South Africa

2024

In the fall of 2024 we visited three private reserves in South Africa,

Madikwe PR, Marataba PR, and MalaMala PR.

It was a NatHab Photo Expedition called Secluded South Africa

This is the waterhole at the Madikwe Lodge. The little one is getting squeezed a bit by older juveniles. The little one is less than one year of age. Up until one year of age the young elephant can walk under the mom's belly. That's mom in the back looking on.

We found this Cheetah working on an Impala kill from the morning. She has four cubs to feed. These cubs are about 6 months old and weaned. The usual litter is 2 to 3 cubs and the survival is generally poor.

She is careful not to puncture the stomach or intestine. The fermentation odors will attract hyenas and vultures. Cheetahs usually don't defend a kill.

The mother Cheetah will at some point in the cub's training, suffocate, but not kill the prey. She will bring it back to the cubs so that they can learn to finish the kill.

This Cheetah has been collared, so that her movements within the reserve can be tracked

The Oxpecker is finding ticks and other bug meals on the Rhino.

The Rhino three-toed footprint is pretty distinctive.

The White Rhinoceros got its name from the Afrikaans word wyd, which means "wide" and refers to the animal's wide, square upper lip. Early English settlers misinterpreted the word and named the species the "white" rhino.

White and Black Rhinos are actually both grey in color.

This old male Lion has seen some battles. There is a wound on the inner right thigh.

There's a theory that female Lions prefer the males with the darker mane. The darker mane probably means a higher testosterone level.

Three-banded Plover and her chick.

Lilac-breasted Roller

Golden-breasted Bunting

Sacred Ibis

Hadada Ibis

Blue Wildebeest at the waterhole

The  Wildebeest here are licking at the soil, called geophagia. From this they get needed minerals

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Sand Plover

African Harrier Hawk

Yellow-billed Duck

The first lodge we flew into was Madikwe. It was very different from the tents in the Congo where we had the bucket toilets and bucket showers.

Cheryl gets a close-up of a big Ele

William, our driver in Madikwe, shows us the tooth structure of the Elephant

Elephants have a life span of about 60 years and will go through 6 sets of teeth.

We drove from Mandikwe to Marataba, a privately managed section of the Marakele NP.

Sindhle was our driver for the next three days.

You can tell by the size of that cub's belly that mom is doing a good job of feeding five cubs.

In Marataba we found a cheetah mom with 5 cubs to feed.

Lions, spotted hyenas and leopards are key predators of cheetah cubs.

Cub mortality can be high – up to 95% reported in the Serengeti, 75% in the Mara.

Male giraffes like the ones above don't have hair on their ossicles, lost from the sparring they do with each other in dominance displays. Male giraffes use their ossicones as weapons during combat, where they use their heads as clubs

The females have hair on the ossicles

Chat

Purple-breasted Roller

Crested Francolin

One of the necessary refreshment stops. Our professional photo guide, Danielle Carstens on the left, our travel companion Pauline, our driver William and Cheryl.

We came upon this Elephant carcass with several Spotted Hyenas feeding on it.

It was easier to find as the days passed from the overwhelming odor. We were told the Ele died of natural causes.

The Jackel is trying to get his share.

The giraffe foot print has two toes.

Cheryl's footprint

Brown-hooded

Kingfisher

Creasted Barbet

Sindhle had the opurtunity to switch out a flat, probably from the very long and sturdy thorns.

From Maratoba we flew to MalaMala.

Maratoba Safari Lodge was equally comfortable.

MalaMala has been described as the Leopard Capital of the World.

We were not disappointed. You had to check the trees carefully.

We were obviously roughing it in MalaMala.

There are many blood vessels in the Elephant's ears and they will flap them to help cool off. But this is also a display to warn you she might not be happy.

Juvenile Bateleur Eagle

White-fronted Bee-eater

Wahlberg's Eagle

Danielle, our guide, and Melanie, our driver in MalaMala.

These ladies were a lot of fun. Going "off road" with Mel was a real adventure.

African Buffalo leaving the waterhole. There were about 200 in this herd

The Oxpeckers are busy looking for ticks and bugs.

We found one of our favorites, the African Wild Dog or Painted Dog.

Here they're working on a fresh kill. The Wild Dog is the most sucessful predator in Africa, with a kill rate of around 90%.

If the pack goes after it, they get it.

Leopard marking her territory. They mark their territories with urine and claw marks on trees.This large female is named  Nkoveni by researchers. She has two cubs.

We found this leopard working on a fresh Impala kill. She will chew the hair off first, then open up the hide. She will hoist the kill into a tree to keep it away from Hyenas. She can hoist more than her weight. A Leopard might make a kill every 3 to 4 days, but could go for a week between kills depending on if she has cubs to feed.

The Black-backed Jackel is monogoamos, the pair bonding for life.

They breed once a year. The gestation period is about two months, and litters usually average around four pups.

The Jackel gets chased away from a kill.

The Large Spotted Genet is a species endemic to South Africa. They are are arboreal and nocturnal, hunting mostly at night for rodents, birds, and bugs. They are "cat like" but not considered cats.

The Nyala is a large antelope with distinctive, colorful fur and markings.

Blue-tailed Iguana

Male and female Steenbok

Dwarf Mongoose

Pearl-spotted Owl

Giant Kingfisher

Africa’s largest kingfisher species. It dives from its perch to catch crabs, fish, and frogs.

Crowned Lapwing on nest with clutch

Fork-tailed Drongo

African Masked Weaver

A warthog is identifiable by the two pairs of tusks protruding from the mouth and curving upwards. The lower pair, which is far shorter than the upper pair, becomes razor-sharp by rubbing against the upper pair every time the mouth is opened and closed.

Warthogs

Their diet is omnivorous, composed of grasses, roots, fruits, fungi, insects, eggs and carrion.

Leopard Tortois

When the locals see the Leopard Tortois up from their winter burrows, it's a sign of summer.

We watched two male Nyala perform a ritualistic circling behavior to assert dominance. There was no contact and eventually the larger one appeared to win and the other one withdrew.

Female Nyala

Only the males have horns.

Nyala are the most sexually dimorphic antelope in the world. The females are relatively small, weighing between 120 to150 lbs. The males are double that size

Africa in Black & White

While scientists still debate the exact origins and functions of zebra stripes, their recent efforts have focused more closely on three possibilities.

Protection from biting flies. Flies tend to not land on striped surfaces.

Thermoregulation, research showed that black stripes on live zebras were consistently 12-15 Celsius higher than white stripes. They propose that the steady temperature difference between stripes would drive a “mildly turbulent air”. They further discovered that hairs on the black stripes erect during early morning and noon. These erect hairs could trap heat in the cool morning and facilitate sweat evaporation at noon.

Protection from predators. Zebras running in a herd create "dazzlehead" in the predator, where it can't pick out an individual to attack.

This female is named Xinkhova with her cub. She is the daughter of Nkovina.

The cub is about 8 months old

Helmeted guineafowl

Weaver nest

Yellow-billed Hornbill

Go Away Bird,

also known as grey lourie. Named because of it's alarm call that sounds like Go Away!.

Common Waterbuck

What you can learn from fecal matter.

The White Rhino feeds on grasses and produced the matter on the left. The Black Rhino feeds on shrubs and his matter contains the material on the right. The Black Rhinos teeth cut the shrubs at 45 degree angles.

The two Rhinos species are non-competitive feeders and can both occupy the same territory.

Dark-capped Bulbul

Bushpigs

The pigs are essentially nocturnal, hiding in very dense thickets during the day.

Leopards are their main predator

Cat Track

The impala is the most plentiful antelope and the most common kill for the cats.

Except for the female with cubs, the Leopard is a solitary animal. They are also territorial.

A group of hippos is known as a pod or raft.

Leopards can hunt from trees, where their spotted coats  might allow them to blend with the leaves until they spring with a deadly pounce. These nocturnal predators also stalk antelope, deer, and pigs by stealthy movements in the tall grass.

Food storage

Female leopards can give birth at any time of the year. They usually have two grayish cubs with barely visible spots. The mother hides her cubs and moves them from one safe location to the next until they are old enough to begin playing and learning to hunt. Cubs live with their mothers for about two years.

The Nyala has hairy glands on its feet, which leave their scent wherever it walks.

Most of their food comes from browsing broad-leaved plants but they also graze on grasses.

Being both a browser and grazer increases the places they can survive.

What a great wine glass.

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Haunting calls of the Painted Dog. Wild dogs use this Hoo call to find one another if they get separated, usually when hunting. Often pups make this call as they tend to get left behind.

When hunting the dogs can keep track of each other with the white tipped tail in the air.