#wildlifetour – DreadLion Safaris

The serval takes on a baboon troop!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 05:15:47 +0000

We were driving in the Maasai Mara, hoping to find cheetahs on the hunt. That is truly spectacular to watch and though we had already seen one that morning I really was hoping to find another hunting cheetah. No such luck but movement in the tall grass caught my attention and we turned that way. It was a troop of baboons feeding and grooming on the ground. A troop has a few large bulls that run the whole show and the females and youngsters are their responsibility. So they are always on the lookout. I saw that they were more alert than the baboons I had seen in Kruger Park. This is cuz they live on the ground and trees are not really so readily available. Leopards would love to have a nice juicy baboon for lunch and it’s the big bulls job to make sure that does not happen.

Anyway as we drive closer there was more movement downwind of the baboons and my breath caught in my throat as I saw the yellow and black markings through the grass. Oh wow… I thought leopard……. Then the whole animal popped out of the bush and it was a serval. About the size of a 6-month-old leopard cub, so my bad. A serval is a tall sleek cat with poise and a very haughty expression if I may be allowed a little anthropomorphism.

Anyway he seemed very interested in the baboons and looked at them and then tried to stalk them. Then he tried a rush very close to a little one at which point the whole group started barking and screaming and the big bulls came hell for leather after the serval. He was taking no chances and spun around and was on his way. He was angling for the little baby baboon but stood no chance. I will give him full marks for guts though. He charged in to 10 baboons which all outweigh him 10 times.

He came away looking disappointed and I thought “hey pal, you best be glad they left you alone and did not pursue the chase”. He would have gotten torn apart. Bull baboons are not to be trifled with. Leopards do not take those type of chances and more often than not leopards will give ground to bull baboons. Anyway this guy lived to hunt another day.

The fight for dominance!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 07:08:21 +0000

The Kgalagadi provides a vast panorama where all sorts of interactions play out across the desert. The most exciting is a hunt of course and it undeniably not a common sight. That makes it all the more exciting. However, there are other interactions some more dynamic than others and those are dominance fights. These are super exciting as well and wonderful to watch. I had the good fortune to watch a pair of oryx battle it out for dominance. We were cruising along casually and saw a large herd of oryx scattered across the veldt. A little further from the main herd were the two combatants. The fight was on and both really went at it. They would spar and step back and spar again and step back. I think each gave the other an opportunity to quit. Energy is at a premium in the desert and nobody wants to waste any, and use what they have wisely. After a 15 minute or so session the loser walked away leaving the other as master of the field.

Tiny, smart and simply gorgeous – Dik-diks

dreadlionsafaris.com — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:07:37 +0000

The Maasai Mara. The name conjures up images of the Great migration. The greatest spectacle on earth. 1 million wildebeest and zebra crossing the plains for food and water and encountering lions, leopards and rivers full of crocodiles. It is all that for sure and more as well.

I had just dropped off our guests and were on a short safari just 3 extra days by myself with the camera and just hoping for something exciting. My guide turned right and rounded a small rise and came through the bushes on either side when I saw them. Dik-dik, right there in the misty morning just clearing up, barely catch a glimpse through the bushes and they were fully aware of me and looked to have been alert before I showed up. Then I saw the reason for this. We had a magnificent leopard sitting in the middle of the road just 50 yards ahead. Talk about a bonus. They could see him clearly and I truly can say it was almost impossible that he saw them. In any case we stayed and took a few more photos of these beautiful antelope before heading for the leopard. We followed the leopard for the next hour as he located and stalked his prey. He did not get a chance to do any hunting however, and eventually disappeared into the bush. The diki-diks really fascinated me. They are quite like duikers we have in South Africa with similar habits. They are monogamous and live in thick bush like the duikers in South Africa and other parts of tropical Africa. The way they mark their territories with the facial gland is also similar. I found out later that this is Kirk’s Dik-dik. The monogamous life seems well suited to a tiny antelope who would be terribly vulnerable to predation from pretty much any predator including aerial ones. So instead of having a mating season and having to go around in the open looking for mates, monogamy and safety makes sense. In any case they are really beautiful little creatures with the most gorgeous eyes. A rare find in the open grasslands of the Maasai Mara.

The tough guys living the life!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:34:36 +0000

The toughest animal of the Big 5, that is acknowledged by almost every single story-teller, hunter, writer and wildlife lover, is the African Cape buffalo. These have had an amazing come back from 150 years ago after the rinderpest decimated the herds by the tens of thousands to a mere 50 individuals in South Africa. There are now thousands of Cape buffalo all over South Africa and all the game parks have their share with Kruger National Park taking the lion’s share as its due. The way the Cape Buffalo herds operate is an education in itself and not for this blog. Here I want to talk about a specific type of Cape buffalo……… the dagga boy.

That’s an odd name what’s a dagga boy? Well dagga is the name of the slimy mud which is used to build mud huts by the Zulu people in the old days and this is exactly what these buffaloes are usually covered in. Dagga boys is the name given to old retired bachelor bulls who have left the herd. So no wives and kids or leadership responsibility, so they are just plain old retired and they answer to no one. We were trained to walk in the bush and you see a buffalo herd you find a safe, safe, safe spot. You see these guys you walk all the long way around. They are just that unpredictable. I remember a single file line of 8 of these buffalo were coming towards us across the plain about 100m away and I parked and waited for them to come . the Lead buffalo saw me in his way but did not deign to move even 6 inches out of his way to pass behind or in front of me. He led his gang of 8 straight up to my vehicle and stopped 1 foot away from the middle of the car. He had all of Africa to walk in but he chooses to do this. So then I had to start the car and reverse and let them pass. That’s attitude! ‘Hey punk… move this car out of my way’!

They are amazingly strong, they are completely fearless and have a real aggressive attitude. A single lion seeing a group of these boys will walk around them. They have already fought lions and killed lions their buddies and family have been killed by lions they themselves have been attacked by lions they have literally seen it all. If it actually comes to a few lions trying to hunt them they cant run but hey they can fight. They may run a little way to get into a better tactical position for a stand then they turn at bay and its almost like they are saying “Ok fellas we ready, bring it. Lets see what you got”.

Some of them are injured, most of them have Bovine TB, I am told by Park Rangers, but they have an indomitable spirit and they do not play.

Hyena Alert!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 05:54:08 +0000

Kruger park has these culverts that go under the road and hyena clans with young ones use them for resting at night and they also leave the young ones there while they go out hunting. So we came up to one of these culverts and found about 10-12 hyenas there. Mostly youngsters and actually one or two very little fellows. Mom was there too so she was in charge but it was quite early morning and thy were all just sunning themselves and relaxing before they start the day. The youngsters are especially curious and they came over to sniff on my car and the tyres particularly since we drive over a large area and often times over dung and other smelly things that excite their interest. The tyres are especially at risk cuz an adult hyena can just bite a hole in the tyre without much ado. They have the toughest jaws in the animal kingdom and can break the thigh bone of a buffalo if they want to get at the marrow inside. That is really hard stuff.

One youngster went around the back and did not come out on this side. I was really worried he got under the car and found something to eat cuz when he came around he had something in his mouth. Oh Boy!! Soon enuf a car pulled in behind me and told me he was chewing on the plastic covering of the two bar and not something seriously damaging or expensive. Ha! Really fun to be so close to them and one guest put her hand over the side of the car to get the hyenas attention. Well that can be seriously dangerous. They are brutally strong and thank God it was only a youngster and not an adult otherwise we could have had a serious incident. Wild dogs too cannot be trifled with in that manner, they would jump up. Wild hyena are all very well to look at and in their habitat is best of course but never make the mistake of taking them and their friendliness for granted. They are wild and have to be treated with the respect due to a top predator in the bush. They are opportunistic hunters and a nice juicy arm outside a window is all it takes to get them going. So for sure explore Africa but keep your hands inside the car. ha!

Too much to eat!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 06:15:21 +0000

Animals are all about conserving energy, all animals. Energy comes from food and food is not always plentiful and especially for predators the whole energy conservation is a very big deal. They are just an injury away from starving especially the lone cats. Lions are social and so there is always someone else who can hunt and the injured one gets at least something to keep going. There is very raraely a glut for predators. This summer in the Kgalagadi was especially hard and the rains which often sprinkle some extra water so there is some grass to grow came late. There was a real famine in the land. Without good grazing the wildebeest, springbok, oryx and eland would be in serious trouble. Seems like the eland were the first ones to start dying off.

Summer is also a time when the lions play a nasty game. They stake out the waterholes and that means nothing can drink when they are around and whoever comes in to drink are a likely target. This is what I mean about conserving energy. When it is 50C in the shade you do not want to be wasting energy and running around and dehydrating cuz you will die. The lions know this best and they find a shady spot near the waterholes and just sit there waiting. Eventually some animal is going to run the gauntlet and when that happens they have an easy meal.

This time it seems the eland, which are the largest antelope in the world, just could not hack it. There were dead eland which had died of thirst and starvation in a few places in the Kgalagadi especially in the Nossob valley. We were driving down from Camp Nossob and heading to the dune roads when we came upon an unheard-of sight. There were 2 lions at the waterhole called Kij-kij. Lo and behold there was a half-eaten carcass of an eland and another one not even opened up yet. The big male was lying right next to the whole one while the female kept her distance a little ways away. I have never seen that before or after that time. A whole eland, and they are big, was just lying there. The lion had pulled it into the shade next to him and he was sleeping almost on the carcass. These two lions were set up for a week of eating from the looks of it. An eland weighs about 450kg and the big males can go up to double that. This was a skinny female but still that is a lot to have just lying around. So these lions are bulking up in the glut while the weather lasts.

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!