Top of the morning to ya!
Here we have Part 2 of our weekend adventure... The photos in this post are exclusively Gabbi's photography. The girl is amazing. As I said in my last post, I will include some facts that we learned today about the various animals.
Enjoy!
Do you know the difference between deer and antelope? I didn't. A deer's horns drop whereas antelopes have stabilising bones in their horns that keep them erect. Unless they are imported, deer will not be found in South Africa.
The Kudu are majestic animals. They compete on my personal list with the mighty Moose. Today, we were privileged to see at least 20 of these: male, female, and young! God is amazing.
I managed to get a video, but here we have some wild dogs - also known as Cape Wild Dogs. As a threatened specie, there are roughly 200 of these in Kruger National Park. It is guessed that the lions (the only animals in the park that do not fear these dogs) are killing them off. Each dog has a unique identifying pattern on its coat.
They can run up to 20km a day look for prey. Unlike with other predators, prey start running when these dogs are within 150m of them. Once the wild dogs have eaten, they return to their dens where they regurgitate their food for their young.
We discovered these dogs at Transport Dam where the "Battle of Kruger" occurred several years ago. The original guide who took the tourists who filmed this "battle" was there today. He never received credit for the video which later turned into a NatGeo special.
Cape Buffalo
Only in Kruger would hoppers (young grasshoppers) stop traffic as they migrated across the road.
Dad captured this on the GoPro and Gabbi got it on camera! We were directed by other guides to an area with 8 adult lions: 4 males and 4 females. One of the females was in heat and the alpha male had to ward off two other males -potentially his brothers- who were tempted by the pheromone that the female was giving off.
This is the face a male lion makes when the pheromone has taken effect on him. Unfortunately for this male, he was not the alpha lion and therefore had to suffer.
The two underdogs.
The Kudu.
Woodland Kingfisher.
A white rhino trying to cool off from the heat. These animals mark their territory with a LOT of spraying. We saw one spray today. They also defecate a specific amount of stool every time they mark their territory.
There are around 13,000 elephants in the Kruger Park. According to experts, there should only be about 7,000 when considering the amount of sustenance required and what is produced in the park. Elephants eat up to 18hrs a day. Their hearts weigh around 25kg or roughly 50lbs. When walking briskly, an elephant can cover 3m in one step!
Cool fact: Turtles, Tortoises, and Terrapins are three different things. Turtles: live in water and have fins. Tortoises: pull their heads into their shells, live on land, and eat greens. Terrapins: walk on land and swim in water, they fold their heads to the side, they eat flesh/meat, and they defecate on anyone that picks them up leaving a horrible smell that can stay for days. However, all three - when they lay their eggs- will have more females if the eggs are kept in a warmer area and more males if the eggs are kept in colder areas. This is the opposite of other reptiles such as crocodiles.
"Well... That's all I have to say about that."
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