Tag Archives: outdoors

World Wildlife Day 2026

In celebration of World Wildlife Day we take a look back at the 42 species of Southern African wildlife we featured in detail here at DeWetsWild through the past twelve months.

Tasman’s Girdled Lizard

Spike-heeled Lark

Orange-breasted Waxbills

Karoo Girdled Lizard

Southern Tchagra

Buquet’s Vagrant

Sickle-winged Chat

Cape Skink

Cuckoo Finch male

Wahlberg’s Striped Skink

Sagewood

African Quail-Finch

Black-chested Prinia

Banded Martin

Lesser Swamp Warblers

Dotted Blue

Serval

Southern Pied Babbler (photo by Joubert)

Female Giant Mantis / Common Green Mantis

Gabar Goshawk

Puku

Orange River Francolin

Giant / Wrestling Waterbug (Lethocerus niloticus)

Long-winged Orange Acraea

Lesser Crested Terns

Retz’s Helmetshrike

Bushveld Rain Frog

Peregrine Falcon

Toad Tree pods

Southern African Vlei Rat

Female Greater Honeyguide

Flock of Sanderlings

Two-spotted Tyrant Beetle

The bright flowers of the Canary Creeper

Berg adder

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Orange River Mudfish

African Marsh Harrier

Little Stint

Grey Climbing Mouse

Common Arum Lily (photo by Joubert)

Harlequin Quail

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Silhouettes

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DeWetsWild conducted a two-week tour of the Kruger National Park with altogether nine people to see out 2025 and ring in 2026 and every day for the month of February I’ll be sharing just a few of the many memories our group collected.

Seems like a few of silhouettes is a good way to bring my recollections of this trip to a close.

Marabou storks

Impala ram

Giraffe

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Beautiful Gudzani Dam

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Bountiful Birds

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While the Kruger National Park boasts an exceptional number of bird species on its official list even during winter, the summer brings with it an enormous number of migrants, and even more so in a season as wet as the current one. During our tour of two weeks we managed to tick off 187 bird species in the area between the Letaba and Sabie Rivers. These are just a few of them.

Bateleur

Bearded Scrub-Robin

Black Crake

Black-crowned Tchagra

Brown Snake Eagle

Carmine Bee-eater

Cut-throat Finch

Dusky Indigobird

Dwarf Bittern

European Bee-eater

Immature Lanner Falcon

European Roller

African Fish Eagle

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Green-backed Heron

Grey-headed Bush-shrike

African Jacana

Knob-billed Duck

Kurrichane Buttonquail (note tiny chick!)

Lilac-breasted Roller

Long-tailed Paradise Whydah

Marabou Stork

Natal Spurfowl

Greater Painted Snipe

Pallid Harrier

Pied Wagtail

Red-crested Korhaan

Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark

Double-banded Sandgrouse

Tawny Eagle

Temminck’s Courser

Water Thick-knee

Wattled Starling

White-backed Vulture

Wood Sandpiper

Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Yellow-billed Stork

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Cold-blooded Encounters

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Walking around the Kruger’s Rest Camps during the heat of the day, when the summer temperatures make it extremely unpleasant to be out exploring on the roads, opens up a world of smaller creatures that would otherwise probably go unnoticed while cooped up in a vehicle.

Male Tree Agama

Flap-necked Chameleon

Wahlberg’s Bush Cricket

Spotted Joker Butterfly

Male Rainbow Skink

Giant Legless Skink

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: An influx of Harlequin Quails

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The exceptionally wet weather in the Kruger National Park this summer is behind an immense influx of Harlequin Quails into the Park. While sightings of the tiny birds were limited to fleeting glimpses when they ventured into the road from the long grass their distinctive calls could be heard literally everywhere we drove!

Harlequin Quail

Coturnix delegorguei

The Harlequin Quail is an intra-African migrant bird, arriving in our part of the continent in response to good rains. During such periods they may be found in the savanna habitats stretching from northern Kwazulu-Natal to the North West Province. They also occur through most of the woodland and savanna regions of sub-Saharan Africa, parts of the Arabian peninsula and on Madagascar. According to the IUCN the Harlequin Quail is of least concern. Harlequin Quails feed on seeds, green shoots and a wide variety of small insects.

Outside of the breeding season Harlequin Quails may be seen foraging in groups of up to 20 individuals. They nest in hollows scratched in the ground, usually hidden among grass tussocks, soon after the rains start. The female incubates the clutch of up to 8 eggs for a little less than 3 weeks. The precocial chicks grow exceptionally quickly and can even fly short distances by the time they’re only 5 days old!

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If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: How many kids can you handle?

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We encountered this family of ostriches a couple of times near the Nkaya Pan waterhole south of Satara. I must say, these youngsters were much better behaved than some school groups I’ve seen (and guided)!

Ostrich family

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Hyena Roadblocks

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The Kruger National Park has a large population of spotted hyenas, and they often use culverts underneath the main roads as dens. This means that visitors are very likely to encounter families of hyenas on the road in the early morning when they reunite after a night of foraging and before they retire for the hotter part of the day.

Spotted Hyenas causing a roadblock in the early morning

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: The Jungle Gym

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Young baboons are such jolly, carefree creatures!

Baby baboon

Playful baby baboons

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: Lion romance at Nsemani Dam

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For the entire two week period we were in the Satara area a coalition of two male Lions were using the immediate surroundings of Nsemani Dam as a mating place. Considering that the mating process usually lasts about 3-5 days this means the two of them must have mated with at least 3 or 4 females in that period. It is not unusual for the mature females in a pride to synchronize their oestrus cycles in this way, as it is easier for them to raise the cubs co-operatively if they are all similarly sized.

Lions mating at Nsemani Dam

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!