Hyenas up close and adorable when we visited their barrow.
I think Hyenas are too easily maligned. True, their rear ends tip down in an unpleasant way, making them look like they are always running away. And their faces are often covered in blood from cleaning up after the predators. But when we came upon a barrow with pups ambling about, I had a very different impression. There were two adults, one definitely a mother who looked like she’d had enough, and about 5-6 pups.
I didn’t think I’d be very interested in buffalo, but seeing them up close was quite an experience. I began by watching the big guys but, up close as we were, soon I was watching the Red-billed Oxpeckers more than the buffalo. Finally I was able to get some clear pictures of them. A bunch of them congregated on the road for a sand bath. (The young ones don’t have red beaks yet.)
The little dik-dik antelope were closer than earlier in the week. They are so sweet. Apparently their numbers were considerably diminished by people buying suede gloves made out of their hides. And to think that each poor little dik-dik only had enough hide to make 1 glove. What a stupid waste!
Other antelopes on day 5 included more impalas (one pooping, of course) and a red-buck deer.
This was our last day for seeing giraffes, sadly. But here they are in all their glory! That first iconic picture was taken from our breakfast table. The last picture shows the giraffe tasting with apparent sublime pleasure the tiniest bit of a leaf from a thorny acacia tree.
The daily dose of elephants, again so close that I couldn’t get the whole animal in the viewfinder most of the time. I was somewhat obsessed with trying to get pictures of them eating.
We saw the rock hyrax on a couple of occasions. I thought they were rodents but according to google they are more closely related to elephants and manatees than to rodents. They live in groups together and forage together, usually not traveling far from their hiding place in case there is danger. The ones we saw seemed pretty chill.
Another very small mammal was the dwarf mongoose seen here on top of a termite hill.
The black-backed jackal, usually seen hurrying off, stood still for a couple of seconds. And the cheetah, often resting in my photos, was taking a walk.
We had our first sighting of a serval cat on this day. It was stalking and then catching a small rodent, a bit bigger than a mouse.
In the non-furry or feathery department, we saw 2 Nile crocodiles sunning together, or at least next to one another, and a distant colorful lizard on our drive on day 5. I am also including here two types of trees we often saw, the Yellow bark (or fever acacia) and the sausage tree (or Kigolia Africano.) If you zoom in on the 2nd tree shot, you can see the hanging flowers which then become these giant sausage-like pods. In the last picture, the presence of the Lilac-breasted Roller shows those giant pods in perspective.
