Category Archives: Memorable sightings

The school is on the move!

During a visit in November to Rietvlei Nature Reserve on Pretoria’s outskirts, along with friend and colleague Hannes Rossouw, we were treated to the show of hundreds of Sharptooth Catfish trying to move upstream following a good downpour the day before. What an amazing spectacle it was!

Sharptooth Catfish moving upstream in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve

The reason why they’re moving upstream is to mate and lay eggs in newly inundated areas. These catfish were videoed at the Marais Dam in the reserve, vying for mating rights and the best spots to lay and fertilise their eggs.

Remember that I am available to escort you on a guided tour of the Rietvlei Nature Reserve when you visit Pretoria, and that Hannes will gladly accompany us if you’re looking for tips from an expert wildlife photography tutor!

iSimangaliso’s animals – great and small

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As befits a conservation area of its stature, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is extremely rich in fauna of all description. In this final post about our recent tour of the reserve I’ll be sharing some more of the wonderful animal sightings we had.

The tropical environment of northern Kwazulu-Natal is home to some very interesting invertebrate creatures – the Flatface Longhorn Beetle I showed you a few days ago being a fantastic example.

An enormous jellyfish that drifted out of a rough sea on the beach at St. Lucia

Common Bush Brown butterfly

Spotted Buff butterfly

Blue Pansy butterfly

African Piedspot Dragonfly

Mating Common Blue butterflies

Natal Rock Crab

Flatface Longhorn Beetle (Lasiopezus longimanus), identified with the kind assistance of the “Insects only – Southern Africa” facebook page.

Slug close-up

Millipede

Unidentified Moth with wonderful camouflage

Unidentified caterpillar

False Dotted Border butterfly

Sooty Blue

Superb False Tiger Moth

Dung Beetle

Broad-bordered Grass Yellow

African Peach Moth

Giant African Land Snail

Slug and its slimy trail

Brown-veined White Butterfly

Fish and frogs must be finding the wet conditions prevailing now after suffering through a terrible drought not so long ago very much to their liking!

Platanna

Foam Nest Frogs mating

The toes of a Foam Nest Frog

Banded Tilapia. The newly formed ponds have quickly been populated by fish and tadpoles.

Even though most of them are shy and seldomly seen, iSimangaliso is home to an amazing array of reptiles as well – many of them rather dangerous!

Huge Nile Crocodile slipping into the Mfabeni swamp

Marsh Terrapins

Tropical House Gecko

Striped Skink

Serrated Hinged Terrapin

Mozambique Spitting Cobra after swallowing something (likely a frog)

Southern African Rock Python

We dedicated an entire post to the amazing diversity of birds that we found in iSimangaliso during our most recent trip.

Purple Heron

Yellow-throated Longclaw

African Swamphen

Little Bee-eaters

Swift Tern

Secretary Bird

Squacco Heron

Narina Trogon

Collared Pratincole

Immature Kelp Gull

African Pygmy Geese among Blue Water Lilies

Crested Guineafowl

Yellow Weaver

Mammals are well represented at iSimangaliso, and zebras, giraffes, warthogs, various kinds of antelope and primates are regularly encountered along the routes traversing the Park.

Bushbuck ram

Chacma Baboon

Natal Red Duiker

Common Duiker

Large-spotted Genet

Impala

Kudus

Kudu bull

Fighting Kudu bulls

Giraffe cow and calf

Nyala bull

Nyala ewe

This leucistic Samango Monkey is a familiar inhabitant of Cape Vidal

Samango Monkey

Vervet Monkey

Red Bush Squirrel

Common Reedbuck

Suni

Warthog

Waterbuck

Blue Wildebeest

Plains Zebra

Sitting outside watching our fire one evening at Mantuma Camp in the uMkhuze Game Reserve we were joined by a large herd of impalas and nyalas.

These Kudu bulls decided to have it out right in the middle of the road between St. Lucia and Cape Vidal.

While traveling along the grassland loop through the Eastern Shores section of the Park we came across a group of hyenas finishing off the remains of a buffalo.

Spotted Hyena

At the other end of the scale are Africa’s grey behemoths, all of which are found at iSimangaliso. Without forgetting to mention the Humpback Whales and dolphins so often seen just offshore, I’ve also already given closer attention to elephants and buffaloes. Hippos were one of the main reasons for the establishment of the St. Lucia Game Reserve 128 years ago, and they are still very much in evidence. We also encountered White and Black Rhinos, but I won’t be sharing photo’s of them as they were in some easily recognisable spots.

Humpbacked Whale tail-slamming off St. Lucia

African Buffalo

Elephant bull on a walk about

Elephant bull at uMkhuze

Hippopotamus

A pod of Hippos on the shores of Lake St. Lucia at Catalina Bay

Hippopotamus

Pair of Hippopotamus

Pod of Hippopotamus in Nsumo Pan

Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.

iSimangaliso’s Buffaloes

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The iSimangaliso Wetland Park is home to several hundred African Buffaloes, and they’re especially numerous in the Eastern Shores section of the reserve. They’re such powerful beasts with a well deserved reputation for a dangerous disposition, and it is always exciting to see them at close quarters.

African Buffalo

African Buffaloes

African Buffalo

African Buffaloes

Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.

Encounters with Elephants at uMkhuze Game Reserve

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We had some excellent sightings of African Elephants in the uMkhuze Game Reserve section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park when we toured the reserve earlier in November.

Elephant bull at uMkhuze

Elephant bull on a walk about

Elephant bull at uMkhuze

There were some adorable babies in this big breeding herd – at least 50 individuals strong – that crossed the road in front of us in a hurry past the eThaleni Picnic Spot.

Elephant bulls are always a thrill to encounter.

We were trapped behind this big Elephant bull in musth – a period of heightened reproductive urges accompanied by aggressive behaviour – while heading back to camp on our first evening at uMkhuze. Luckily he gave way just in time for us to make the gate closing time of 19h00.

Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.

Humpback Whale

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One of the most memorable sightings of my recent tour of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park was of a small pod of Humpback Whales playing just offshore of the St. Lucia estuary one overcast morning.

Humpbacked Whale tail-slamming off St. Lucia

Humpbacked Whale fin-slapping off St. Lucia

Humpbacked Whale tail-slamming off St. Lucia

Humpbacked Whale fin-slapping off St. Lucia

Megaptera novaeangliae

Humpback Whales occur throughout the world’s oceans at different times of the year. Locally they migrate past our shores from about June to overwinter in the tropical waters off both Africa’s Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines, returning to their Antarctic feeding grounds from about November at the start of the austral summer and covering as much as 16,000km on these journeys. Humpback Whales feed mainly on krill, other plankton and schools of fish, gulped down in enormous quantities after being encircled by “curtains” of bubbles released from the blowholes of the circling whales. These whales are well known for their spectacular breaches out of the water as well as their playful tail-slamming and fin-slapping behaviour (as captured in the above video). They may dive up to 150m deep and stay underwater for up to 15 minutes. While usually seen in small groups and even as single cows with their latest calf, Humpback Whales may at times congregate in pods up to 200 strong in good feeding grounds.

While in the more tropical climes the females give birth to single calves after an almost year-long gestation. The calves will suckle for up to a year, though they start eating at about 6 months of age. Females calf every two years and mating also takes place in the tropical latitudes during winter. At birth the calves weigh about a metric ton and measure more than 4 metres in length; fully grown they will weigh approximately 40,000kg and reach up to 18m in length! It is estimated that Humpback Whales live to at least 50 years of age.

Citing an increasing population estimated at approximately 84,000 mature animals (of a total of 135,000) worldwide, the IUCN lists the Humpback Whale as being of least concern. When whaling was banned in 1966 there was probably only 5,000 Humpback Whales left.

Over the years we’ve been fortunate to see these enigmatic creatures a number of times while visiting some of South Africa’s wild places, most notably the Garden Route National Park and, of course, iSimangaliso. DeWetsWild will assist you with reservations and guided tours of these places and even arrange whale watching excursions with experienced skippers if you are interested in seeing Humpback Whales up close.

Humpback Whale

Flatface Longhorn Beetle

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Lasiopezus longimanus

While strolling around the grounds of Mantuma Rest Camp in the uMkhuze Game Reserve section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park earlier this month I came across this incredible creature, identified as one of the Flatface Longhorn Beetles with the kind assistance of the experts in the “Insects only – Southern Africa” Facebook group.

While it was impressively big (the body was about 4cm long), boasted very long feelers and its colours perfectly imitated a bird dropping, it was the hairy feet I found most intriguing. It is possible that the “hairs” has some sensory function, but from a distance it makes the beetle look as if it is wearing mittens!

Flatface Longhorn Beetle (Lasiopezus longimanus), identified with the kind assistance of the “Insects only – Southern Africa” facebook page.

Lesser Moorhen

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Finding a Lesser Moorhen at a newly formed pan of water in the Eastern Shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park was a real highlight of my most recent visit to the “Place of Miracles and Wonders”, as it brings me to 609 species of birds seen in South Africa.

Lesser Moorhen

Paragallinula (Gallinula) angulata

The Lesser Moorhen inhabits freshwater wetlands ranging from periodically flooded grasslands to permanent swamps and marshes, showing a strong preference for areas densely covered by emergent vegetation and limited open water. They’re omnivores, feeding on water plants and aquatic invertebrates.

Lesser Moorhens start breeding after the first floods, building their cup-shaped grass nests on a platform of flattened living grass, reeds or sedges. The female is responsible for most of the incubation duties, with the clutch of up to nine eggs (though about 6 is more usual) hatching after about 3 weeks. The chicks start flying at about 5 weeks of age, but remain with their parents up to about 2 months old. Fully grown they’ll weigh about 135g and measure approximately 23cm in length. Lesser Moorhens are very shy and seldom venture into the open.

The IUCN lists the Lesser Moorhen as being of least concern. It is found in suitable habitat over most of sub-Saharan Africa, though locally their populations fluctuate widely according to the quality of early rainfall and they’re usually only present in small numbers in Gauteng, parts of the Limpopo Highveld, the Lowveld and northern Kwazulu-Natal from November to May, migrating back to central Africa at the onset of winter (though a handful may remain throughout the year).

(Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.)

All the water has turned iSimangaliso into frog heaven!

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A wonderful consequence of the water wonderland that is the iSimangaliso Wetland Park now, is the incredible numbers of amphibians evident throughout the Park. I’m featuring just a few of them here.

Driving around the Park you cannot escape the calls of the Painted Reed Frogs, though they’re almost impossible to see without stepping out of your vehicle and searching for them (which isn’t allowed, due to the presence of dangerous animals). I was therefore very impressed with myself when I saw this Painted Reed Frog as I was driving by. See how small it is!

Can you spot the Painted Reed Frog?

Painted Reed Frog at a temporary pan on the eastern shores of Lake Saint Lucia

While using the facilities at one of the stopping points on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia I noticed this Peeping Tom hiding in a corner. It is a Red Toad and I left him there to amuse the next visitor as well…

Red Toad in an ablution block in the Western Shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Platannas seem to have quickly colonized all the newly formed stretches of water in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, but usually quickly dive under water at the slightest disturbance. It was pleasing to find one that wasn’t too shy to pose for a few photo’s.

Platanna

It would be better if it cultivated a more apprehensive disposition though, because Platannas are on the menu of many waterbirds and in the 10 days I spent in iSimangaliso on this latest trip I saw many a Platanna disappearing down a gullet.

Reed Cormorant with a Platanna

After dark, hundreds of immature African Bull Frogs emerged onto the roads, especially following rainy days.

Immature African Bull Frog on a road in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Kumasinga Hide at uMkhuze Game Reserve has turned into a paradise for Southern Foam Nest Frogs, with dozens of the cute little creatures clinging to the hide’s framework, with a few foam nests already constructed over the water and a few still in the making (allowing me to make a video of the process).

The toes of a Foam Nest Frog

Foam Nest Frog in Kumasinga Hide

Foam Nest Frogs mating

Foam Nest Frog nests

Foam Nest Frogs mating

Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.

Getting REALLY up close with Leopards in Manyeleti

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One of our very first sightings in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve – shortly after settling in at Ndzhaka Camp – was of two young Leopards. Their mother had caught an antelope for each of them and hoisted these into different trees so that the two cubs could eat in peace. One had a bushbuck, the other an impala. It was amazing being so close to the feeding leopards. They truly are beautiful animals.

Young leopard in Manyeleti Nature Reserve

The next afternoon while enjoying our drive from Buffelshoek Camp we eventually found ourselves back at the Leopard sighting just after sunset. Both the cubs were still there – in separate trees – and their mother joined them, snacking on the leftovers of the bushbuck. Below two Spotted Hyenas were waiting for scraps falling from the tree above.

Leopard Cub in Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Female Leopard feeding on a bushbuck carcass in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Spotted Hyena, Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Getting up close to feeding leopards in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Female Leopard feeding on a bushbuck carcass in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

In the fading light I eventually had to switch to video. The female would stop feeding every now and then, growling ferociously at something unseen in the dense undergrowth. Minutes later the source of her irritation revealed itself as a male Leopard, in all likelihood the father of the cubs. He climbed into the other tree to feed on the remains of the Impala carcass. In 45 years of frequent visits to our wild places I have never seen four leopards in the same spot. An incredible experience, and I hope this video gives you a sense of that!

Heading back to Buffelshoek Camp in the dark we encountered more Spotted Hyenas in the road.

Don’t miss the opportunity to visit Manyeleti along with DeWetsWild and Hannes Rossouw Photography!

Caught between Painted Wolves and Cheetahs

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Shortly after leaving Ndzhaka Camp on our first guided morning drive in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve earlier this month, we found a pack of Painted Wolves, better known as African Wild Dogs, in the road. There was great excitement among the younger Dogs in the pack as the adults had just returned to them with meat from a fresh kill, and all of them were in a very playful mood. We got some wonderful photographs and video of the Dogs playing around the vehicles at the sighting.

Wild Dog in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Playful Wild Dog pups in Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Wild Dog in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

After a while we noticed two Cheetahs walking along the road in our direction, very aware of the Wild Dogs but apparently not fazed enough by them to immediately head for cover.

Two cheetahs walking along the road in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

It didn’t take long for the Wild Dogs to also notice the Cheetahs though, and they immediately set off in their direction.

Wild Dogs running along the road in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Now this is the point where I can kick myself! I thought I was videoing the whole sequence, but in the excitement I never pressed the recording button… Next time I will do better, I promise… As the Wild Dogs trotted ever closer one of the Cheetahs broke cover and charged at them, seemingly thinking that offense is the best defense. The Cheetah was however immediately surrounded by the adult Wild Dogs, hit with its front paws on the ground, hissing and spitting, and then ran through a gap in the Dogs and up a dead tree, where we pick up the action with a photograph or two.

Cheetah after being chased up a tree by Wild Dogs in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Cheetah jumping out of the tree

With the Dogs satisfied that they’ve given the Cheetahs a run for their money and setting of on another hunt, we followed the now reunited Cheetahs for a while until they moved into dense cover where we lost sight of them. By then, the Wild Dogs had also ventured further into the bush and out of sight.

Cheetahs in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

Cheetah in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve

African Wild Dogs can cover enormous distances, and we found the pack again that afternoon, this time on a drive from Buffelshoek Camp. In the heat of the afternoon they were a lot less energetic and more content lazing in the shade at the side of the road than hunting.