider
African Mudhopper
Eastern Natal Green Snake
Red-capped Robin-Chat
Yellow-bellied Greenbul
Kosi Raphia Palms and Joubert
CMR Blister Beetle
White-eared Barbets – iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Common Ringed Plover
There’s beautiful specimens of the fever tree at uMkhuze
Common Tropical House Gecko
