#AfricaGeo – DreadLion Safaris

The silent predator no one sees!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 15:29:16 +0000

We had an amazing experience one day in Kruger. We were heading to the dam to do some birding and its kinda out of the way a little. So we were a little surprised to see a few cars parked by the road about 800m before the lake. Wondering what was happening when we could not see much of anything we looked around a bit and lo and behold there was drama unfolding.

A giant African rock python had caught an impala and was constricting it in the tall grass. WOW! An impala is a mid size antelope and weighs about 40kg so it would need to be a fairly big snake that could overpower that impala. Now constrictors are themselves vulnerable when they are constricting their prey especially out in the open like this and they don’t move very fast either so a group of hyena or a few lions could make short work of a large python. I have seen a video where a honey badger killed a 15 foot python. So the snake was very aware of his/her surroundings and came up once in a while to suss out the surroundings for threats to itself.

We watched for a while and when it all seemed to be quiet we left. We returned a couple of hours later just in time to find the snake dragging the impala into the bushes so he/she could swallow it in peace. You can imagine the strength it would take a snake, an animal with no limbs for traction to drag a 40kg animal through the tall grass. They are really powerful. A python is pretty much all muscle.

They would eat a meal like this and digest it for about a month or so in a thicket and this is actually when they are really vulnerable cuz they cannot move at all virtually and have no ability to constrict anything in defense. So they find a deep dark place to hide and stay there till they are all set for the next round.

The wild dogs at Nsemani.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:20:51 +0000

We were parked next to the Nsemani waterhole in Kruger and hoping for some actionall of a sudden a wild dog ran across the road ahead. Now they are not usually alone and we waited for a minute and saw about 25 wild dogs cross the road and head for the waterhole. We had just come from there and saw several herds of impala and so we hightailed it for the waterhole and just in time.

Wild dogs move really fast and as a group the can literally take down whatever they pointing at. So the impala were obvious targets. Before we could actually settle in and see what was happening with the dogs who had run behind some bushes a couple came to drink with fresh blood all over their muzzles. The first of the pack had already made a kill. The rest of the pack how ever was still hunting. What had happened was that the first 10 or so dogs had taken down and eaten the first impala while the others continued the chase.

We went around the waterhole on the side road hoping to get the rest of the pack as they brought down their quarry. No such luck however. The pack moves very fast and they were long gone by the time we were in the area. We saw the white tails tops moving through the grass in the distance and turned back to the waterhole. Then lo and behold the rest of the pack appeared as we were turning and we met them head on on the road. We followed them back to the waterhole and watched them drink and meet and greet each other again. They just remained by the waterhole and were relaxing after their meal.

These dogs also called the African Painted wolf are really fierce hunters. All in all a great sighting and amazing morning in Kruger.

The little lost fella.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:25:12 +0000

We came across a rare sight one day on our game drive in the Kruger park. There was a lion cub all alone sniffing around beside the road. We had just seen the pride a few km away and we wondered about this little guy. He was about 10 months old, walking around and sniffing the ground as if seeking a scent. He had the sense not to call out though which is good. A young lion is easy prey for a predator like a leopard or a hyena. So calling was not. Good idea and he instinctively knew this. I had heard the pride was in the area the previous day but they apparently forgot about him when they moved off or so it appeared cuz they were far away from him. Maybe they moved off in the night and he was crashed someplace and nobody noticed. It is a well-known statistic that only about 1 in 2 lion cubs survive their first year and 1 in 8 make it all the way to adulthood. The adult numbers are not encouraging either with life expectancy for males being only 10-12 years and females a little more. Captive lions live past 20 years. Its tough being a lion in the wild. Anyway we watched him for a while and then had to go on our way, I really hope the kid made it.

The UGLY 5!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 18:09:58 +0000

Everyone comes to Africa for the Big 5. Who are the Big 5 and how did they come to be?? This is not readily known to people outside the guiding community in Africa. So back in the day in 1909, Teddy Roosevelt came to Africa, in the pell mell of Colonisation and the looting of African resources, before the 1^st World War. He had come for a hunt purportedly. As a frontiersman in the USA and the youngest ever President of the USA he was a charismatic figure and hunting was his well-known pastime. Sure he did hunt but also had some clandestine meetings in East Africa while he was at it.

At the end of a 6 month safari through Kenya Tanzania Uganda and so on he was in Mombasa in British East Africa ie Kenya to board his steamer home. When the press caught up to him finally since his safari had no pressmen in tow, and spoke to him of his African Adventure he talked about the hunt and named what he felt were the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are elephant , Black rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion. These of course became the Big 5. Madison avenue certainly did a number on Africa with that.

Well, African tourism which has gone from predominantly hunting tourism to safari tourism now has a new spin on the Big 5 and naturally the Little 5 showed up. The buffalo weaver, the leopard tortoise, the antlion, the rhino beetle and the elephant shrew. These now have the same names as the Big 5 but they are small, tiny even.

The other spin offs were the Ugly 5. The Ugly 5 are the wildebeest, said to be made from leftover parts of other animals leads the group, followed by the hyena, the warthog, the crocodile and the Marabou stork. The wildebeest though is an anomaly because it is one of the few animals to be camouflaged for the night. Predators and most other animals see in monochrome. The shoulder stripes of the wildebeest look like the moon in the grass when they are sitting down in the open plains. So I thought it would be cool to have a few pictures of these animals who are famous for all the wrong reasons. Voila!

A leopard adventure.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:47:57 +0000

I have written before on my fascination with leopards since a young age and that story was told in a different place. http://birdwalkin.blogspot.co.za/2011/03/amazing-sightings-of-leopards-in-gir.html

My sightings of leopards have been many in Kruger yet they have all been memorable just the same. It is not often that I get to use a camera effectively while juggling talking to guests, watching animals and other vehicles and all of that and so while the photos maybe indifferent the experience has always been awesome.

The quest for leopard began for me when I was in the 7^th grade, donkeys years ago. My grandfather went on safari in India and knowing of my passion for the wild he sent me a trip report of 6 typed pages. The first para had the words “Mr Spots walking over the rocks”. The imagery was bold and had a profound impression on me. He has passed on to his reward now, that trip report has become compost somewhere, I am 50 years older, but I remember the thrill that I got from reading that report in my hostel dorm.

I met a couple at the Skukuza camp and we got to talking. Deepak (not real name) is a Colonel in the Indian army posted in UNPKF in Sudan. His wife and son and I spent a couple of really great days in the park. They were really keen to see leopards and we were lucky enough to bump into two of them and one with a cub.

I always tell my guests they have to bring their luck with them. I am here daily mine does not count. Ha! Well they obviously did bring their luck and it paid of in spades. We were driving around and seeing a lot of plains game antelope and giraffe and so many others and yet leopards and lions were missing. It was getting close to late afternoon and soon we would have to get back to camp and I would have to leave the park and still nothing. Suddenly we came down a road and one car was parked and the driver was peering across the road. A leopard crossed here he said when I asked and as we watched he came up out of the bushes to lie down and crouch down low as though stalking. Then he noticed that it was buffalo on the other side of the bushes and so relaxed and stayed there for quite a while as we watched.

The leopardess was a similar case there were cars parked and no one could see her. With the Landrover seats being higher we not only saw her but also the little fellow next to her. What an amazing sighting. Leopardess and cub sleeping 20 mtrs off the road. Supreme. The little guy had his eyes open but he too was dozing and she was out for the count. Did not move for the whole time we were there. The beautiful sunset was a close to an awesome day! Explore Africa with me, and bring your luck with you, it will be fun.

One angry female cheetah!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 07:04:14 +0000

One afternoon in the Kgalagadi driving down the Nossob road just past Grootbardskolk we saw a cheetah approaching the road from the west. Barely 50 yards ahead of us she kept looking back and walked rather angrily it seemed. When we came up to her, I got a couple of photos and sure, she was obviously pretty upset. We watched her for a while and then drove on slowly past the dune she had just come over and found the reason she was so mad.

A huge brown hyena and a few jackals were on a kill and it was clear what had happened. A brown hyena outweighs a cheetah and cheetahs cant afford to sustain any injury because they have to be at peak physical condition to hunt. A small injury which takes 10% off their peak could be a fatal injury and death due to starvation of injured cheetahs is not uncommon.

So this female just relinquished the kill and came away furious, while the usurpers shared the bounty of her hard work. We watched the thieves enjoy themselves thoroughly and I was actually surprised the brown hyena let the jackals in so close cuz as you can see he is more than double their size. Stealing from cheetahs is nothing new. It happens all too often in the bush and its just the way things work.

The three stooges of the Kgalagadi.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:17:30 +0000

In all my times in the Kgalagadi, there are 3 players that always stand out and always get my attention. The pale chanting goshawk, the ubiquitous jackal and the star of the show, the honey badger. I have taken to calling them the 3 stooges of the Kgalagadi. these inseparables, or so it seems, are always up to something. Of course it is the honey badger doing the heavy lifting just poking his nose into everything looking for food and the other two just hang around waiting for leftovers. As the world is, some people willing to work and others willing to let them work. LOL.

Exotic grub – literally!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 18:06:14 +0000

We drove up to Thoyoyandu in north Limpopo the area where the Venda people live. Always wanted to see the sight in the northern part of Kruger. This place is beautiful, rustic and full of fruit orchards. The best avocados come from here and the citrus farms are loaded with fruit. So cheap that you could fill the back seat with bags and bags for 1/3 of what you would buy the same stuff for anywhere else. Well, true to form, my buddy and I went looking for the braai shop (barbecue place in South Africa) for lunch and lo and behold we were on the money behind the veggie market. The braai shop attached to the butchery was everything we needed and after a hearty lunch of boerewors, chops and pap (Mealie meal) we were all set. It had been a long drive up from Huntington way down in Mpumalanga where we live, right by the Paul Kruger gate.

The thing was that on the way back to the car we walked by the market on the inside and that’s when we saw it. Baskets and bowls full of bugs!! Being sold like beans or peas or anything else. Mopani worms are the caterpillars of the mopani moth that feed on … you got it… the mopani leaves. These are really fat caterpillars and apparently taste real good. Local people add them to meat stews to increase the flavor. The next bowl was termites, all dried and ready to fry and eat. These are about 80% fat and everyone said they taste like butter when fried. I took their word for that. The next bowl was little beetles that look for all the world, like leaves. Wow! I did not know that they are edible and what’s more, who was out catching like hundreds of these guys. I mean there were baskets and baskets full of these little fellas. Well, we just had a great lunch so we just walked on out of there but that was truly something to see.

One hot day at the waterhole.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 17:52:08 +0000

We were in the Kruger Park heading for Satara camp from Tshokwane after a quick breakfast when we noticed a herd of elephants heading north as well and slowed to keep pace with them. They were looking like they might cross over and head for the waterhole just ahead so we took up position facing the waterhole and sure enough there they came. The thing is that we had not seen the whole herd yet. So as we were parked there they came across the road and heading down the slope to drink and it was then that I realized that the rest of them were on my left and now the car was between two groups from the same herd.

One female was none too pleased about this. She was suddenly apart from the herd, that itself gave her cause for concern. She turned at the waters edge and gave me a couple of real dirty looks but she passed around the back of the car to the rest of the gang giving me and the car a wide berth with no incident at all. It was a bit hairy however having her behind the car and me parked on the embankment but she just passed over and was fine with the rest of the herd. It’s a delight to watch a herd of elephants relaxing at the waterhole. There are so many special little interactions and it is not unlike a big human family gathering. The older ones more sedately drinking cuz of course they need a LOT of water. The youngest ones with moms and nannies around to keep them safe and the youngsters were pushing shoving ducking and spraying and generally goofing off. A great sighting. Kruger rocks!

Waterhole wary!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 08:38:03 +0000

We were driving along one afternoon in the Kgalagadi and came up on an ostrich right there on the road. It was pretty obvious what she wanted to do and he attitude and posture shows it clearly. The other animals had cleared off and now there was space for an ostrich to drink at the waterhole. Kgalgadi waterholes are pretty dangerous, especially in the summer time. Lions lie in ambush in the nearby bushes and are pretty successful there. I always thought thats cheating, i mean come on, everyone needs water, so leave it alone. But its a jungle out there, whaddaya know, and its all like “I am in for me and the Devil take the hind most.” So its good she just bided her time and got a nice drink. She was eyeballing me all the while though.