I think this sad spotted hyena mimicked our own facial expressions as we passed her on the way from Mopani Rest Camp to Phalaborwa Gate this morning.
We’ve returned to Pretoria with thousands of photos from our latest trip to the Kruger National Park, and of course we’ll be selecting the best of those to share with our friends here at de Wets Wild in the coming weeks.
Kruger’s aristocratic elephant bulls are as thrilling to watch as any of the big cats!
Sunrise this morning, seen from Tinhongonyeni waterhole near Mopani.
After five wonderful days of searching for predators at Satara we’ve now made our way to the Kruger’s Mopani Rest Camp, where our focus shifts to finding the rare antelope, like this roan antelope seen on the S50!
It seems the latest hairstyle-trend among teenage wildebeests is set to take off right about now in Kruger National Park – using hair from an adult’s tail to enhance the youngster’s appearance!
We encountered this ravenous family sitting down for a buffalo breakfast at Ximangwaneni Dam near Satara this morning!
Seems it’s not only humans that appreciate the beauty of a Kruger sunset!
Saying “Hi” the mongoose way?
Slender Mongoose seen near Satara today.
It’s the first day of the winter school holidays, and we find ourselves in the Kruger National Park again. Seems this lazy lion was as happy to see us back here as we were to see him!
We’ll be spending the next few days at Satara, before moving on to Mopani, and hopefully we’ll have good enough signal to send a daily postcard from the bush.
The Blesbok is a medium-sized antelope endemic to South Africa’s central plains. They have a shoulder height just short of 1m and weigh around 70kg. The “bles” in their name refers to the striking white blaze on their faces. White Blesbok have a leucistic coat and are mainly selectively bred on game ranches.
The Blesbok naturally occurs only on the open grasslands of South Africa’s Highveld, where they are well adapted to the cold winters, though they have been introduced to farmland in the more densely wooded Bushveld and drier Karoo regions as well with varying success. Their diet consists almost exclusively of short grasses and require daily access to a supply of fresh drinking water.
Blesbok form large mixed herds during winter, but at the onset of the summer the rams will start establishing small territories, demarcated with scent glands and dung heaps, advertised through ritualised displays and maintained through some serious fighting, in which they attempt to herd and keep groups of ewes with which to mate. Blesbok are diurnal animals, resting during the heat of the day by positioning themselves with lowered heads facing the sun. Blesbok are fast runners with great stamina. When moving, herd members follow each other in a straight line, even when fleeing from predators.
Ewes give birth to single lambs, usually in the summer months, and will nurse only their own lambs. Lambs are capable of running with the herd within 20 minutes of birth, and are preyed upon by jackals, caracals and feral dogs. Most of Africa’s large predators have been exterminated from the Blesbok’s range. They have a life expectancy of up to 17 years in the wild.
The Blesbok once occurred in enormous numbers on the Highveld of South Africa, but excessive hunting led to the population plummeting to a low of about 2,000 at the end of the 19th century. Their numbers have since been built back up, but not nearly to erstwhile levels, with the IUCN estimating a population of approximately 240,000, most of which occur on private land where they are a popular game ranching animal as they can be contained by standard stock fencing. Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Rietvlei Nature Reserve and Willem Pretorius Game Reserve are good places to go searching for Blesbok.
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