Category Archives: South African Wildlife

The inhabitants of South Africa’s wild places

Bush Blackcap

Lioptilus nigricapillus

Our December 2016 visit to Thendele in the Royal Natal National Park afforded us our first opportunity to photograph the Bush Blackcap, a rarely seen endemic South African bird with a very limited distribution along the Eastern Escarpment.

Bush Blackcap in Thendele

These small birds occur singly or in pairs in the dense canopy of mountain forests and their verges, moving down to coastal forests (and lush gardens) during winter. Breeding takes place in summer. They feed on fruits, berries and insects. The IUCN considers them “near threatened” due to a small population size (estimated at most around 5,000) and threats to their forest habitat.

Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon

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Bradypodion dracomontanum

Just as we arrived at Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg for our visit in December, Joubert noticed this laid-back little chameleon resting an elbow on a fence post in the campsite at Rugged Glen.

Turns out he (or she) is a Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon, a species found only in the Drakensberg mountain range in Kwazulu-Natal Province, where they inhabit sheltered forests and bushes in alpine vegetation at altitudes of between 1,500 and 2,500m and feed on small insects. They grow to a length of only about 14cm. Interestingly, dwarf chameleon females give birth to between 5 and 20 live young that develop in eggs inside the female (known as ovivivipary).

Baboon antics in Glen Reenen

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People will always find the primates entertaining, and the baboon troops in Golden Gate Highlands National Park is no exception. However, when they come foraging between the accommodation units and in the camping site at Glen Reenen Rest Camp they can really cause havoc. They’ll inspect every open window to see what’s inside a car, tent or hut, and will help themselves to whatever they find that even vaguely resembles food, while the naughty little ones can cause quite a lot of damage to property and structures with their rough-and-tumble play.

Preparing for their early morning raid on the camp

Acting all innocently while the witnesses are around

Walking nonchalantly into Glen Reenen

The big males are the most confident

Confidently walking among the huts

And then quickly grabbing a loaf of bread from an unguarded kitchen

Baby yelling as the campers retaliate

Roofing thatch apparently make wonderful toys for little baboons

King of the castle!

Ground Woodpecker

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Geocolaptes olivaceus

Glen Reenen Rest Camp in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park is one of the best places in the country to go searching for the Ground Woodpecker, a bird that occupies open, rocky hillsides in arid scrubland, fynbos and grasslands and occurs only in upland parts of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.

With a length of 30cm and a weight up to 130g, this is the largest woodpecker in South Africa. They can usually be found in pairs or small family groups, and unlike other, more well-known, woodpeckers search for food (mostly ants) on the ground and among rocks rather than in trees. They are always to be found near water, and usually very conspicuous thanks to their load calls and habit of using high vantage points to watch for danger. Most breeding takes place in early spring, when 3 eggs are laid in nesting chambers at the end of tunnels excavated in vertical soil banks. Some of these tunnels are occupied year-round and not only during the nesting season.

Ground Woodpeckers are common over most of their range and not currently considered to be under any threat to their survival, as their preferred habitat is mostly inaccessible and largely unsuited to human habitation or agriculture.

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points, such as the top of roofs in Glen Reenen

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker fighting his own reflection

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker searching for food

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpecker searching for food

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points

Ground Woodpeckers love scanning their surroundings from high vantage points, such as the top of roofs in Glen Reenen

Ground Woodpeckers

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpeckers

Ground Woodpecker

Ground Woodpeckers

The Victor and the Vanquished (Duel at first light – the series)

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Early into our December holidays, we came upon two black wildebeest bulls squaring off in a territorial tussle near the Basotho Cultural Village in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. At the onset they appeared evenly matched, sometimes wrestling each other right to the ground with their horns interlocked, entirely oblivious to the human spectators. Reasonably quickly one triumphed and sent his rival running, the entire fight lasting all of one exhilarating four minute long round.

Walking to the battle ground

Sizing up one another

Round 1! Black Wildebeest Duel

The victor and the vanquished

Golden Gate has a substantial population of black wildebeest, and is one of the best places to go searching for these endemic South African creatures.

Territorial Black Wildebeest bull that’s lost the tips of both his horns in fights!

Black wildebeest on the trot along Golden Gate’s game viewing circuit

Black wildebeest herd on a plateau

Black wildebeest calves

African Sacred Ibis

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Threskiornis aethiopicus

These easily recognisable, medium-sized birds (1-2kg) are extremely gregarious, flying and roosting in large flocks, and can be found near inland and coastal wetlands of all description, including sewerage works. Their natural diet consists of insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, fish, frogs, eggs, nestlings and carrion, and they are often to be found on the outskirts of towns scavenging at rubbish dumps and abattoirs. African Sacred Ibisses start breeding at the onset of the rainy season, in mixed-species colonies of up to 2000 pairs. Nests, in which 2 to 3 eggs are laid, consist of sticks and branches and are built in reeds or trees or on the ground on rocky islands.

African Sacred Ibis

African Sacred Ibis flocks typically fly in V-formation

African Sacred Ibis

Sacred Ibis

African Sacred Ibis

AfricanSacred Ibis

African Sacred Ibis

African Sacred Ibisses

African Sacred Ibis

Sacred Ibis on a tiny nest at Kubu Dam

African Sacred Ibis

Sacred Ibis

Sacred Ibises coming to roost

Sacred Ibis

Sacred Ibises

Thanks to a wide distribution across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, and a large though probably declining population (200,000 to 450,000), the IUCN considers the African Sacred Ibis to be of Least Concern. The species is a common resident in most parts of South Africa, local numbers often swollen in summer by individuals migrating southwards from the equator, and have been introduced to Europe, the USA (Florida) and Taiwan. They are now extinct in Egypt, where they were once considered a sacred symbol of one of the Egyptian deities, and often mummified.

Southern Bald Ibis

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Geronticus calvus

The Southern Bald Ibis is an endemic Southern African bird that occurs in high rainfall, high altitude, short grasslands, and has a special preference for areas where recent burns occurred. It will also forage in recently ploughed fields and cultivated pastures. These birds feed on insects and other invertebrates, usually foraging in small flocks though at times up to 100 can congregate together. Bald ibisses breed in colonies on ledges on high cliffs, laying 2 or 3 eggs that are incubated for four weeks in nests built of sticks and grass. They weigh about a kilogram and are about 80cm long from head to tail.

We had daily sightings of the rare bald ibis on the Oribi Loop at Golden Gate

Southern Bald Ibis

The threatened Southern Bald Ibis

Southern Bald Ibis

The IUCN considers the Southern Bald Ibis conservation status “vulnerable”, owing to its limited distribution and ongoing destruction of its habitat for agriculture and forestry. They occur only on the central highlands of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, with an overall population of perhaps 8,000 to 10,000 birds, with around 2,000 breeding pairs occurring in 200 or so colonies. In our experience, good places to go looking for the Southern bald Ibis would be Golden Gate Highlands National Park, the reserves of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, Ithala Game Reserve, and Chelmsford Nature Reserve.

Hamerkop

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Scopus umbretta

The Hamerkop is a unique bird that is found only in Africa and Madagascar. Their name is Afrikaans for “Hammer Head”, in reference to their oddly shaped heads. These medium-sized birds weigh about 500g and reach a length of 50cm. Hamerkops are diurnal birds, mostly seen in mated, territorial pairs or family groups. Their diet consists of amphibians, small fish, crabs and other water-inhabiting invertebrates, and thus they are to be found at aquatic habitats such as lakes, dams, marshes, estuaries, seasonal pans, streams and rivers.

Hamerkop

Hamerkop silhouette

Hamerkop (photo by Joubert)

Hamerkop

Hamerkop at sunset

Hamerkop

Hamerkop (photo by Joubert)

Hamerkop

Hamerkop (photo by Joubert)

Hamerkop

Hamerkop close-up

Hamerkop

Hamerkop nests are enormous structures, often over 1.5m wide and able to support a man’s weight, built of sticks and twigs over the course of many months, in big trees or on cliffs, with a small side entrance to a tunnel leading to the nesting chamber deep inside. Although the Hamerkop pair may use the same nest for many seasons their nests are often take over by small mammals and other birds, mostly owls. They breed throughout the year, laying between 3 and 7 eggs that are incubated by both parents for around 4 weeks, with the chicks then leaving the nest about two months after hatching.

Hamerkop Nest

Hamerkop nest on a cliff

Hamerkop Nest

Hamerkop nest

There are many traditional beliefs about the Hamerkop in Africa, such as that it heralds the death of a family member or that it can attract lightning. The Hamerkop has a wide distribution in Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa, with a large, stable population, and is therefore considered of least conservation concern by the IUCN. They occur all over South Africa where suitable habitat is to be found, and are thus more common on the wetter eastern sides of the country than in the arid west.

African Woolly-necked Stork

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Ciconia microscelis (episcopus)

Woolly-necked Storks (weight ∼ 1.8kg) inhabit a wide range of wetland habitats, ranging from the banks of rivers, streams, lakes, dams and ponds to estuaries and mangrove swamps, where they subsist on a diet of frogs, fish, crabs, insects, molluscs and worms. They are normally seen singly or in pairs, although they will at times congregate in large flocks when migrating or at favourite roosting sites. Woolly-necked Storks breed in solitary pairs, mostly at the end of the dry season, in nests built of sticks in tall trees, often over water and regularly used by the same pair year after year.

Woolly-necked stork feeding in the mangrove swamp

Woolly-necked stork

Woolly-necked stork taking flight

Woolly-necked Stork

Woolly-necked stork

Woolly-necked Stork Buffet at uMkhuze

Woolly-necked Stork

Woolly-necked Storks

The Woolly-necked Stork has a wide distribution across Africa and with a stable population is considered of least conservation concern by the IUCN. In South Africa they are considered near-threatened, being found only in the Lowveld of Limpopo and Mpumalanga (where around 80 occur in the Kruger National Park) and the north of Kwazulu-Natal (where Umlalazi Nature Reserve is an excellent location to go looking for them)

Yellow-billed Stork

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Mycteria ibis

The Yellow-billed Stork is a medium sized (up to 2kg), gregarious species that is usually seen in pairs or small flocks of up to 50 birds. They frequent shallow wetlands, estuaries and the banks of rivers and lakes, where they feed mainly on frogs, fish and aquatic invertebrates by moving their opened bills through the water, feeling for prey. They also roost and breed communally, in groups of up to 50 pairs, often together with other kinds of waterbirds. Breeding takes place when food is easiest to come by, usually when fish are concentrated in shrinking pools during the dry season. Nests are stick-platforms built in trees, often over water, in which 2 to 4 eggs are incubated by both parents for around 30 days.

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork at Sunset Dam

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork at Sunset Dam

Yellow-billed stork

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Storks

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork at Mankwe Dam

Yellow-billed Storks at Sunset Dam

Yellow-billed Storks

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork (photo by Joubert)

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork (photo by Joubert)

Yellow-billed Storks

Yellow-billed Stork

According to the IUCN, the Yellow-billed Stork is of least conservation concern, although their population is apparently slowly decreasing . They’re a common sight over most of Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, and in South Africa they can be encountered in all provinces except the Northern and Western Cape.

DeWetsWild

Disappearing into South Africa's wild places… Again!

Category Archives: South African Wildlife

Bush Blackcap

Lioptilus nigricapillus

Drakensberg Dwarf Chameleon

Bradypodion dracomontanum

Baboon antics in Glen Reenen

Ground Woodpecker

Geocolaptes olivaceus

The Victor and the Vanquished (Duel at first light – the series)

African Sacred Ibis

Threskiornis aethiopicus

Southern Bald Ibis

Geronticus calvus

Hamerkop

Scopus umbretta

African Woolly-necked Stork

Ciconia microscelis (episcopus)

Yellow-billed Stork

Mycteria ibis