Tag Archives: wildlife

Cape Teal

Anas capensis

An inhabitant of permanent and ephemeral wetlands of varying salinity, the Cape Teal feeds mainly on aquatic invertebrates and tadpoles with plant material making up a smaller part of its diet. They have also adapted to using farm dams and sewage ponds and greatly expanded their range as a result. They’re usually seen in pairs or small mixed flocks, though they may congregate in enormous numbers on deep water when moulting. They will move over short distances to find more suitable habitats when seasonal water bodies start drying up.

Pairs of Cape Teal are monogamous and breed on dry land, following good rains. The female builds a bowl-shaped nest of soft plant material lined with down. She lays a clutch of up to 13 eggs, though more usually around 8, and incubates them for about 4 weeks. She leads the ducklings to water very soon after hatching and they are adept at swimming and diving right from the start. The ducklings stay with their mother until they’re about 2 months old. Fully grown Cape Teals weigh around 400g and measure about 46cm long.

The Cape Teal has a rather patchy distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. Being especially numerous in our Western Cape Province, they’re found widely in South Africa and our neighbouring states as far as Angola, with more isolated populations in eastern and central-west Africa. According to the IUCN the Cape Teal is of least concern.

Cape Teal

Cape Teals

Cape Teal in flight

Cape Teal

Cape Teals

Cape Teal

Cape Teals

Cape Teals mating

Cape Teals

Large Striped Swordtail Butterfly

9 Replies

Graphium antheus

A big and striking butterfly, the Large Striped Swordtail inhabits moist savannas and coastal forests and in South Africa can be seen through most of Limpopo, low-lying parts of Mpumalanga and most of Kwazulu-Natal. Adults of both sexes, on the wing from spring to autumn and boasting a wingspan of around 7cm, can often be seen visiting flowers but the males – as depicted in some of the images below – are especially fond of muddy puddles as well and will often congregate there in large numbers. These butterflies are very strong fliers.

Large Striped Swordtail

Zitting Cisticola

20 Replies

Cisticola juncidis

The Zitting Cisticola – also known as the Streaked Fantail Warbler in parts of its range – is the most widely distributed of its family and occurs over much of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia with most of these populations being resident year round. In South Africa it is found in all our provinces, being absent only from the driest parts in the west of the country. The IUCN, siting its wide distribution and apparently increasing population, lists the Zitting Cisticola as being of least concern.

Zitting Cisticolas inhabit open country; naturally mostly savannas, grasslands and seasonally flooded wetlands, but they’ve also taken to croplands, golf courses and airstrips. They feed exclusively on insects and other invertebrates and have a special liking for grasshoppers.

In the breeding season, which peaks in summer, the male constructs a pear-shaped nest inside a tuft of green grass using spider web and plant material – a process that could take in excess of 2 weeks to complete without any guarantee that the female will approve (and if she doesn’t, he has to take the whole thing apart and start over!). The female in turn is solely responsible for incubating the clutch of 2-5 eggs over a two week period, and she also does most of the feeding of the chicks which grow rapidly and fledge within 2 weeks of hatching. Infidelity is common among males and he may have several consecutive mates in a breeding season, and sometimes more than one at the same time! Adults weigh around 9g and measure about 11cm long. They’re usually encountered alone or in pairs and the males are probably territorial.

Zitting Cisticola

Zitting Cisticola display flight

Tiny Zitting Cisticola with a massive tick on its head

Zitting Cisticola

Zitting Ciscticola

Zitting Cisticola

World Wildlife Day 2024

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In celebration of World Wildlife Day we take a look back at the 75 species of South African wildlife we featured in detail here at DeWetsWild through the past twelve months.

Sundowner Moth

Grey Plover

Silver Tree

Cape Shoveler

Gaboon adder (captive)

Lesser Flamingoes

Greater Flamingo in flight

Springhare jumping aroun in Bontle Camp after dark

Ruddy Turnstone

Namaqua Sandgrouse

Pincushion

Small-striped Swordtail (photo by Joubert)

Botterboom (Tylecodon paniculatus)

Bank Cormorant

Crowned Cormorant

Blue Duiker

Common Whimbrel

Cape Girdled Lizard

Ground Agama

Male Southern Black Korhaan

Curlew Sandpipers

Cape Chestnut flowers

Kittlitz’s Plover

Cape Hare

Klipfish

Pied Avocets

Southern Lechwe Ram

Kelp

Common Greenshank

Common Platanna moving over dry land after a rain storm in the Karoo

Mole Snake (photo by Joubert)

Agapanthus

Tigerfish (National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria)

Antlion larvae

Violet-eared Waxbill (photo by Joubert)

Foxy Emperor butterfly

Cape Porcupine

Bearded Woodpecker

Streaked Sailer butterfly

Puff adder, poised to strike

Aardwolf

Orange-breasted Sunbird on a Pincushion flower

Spekboom leaves

Topaz Spotted Blue

Swee Waxbill (photo by Joubert)

Clicking Stream Frog

Large-billed Lark

Grey-backed Cisticola

Marico Sunbird

Incognito Thread Snake

Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark

Grey-backed Sparrow Lark (male and chick)

Eyed Pansy

Karoo Num-num flowers

Forest Num-num

Common Carp

Yellow Canary

Acacia Pied Barbet

Armoured ground crickets abound in the mopaneveld in the north of the Park

Lesser Moorhen

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

Humpbacked Whale tail-slamming off St. Lucia

Garden Fruit Chafer

Red-collared Widowbird

Fan-tailed Widowbird

Yellow-billed Egret

Whiskered Tern

Coqui Francolin (male)

Beautiful Blue Water Lily

White Water Lily in Skukuza

Grey-headed Bush-shrike (photo by Joubert)

Male Village Indigobird

Pearl-spotted Emperor

Plumbago in bloom

Red-billed Firefinch

21 Replies

Lagonosticta senegala

The Red-billed Firefinch is fairly well distributed through South Africa and can be found in parts of all our provinces. Furthermore they occur widely over Africa, including pockets of the Sahara Desert. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern.

Red-billed Firefinches prefer thickets of rank grass and thorny shrubs in woodlands and savannas, extending their occurrence into more open areas where such micro-habitats are found, often along water courses and in gardens, where they can become quite tame. It feeds mainly on grass seeds, augmenting its diet with occasional insect fare like termites.

Breeding almost right through the year (peaking in summer and autumn when grasses are seeding), it is the male Red-billed Firefinch that takes responsibility for building the nest – a ball-shaped structure made of dry grass and feathers, usually placed in thick vegetation, and incorporating a side-entrance. The female lays a clutch of 2-6 eggs which are incubated by both parents for less than 2 weeks before the chicks hatch. Red-billed Firefinch nests are often parasitized by the Village Indigobird. The chicks leave the nest by the time they’re 3 weeks old and then become independent of their parents 2-4 weeks later. These small birds weigh only about 9g when fully grown! They’re most often seen in small flocks of up to 30 individuals, within which there are apparently strong pair-bonds, and often mingle with other small seed-eating birds.

Red-billed Firefinch

Plumbago

18 Replies

Plumbago auriculata

One of South Africa’s most popular indigenous garden plants – exported in fact the world over – the Plumbago, aka Cape Leadwort, is a shrub and scrambling climbing plant that grows rapidly and is exceptionally hardy and, while it carries the most impressive blooms during the summer months it often flowers year-round under suitable conditions. It is a food plant for the larvae of several kinds of butterflies and moths as well as many other kinds of insects, ensuring these are attracted to gardens anywhere this eye-catching plant is propagated, and shier kinds of birds appreciate the dense cover provided by its foliage.

In traditional medicine the Plumbago is considered a cure for headaches, warts and open wounds, and superstitiously believed to ward off lightning if a stick of it is thatched into the roof of a hut.

The Plumbago occurs naturally in the Western and Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal, extending marginally into adjacent provinces and countries.

Plumbago flowers

Plumbago hedge

Plumbago flowers

Plumbago in bloom

Elephant feeding on a Plumbago

Pearl-spotted Emperor Butterfly

13 Replies

Charaxes jahlusa

The Pearl-spotted Emperor is a common butterfly living in various savanna-type habitats, occurring in this country from the Little Karoo and Albany thicket through much of the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal and into the northern provinces of North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. In the southern parts of their local range adults are seen only in spring and summer, but they’re on the wing year round further north. Beyond our borders this butterfly occurs as far north as Sudan.

Male Pearl-spotted Emperors are territorial and perch on open twigs from which they attack interloping males and try to woo the females for mating. They’re fast flyers and adults of both sexes frequent seeping tree sap and rotting fruit rich in sugars. Caterpillars of the Pearl-spotted Emperor Butterfly feed on the leaves of the Jacket Plum and Zebra Wood. Wingspan in adults measure up to 6cm, making this one of the smaller Emperor Butterfly species.

Pearl-spotted Emperor

Manyeleti Magic, 27 June to 1 July 2024

8 Replies

DeWetsWild and Hannes Rossouw Photography invite you to Manyeleti Magic, 27 June to 1 July 2024. A one-of-a-kind photographic safari in the Manyeleti Nature Reserve, an integral part of the Greater Kruger National Park.

Village Indigobird

15 Replies

The Village Indigobird, also known as the Steelblue Widowfinch, occurs in a band from Senegal in West Africa to Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and then southwards to our country, where it is found in parts of all provinces except the Western Cape. They’re most commonly found in acacia savanna, mopane woodland and riverine thickets, feed mainly on seeds and termites, and occur singly, in pairs or flocks numbering as many as 60 birds. According to the IUCN it is not in any danger of extinction.

The Village Indigobird is a brood parasite, in which males mate with as many females as they can and the females in turn lay their eggs in the nests of other small finches – especially firefinches – even if the nest owner is in the nest! In this way each female Indigobird may produce up to 26 eggs in a breeding season, which spans December to June. The chicks are reared by their adoptive parents until they rejoin the Indigobird flock at about 4-5 weeks of age. These small birds weigh around 13g when they’re fully grown.

Male Village Indigobird

Village Indigobird female

Village Indigobird females

Village Indigobird male

Grey-headed Bush-Shrike

18 Replies

Malaconotus blanchoti

The Grey-headed Bush-shrike is distributed through most of Africa’s savanna regions, stretching from the Sahel in West Africa to Eritrea and Somalia in the east, and then southwards to South Africa, where they’re found in the north and east of our country. They’re found in denser habitat-types and are very shy, seldom venturing into the open. These Bush-shrikes are adept hunters, catching any prey from insects to lizards, chameleons and snakes and even other birds.

Grey-headed Bush-shrikes live in monogamous pairs, each pair controlling a sizable territory. The female constructs the cup-shaped nest in the fork of a tree, using materials that the male brings to her. They nest during spring and summer, when the female incubates a clutch of 2-4 eggs over a week period. While the female is on the eggs or brooding the chicks the male is entirely responsible for bringing back food to her and the growing chicks. The chicks leave the nest when they’re about 3 weeks old but may remain in their parents’ territory until they’re a year old. Fully grown, this is the largest species of the Bush-shrike family occurring in our country, measuring about 26cm in length and weighing around 77g.

According to the IUCN the Grey-headed Bush-Shrike is of least concern.