My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Don't look at this if you are squeamish

It's an elephant that died of natural causes being picked apart by vultures. Next came the hyenas one day later see top photo.

 

[CometKeith]

First pic a good look at table mountain.We took a cable car to the top. Looking for great white sharks. There is some controversy about how they lure the sharks to this area. They use a fish "soup" that attacks them and some people feel it is bringing the sharks too close to the beaches. The naturalists have identified about 2000 great white sharks off the coast of South Africa and about half of them are tagged to follow their movements.

 

[CometKeith]

Penguins by the Cape. They have moved to different areas based on the availability of food. The area we saw them is set up as a nature park.

 

[CometKeith]

Baby elephant had her foot slip in a very shallow pond after taking a mud bath. Her big sister came to help her and the mother went crazy and roared because she was worried. The pond was so shallow it would have been impossible for the baby to drown!

 

[CometKeith]

Water buffalo. We drove though a herd of 600 of them.

 

[CometKeith]

The vehicle we drove in is considered to be a predator by the big cats but not one they are afraid of. The tour operators have been around these animals since they were babies and they do not see us or the vehicles as any kind of threat. As a result we were able to get up close to leopards and lions without it affecting their behaviour. The only thing is you could not get out of your seat or get out of the vehicle because that would change the situation and you could be in danger. As a result we could follow the animals around and get very close. We followed a pride of lions for about an hour one night. We saw them again the next night. It was two male lions that were brothers and two females. There were two male lions that were the dominant cats of the pride were off somewhere. The oldest of the two males was trying to make it with the female.but she wasn't that interested which lead to a few good jokes on the part of our guide and us fellow travelers.Our guide even sang a few love songs to help the male but he wasn't getting anywhere fast with the female that night! We followed quite a few leopards. At one point our guide turned off our motor because he didn't want the sound of it to help the leopard sneak up on it's prey. We tried to be as neutral to the situation as possible not to help or hinder the animals ability to catch prey.

 

[CometKeith]

One of my favorite pics. Our tracker got stuck with his head in a tree when we stopped to get some pictures and he found this! It looks like a leaf moving the way it walks.

 

[CometKeith]

JW, you are so right. Everything does fit together when you see it in nature.Thanks CE/Haver/Addy I appreciate your comments too. There are lot of symbiotic relationships and in real life and you see them at work in the nature preserves. Not so much different from the ponds and the little ecosystems we try to create.. The good hearing animals hang out with the good seeing animals and they help each other look for predators etc. We did this for 8 hours a day for more than 5 days when you add up both safari's. We couldn't believe how much we learned. Every insect, bird, animal, plant has a purpose. We even appreciated termites that built huge mounds to get rid of dead trees. Then the stripped mongoose would dig for termites, the eagles would hunt for mongoose etc. Everything was inter-related and connected somehow. You take one organism out and who knows how this could affect things down the line. The tour guides were our teachers. I took over 1000 pictures and videos and I think my wife and daughter took about the same amount. We also visited the Nelson Mandela museum in Johannesburg which I highly recommend and visited a shanty town after school program that won a CNN heroes award for it's good work. Also we visited a really nice wine region in the western cape in Stellenbosch.The trip was much more than taking pictures of the big 5 but of course that was on our list too. At the time we were disappointed we did not see any Rhinos in Botswana but we understood the problem. The government had to take the 60 or so out of the park and put them in a secure area to protect them from poachers. The government protects the animals and the army has orders to shoot to kill poachers. We saw a truck with about 15 men with rifles riding around looking for poachers.We did see Rhinos in South Africa on three occasions. To protect them the government started putting poison in their horns so the horns would be of no use to poachers. The poachers started killing these animals anyway so they didn't waste time tracking a Rhino that was of no use to them. When the safari drivers see a rhino they won't even say Rhino in English or Afrikaans over their radios for worry that a poacher may hear them. Here are a few pictures of Rhinos.

 

[j.w]

Way cool pictures Keith! A trip of a lifetime and you will always remember it. You sure learned a bunch about the ways of life of the animals and the people in the different areas. So interesting to hear about it all.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks jW. i never thought it would be so interesting.You spend your whole life learning about animals and think you know everything and then you see them in the wild and see how they interact and it's way different. One thing that really amazed me is after a leopard caught an impala the whole group of impala got close to the leopard and watched him dragging away the kill and they made this chattering noise. I wasn't quite sure why they were doing it but our guide said it was to watch him and warn other animals. It most have been painful to see him dragging away one of their own. Another time we saw a killed baby antelope of some kind hanging in a tree and the mother was just waking around in a daze not too far away searching for her baby.You think you understand something about animals but after watching them interact in their natural setting you realize how little you know.They had the same type of animal for dinner that night at our lodge but even knowing it was probably farmed raised there was no way I could eat it.

 

[j.w]

Oh that would be sad watching those poor animals see their kin killed like that. And the poor mother looking for her baby. I don't blame you for not eating that dinner w/ the same kind of animal you just watched get murdered earlier
It would be like eating dinner w/Hannibal............you know that tv show?

 

[CountryEscape]

Keith, wow, all I can say is WOW!!!! That would be a trip of a lifetime for me. I always thought I wanted to go to Australia, if given the choice of anywhere, but now I think I want to go where you were. I enjoyed more pics, and especially loved the story of the baby elephant, and her sister helping her, and then her mother roaring about the situation. Doesn't it make you wonder what she was saying? Like our mothers, .... "I TOLD you to stay out of the mud!!!" LOL The pics of the big cats and stories how they are not afraid of the vehicles ... how cool. And to think you drove around on safari's for that many days, all day long, and saw soooo much, is awesome. Thanks again for sharing your pics and stories.

 

[CometKeith]

JW. i agree but literally it's the law of the jungle. You think of the leopard as this very dangerous animal but only 1 in 10 babies make it because they get attacked by other animals like hyenas. When lions or leopards go hunting for food their cubs are always in danger. I remembered the name of the mother looking for her young. it was a Kudu. I am posting her picture. Everyone was saying how good Kudu was to eat but there was no way i could eat that after seeing her earlier in the day. She had still been nursing the baby just before the leopard got the babyand we could tell that she was the mother. I am also going to show the picture of the impala watching the leopard drag one of them away. It's not the greatest picture but you can tell they are all on the hill looking down. CE, What was so striking about the elephants is that they form a very strong social network.Even the adolescents are taught the rights and wrongs. Our guide told of situations where elephants were removed from the group and a lot of weird antisocial behaviour resulted from the one removed.Also if any of the elephants are killed they will go into mourning for such a long period it is better to kill them all because they will never be the same afterwards. CE, I haven't been to Australia but this was really a fantastic trip. There are a lot of reasonably priced lodges in Kruger if you want to travel there at a reasonable cost. The private game reserves are more expensive but the advantage is they can go off road.

 

[addy1]

We saw the same interaction when we did our camping safari, it was so much fun to watch the critters in real life. I recall one night the lions woofing outside of our tents, we were told to not leave them if we heard them. Then you heard the guides come out and scare them away. We were told the water buffalo where the most dangerous critter out there, one did charge our truck and smack into it.

 

[j.w]

Yep I know it's a cold cruel world out there w/ critter eating critter but still doesn't make it a happy moment for me. I know I have to accept it cuz we all have to eat and of course what choice do they have. Looking forward to the afterlife when the lion lays down w/the lamb

Can't imagine killing a whole herd of elephants when they are so sad for the loss of a herd member. I knew they mourned but never knew they mourned that strongly.

I don't think I'd sleep real well w/lions woofing outside my tent!