53. Days 16-17, 20 (Aug 31-Sep 1, 4 ) – Cape Buffalo

(Note: As you can tell from the date identifier for this post, I’m now including not only photos taken from the Manyeleti portion of our trip, but also from the extension that occurred in Botswana in the Chobe River National Park which was a one-day safari that consisted of a game drive in the morning and a game “cruise” in the afternoon on the Chobe river.  I will have more to say about the Chobe river area and Botswana generally when we get to that part of the tour, which included Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, later.  However, there are not many differences between the animals in Chobe and Manyeleti.  There is a difference in the diversity of the grouping of the animals, and the presence of the river in the Chobe region generally makes for more game animals.  But for a discussion of the animals themselves, I’ve included the Chobe photos because they make more sense here than in a separate discussion.)

One of the most striking looking of African animals, and one of the members of the “big five” discussed earlier, is the Cape Buffalo, technically one of the five or so subspecies of the African Buffalo.  It is a very large member of the bovine subfamily which also includes cattle, bison, water buffalo, yaks, and four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes.  That being said, the relationships and evolutionary links between the various members of this subfamily are not well known.  The Cape Buffalo can weigh up to a ton and can be as long as 11 feet.  You will sometimes hear reference to the Water Buffalo as one of the African big five but that is a mistake; true water buffalos are only found in Asia.  The Cape Buffalo requires water daily so they depend on and can often be found around perennial sources of water.

The Cape Buffalo became part of the big five because it not only is very unpredictable, but if shot and not killed, it can and will fiercely attack.  And, except for humans, it has few predators.  A group of lions can bring down a single adult Cape Buffalo.  Buffalo calves can fall prey to cheetahs, leopards, and spotted hyenas, and there have been reports on a group of spotted hyenas taking down an adult buffalo.  The crocodile can take an adult buffalo but typically they only attack old or young animals.

In a way, we were predators – as several times the buffets we were served at dinner included Cape Buffalo stew.  When I asked I was told that these were not animals taken from the wild but they were raised for food purposes on a ranch.  I know there are such ranches although I am fascinated how these – or any of the other wild animals that are raised on ranches – are handled.  The meat is reminiscent of beef with a somewhat gamey flavor.

So let’s take a look at these animals.  Here is a wonderful example just standing around, asking us to take its picture, even having posed on the slight rise in the ground.

Cape Buffalo "Posing"

And another one, part of a herd as these are definitely herd animals.

Small Herd

The horns are one of the most impressive features of these animals.  As you can see, they are huge and they join in the middle in a sort of shield, called a “boss” across the forehead of the animals.  The horns provide a great deal of weaponry for this animal.  And they are not to be trifled with.  Over 200 people a year are killed by Cape Buffalo, making it the most dangerous animals to humans in the African bush.  The horn length can be up to 63 inches and from tip to tip across about a yard.  Both males and females have horns, but the females’ horns are generally smaller.

Let’s take a closer look at this magnificent animal, courtesy not of foolhardiness but of a 200 mm camera lens.
 

Cape Buffalo Up Close and Personal

And here is one just resting in the field (and you cannot say that it is outstanding in its field.)
 

Not Outstanding in Its Field

And now we have a small test.  If you can enlarge the photo above, look just above the end of the smooth part of the horn on the buffalo’s right (your left).  Sticking out is something – and we’ll talk about it soon.  But first let’s talk about food.

The buffalo is not a carnivore.  It feeds on vegetation.  It serves as the first pass cutting of grasslands, mowing down and eating the tall, coarse grasses, and eating at a greater rate than most other herbivores.  They then move on to other fields leaving the meadows for the more selective grazing animals.  Here is one grazing.
 

Cape Buffalo Grazing

Here is another group of three, although the head of the last one is behind the second one, and there is some sort of a scar on the last one’s hide.
 

Three Cape Buffalos Are We (With Apologies to G&S)

And right above in the middle of the middle buffalo you can see a bird taking off in flight.  This is the oxpecker, and they are very common around the Cape Buffalo.  They feed on insects, usually taken from the skin of the buffalo.  The buffalo seem not just to tolerate this but also to enjoy the relief from the biting insects that the oxpecker provides.  Let’s look at some more photos of this relationship.

Often the oxpecker is on the back of the buffalo, whether the buffalo is standing,

Cape Buffalo and Oxpecker

or resting.

Cape Buffalo and Oxpecker - 2

Sometimes there are enough insects to support two birds.

Cape Buffalo and Two Oxpeckers

And this picture gives new meaning to the phrase “in your face.”
 

In Your Face

But oxpeckers are not the only bird found on the cape buffalo.  There is also the much more stately cattle egret.

Cape Buffalo and Cattle Egret

The cattle egret is found not only on the back of the cape buffalo, but it often is walking on the grass near and under the cape buffalo where it also gets insects that are scared up out of the grass as the cape buffalo walks.  Here is a movie of a cape buffalo walking (and urinating) while the cattle egret walks right along with it. 

Next up - Zebras

Link to Full Resolution Photos

52. Days 16-17 (Aug 31-Sep 1) – Lions

The lion is known as the king of the jungle and a lion sighting on at least one of the game drives is often seen as making or breaking a safari.  If that is the test (and I’m not one who would single out the lion in that role), then our safari was doubly successful.  On two successive days we came across lions – both times on the afternoon/evening game drive, the first time more than midway through the drive and the second time early in the drive.

Let’s look first at some discussion of lions in general and then look at the different times we saw lions.

In each case, we did not see single lions but rather prides.  Lions, at least females and cubs, live in groups.  These are said to vary in size from 3 to 40 although ours both were in the 10 to15-lion range.  The pride generally hunts, raises cubs, and defends territory together.  The male’s job is primarily to defend territory, especially against other male lions.  And to erase any question that this is primarily to ensure the continuation of the male’s genetic line, consider that there is usually only one although sometimes two dominant males at the head of the pride, and when the male shifts (as it can every 3 or more years), the new male will usually kill all the cubs of the pride.  Another fact related to this behavior is that female lions do not usually become fertile and receptive until their cub matures or dies (and some 80% of cubs die before become full grown, usually as prey to other animals.

The female lions are usually related and they give birth at about the same time.  This permits a cub to nurse from any available female.  A female will normally remain a member of the pride for life.  The females do most of the hunting – often in small groups – although when prey is obtained, the male eats first, then the females, and lastly the cubs.  Despite its reputation as a fierce hunter, roughly half of a lion’s food is taken as carrion.  

The lion and the hyena tend to compete for the same prey (and carrion) in the same areas.  In some areas lions are more successful at hunting, while in other areas hyenas dominate.

There is some controversy as to the extent of true subspecies among lions (which currently are found only in sub-Saharan Africa and in one location in India).  The subspecies in the Kruger area is known as the Transvaal or Southeast African Lion.

The first group of lions that we came across were probably a pride of lions but I would call them a pile (or perhaps several piles) of lions.  It was early evening, around 5:15 and the lions were doing what lions generally do except at night – sleeping.  And many of them were sleeping piled on top of each other, and seemingly paying little attention to the smelly green animal (i.e, our vehicle) that was nearing them.  I took a great many photos of this first pride and have with a show of great restraint (ysr) managed to reduced it to a much smaller group of lion photos, presented here without further commentary.  Toward the end of our time with these lions, a few of them started waking up and walking around, but still paying us little or no attention.

Two Sleeping Lions

A Pile of Lions

How Undignified

Still Asleep

And Still Asleep

One is Finally Up and About

Morning Stretch

Walking Off

When we came across the second pride early in our afternoon game drive the following day, there was a little more activity, although not much. Some of the lions were sleeping but some were awake and appeared to be feeding although we were not able to see on what.  Our driver and spotter both thought it was a cape buffalo they were eating and the previous day, in this same general area, we had seen a very old cape buffalo away from the general herd.  We don’t know if this was the animal that was killed and was being eaten but the best guess of our driver and spotter was that it was.

Again, I need to emphasize that there appeared to be some feeding going on but this was an assumption and we did not see any such feeding – and thus there are no pictures of this.  But here are the pictures of the second pride.

A Bit More Activity

Yawning

That's Also a Yawn -- At Least We Didn't Hear a Growl

And Some Just Barely Awake

And since this pride was likely feeding on a cape buffalo, that’s what we’ll see in our next post.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

51. Day 17 (Sep 1) – Rhinoceros

The most elusive member of the big 5 on our safari turned out to be the rhinoceros.  By the end of our first full day of game drives (and thus 3 drives, two afternoon-evening and one morning drive we had seen four of the big five (cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, and lion).  Only the rhinoceros remained to be seen to give our safari a rousing success (sarcasm warning).  And it wasn’t until the afternoon of our last full day of rides (#5) that our driver and spotter pulled out all the stops and drove us to a good sighting of the rhinoceros.  My own theory is that they knew where the rhinos were all the time – they just wanted to give some drama to our game drives and keep us interested (ysr).

The rhino is a most improbable animal.  There are five different rhinoceros species currently with two of them in Africa and three in Asia.   We’ve all seen them in zoos but I’ve never before thought of what it takes to get them to a zoo.  If you want a wonderful story about that, and about conservation efforts generally for the rhinoceros in Nepal (involving one of the Asian Rhinoceros species) read The Soul of the Rhino by Hemanta R. Mishra.  You will never be able to see a rhinoceros in a zoo again without thinking of the amazing efforts it takes to provide the zoo with that animal.

The rhinoceros is a very large animal (we’ll talk about size variations later) with two horns on its face between the eyes, and moves in a fairly slow gait.  Look at this video for a sense of that.

Link to video: http://youtu.be/0zEEf-jrtJI

The slow ambling gait they have in zoos is not simply a factor of them being confined to a small area (small in comparison to the vastness of the game reserves and parks in which they are found in the wild).  They do tend generally to walk quite slowly.  This is a factor principally of their enormous size.  Another aspect of this is that a rhinoceros that has been anesthetized (for such purposes as being fitted with tracking devices) has to be turned every 7 minutes or so to prevent destruction of internal organs.  However, the rhinoceros can (and does) charge at a fair fast rate of around 35 miles per hour.  The charge, however, is not as dangerous as might otherwise be thought because the rhinoceros also has very poor eyesight. 

The animal we saw in South Africa was the so-called Black Rhinoceros, whose color is mainly brown or grey, just like the White Rhinoceros.  And while they are not typically territorial, they usually are found only in fairly small groups or solitarily.

Rhino Group - 1

Rhino Group - 2

The principal difference between the black and the white rhinoceros is their jaw and their size.  The guide books say the small black rhino is hook-lipped while the large white rhino is square lipped.  These rhinos that we saw had hooked lips – when viewed from the side – that’s the skin that is hanging over – or so we were told.  The difference in lips also makes for a difference in diet.  Black rhinos feed by browsing while white rhinos feed by grazing and thus the black rhino holds its head higher than the white rhino.  This distinction, though, can only be made if you have the two species together, which we did not.

While we’re on the subject of skin, the rhino’s skin is quite tough, thickly layered, and fairly loose.  The thick skin protects the rhino from thorns and sharp grasses but does provide a nice habitat for mites and ticks.  Apparently you can sometimes see a bird on the back of a rhino, eating these parasites.  In the photo below of the seemingly posing rhino, observe what appear to be two nearly vertical very short shadows, one about half way from the head and the other another ¼ of the way towards the rear. 

Rhino Posing with ????

If you enlarge the photo you can see that these are shadows caused by birds, and the photo below, taken a minute or so earlier, clearly shows a bird on the back of the rhino.

Rhino with Birds

While baby rhinos and very young adults are subject to being attacked by lions and crocodiles, the adult is only very rarely attacked by a crocodile and not at all by lions.  So, you might ask, what animal does attack the rhino?  Unfortunately it is only one species, the not-so-wise homo sapiens sapiens.  Is it because rhino meat is so delicious?  No.  It’s because of the horn.

The horn of the rhino, one of the common features in each of the species, is unique among mammals, in that it has no boney core but consists entirely of keratin, a family of fibrous structure proteins that makes up the outer layer of human skin as well as hair and nails.  While some rhino horns find their way into dagger handles in Yemen and Oman, their principal “use” is in traditional Asian medicine.  The common misconception is that it is an aphrodisiac but rather it is prescribed in powdered form, for fevers and convulsions.  It is considered by many practitioners as a life-saving medicine although there are no studies that confirm this.

A horn can fetch close to $250,000.  This, of course, leads to poaching and often the rhinos are killed only for the horn – the rest of the carcass is just left.  There are many efforts made to stop poaching including removing the horn from rhinos in the wild, thereby rendering them undesirable to poachers.  And an ingenious system aimed at stopping poaching was described in the following article.  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/dye-and-poison-stop-rhino-poachers/  However it now appears that this method doesn’t really work.  

Of course one of the questions that arises with rhinos is where does a 1 to 3 ton mammal hide.  And as you can see in this picture, they actually can be fairly difficult to spot in the bush.

Rhino Semi-Hidden

Link to Full Resolution Photos/Videos

Next up: Lions (no tigers and no bears)

50. Days 15 and 17 (Aug 30 and Sep 1) – Hyena

Hyenas are not one of the big five game spotting animals (since they were not one of the most dangerous ones to hunt in the days of the origin of the big five); yet there are among the most difficult to spot, perhaps even rarer than the leopard.  

The hyena is a family of animals consisting of the brown hyena, the striped hyena, the spotted hyena, and the aardwolf, of which only the spotted hyena is found in South Africa.  It is the smallest carnivore family and the youngest – dating back only 10 million years.

Stereotypically hyenas are viewed as sneaky scavengers, often stealing prey from lions and other big carnivores.  The reality is quite the opposite – the spotted hyena is said to kill about 95% of the animals it eats and often has to protect its kill from a lion – and will do so quite aggressively despite the significant size disadvantage.  The hyena is able, unlike many carnivores, to eat and digest bone, horns, and teeth and it is the only carnivore that eats hides.  It more completely and efficiently utilizes its prey than any other carnivore.  Of course this is all information which I have read, not experienced.  

This photo is our first sighting of the hyena.

Hyena - First Sighting

Yup -- not a very good photo.  But you can notice several things.

1) It is already dark – the sun has set and we’re heading back to camp, using a spotlight to search for whatever might be out there.  And, true to its nocturnal aspect, the hyena is there.  It is about 6:30 in the evening (remember it’s winter).

2) Note the long neck, a characteristic of the hyena family

3) Note the spots.  This is how we can tell it’s a spotted hyena – well that and the fact that the spotted hyena is the only member of the hyena family generally found in South Africa.  

Two days later we’re again on our way back to camp but it is still light outside – it being about 45 minutes earlier.  And looking up the “road” we’re crossing what do we see but another hyena.  

Second Hyena - Up the Road

Again, not a very good photo.  Since we’re in twilight the light level is low and there are many artifacts in the photo as a result of this.  But we can clearly see this hyena and since it’s looking off to the side, we can see the characteristic long neck.

The next two photos (all of the photos from the one immediately above to the end of this post are in chronological order and were taken over a time span from about 5:54 to 6:03 pm and of the same hyena) show the hyena moving down the path.  So far it does not appear to be significantly concerned about us.

Hyena Approaching - 1

Hyena Approaching - 2

The hyena finally looks once more off the road, showing its long neck, and this time leaves the road, although I don’t know if that is because of us or because it has spotted something off the road.

Hyena Beginning to Move Off Road

About 3 minutes later we spot the hyena again, this time off in the brush.

Hyena - In the Brush

This picture shows most clearly the relationship between hyenas and dogs.

And this next photo, taken just after the above one, shows again the characteristic long neck.

Hyena - Long Neck

Several minutes later we again come on the hyena and the photo strongly resembles the one taken two days earlier, raising the question whether this was a different hyena or the same one spotted on two different days.

Hyena - Clearly Spotted

Next up: The rhinoceros.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

49. Day 16 (Aug 31) – Leopard

The next few posts will focus on animals that we only saw in Manyeleti and not in Botswana (although some are found there – just not seen by us).  These will be showing in order of the rarity of their sighting: leopard (one animal, one time), hyena (one animal each of two times), rhinoceros (multiple animals one time) and lion (multiple animals two times).  

It is generally said that of the big five game animals (cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, rhino) the most rarely seen is the leopard.  I’m told that the hyena – not a member of the big five – is nearly equally rare.  (And remember that the big five is an artificial construct in photo safaris as discussed earlier; indeed it is arguably an artificial construct in any type of safari.)  Thus we were very fortunate that we got to see not only a leopard (please note the use of the singular) and several hyenas.  

Seeing only one leopard is not surprising.  The leopard is primarily a solitary animal, only getting together with another leopard for purposes of mating.  They are extremely fast, very strong, and very stealthy, often approaching silently to around 15 feet from its prey before attacking.  They are carnivores and eat anything from insects and small birds on up to fairly large animals.  However, they tend to avoid very large animals as prey.  That said, they are the only natural predator of the adult chimpanzee and gorilla although this prey can fight back and cause serious injury.

The strength of the leopard is very useful when it has killed an animal as it usually brings it up into a tree and will feed on it there, generally safe from other animals.  The mother will also bring her young up into a tree.  So, finding a leopard requires looking both around and up.  

All the above I know about leopards from reading, not from any direct experience.  On safari we saw one leopard, midway on our first morning game drive, as it walked through the brush and across the “road” in front of our stopped vehicle.  In many ways this was atypical for a leopard sighting.  In fact, the only typical part of this sighting was that only one leopard was involved.  The leopard walked through the field and across the road right in front of our vehicle (which was stopped and waiting as we had been positioned and alerted by another driver who had first spotted the leopard and spoke by radio with our driver.  Normally leopards are skittish and avoid walking up to humans.  The leopard was on the ground at a fairly late time (7:45 am) for this mainly nocturnal cat and not up in a tree either sleeping or eating.

There are 7 photos of the leopard in this posting (edited down from a much larger number as my camera was clicking more or less continuously from when we first saw it until the leopard disappeared).  I found the leopard probably the most beautiful and elegant animal we saw in Africa.  In the first picture the leopard is just coming into sight, and you can see how perfectly its coloring camouflages it.

Leopard Just Sighted

The next series of shots show the animal walking through the brush, actually approaching us (but not tracking us).

Leopard Approaching - 1

Leopard Approaching - 2

Leopard Approaching - 3

As the leopard approaches a track in the brush, we can see it more clearly.

Leopard at Track in the Brush

For a sense of how close the leopard came to us, in the photo below the shadow in the bottom left corner of the picture is of our vehicle.

How Close Leopard Was to Our Vehicle

All too soon the leopard starts walking away from us.

Leopard Leaving Us

Next up: Hyenas.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

48. Days 15-18 (Aug 30-Sep 2) – Manyeleti: General Countryside

(Note: I have a number of shots taken of the vegetation and geography around Manyeleti without any animals.  By far we saw much more non-animal countryside as we went on the game drives and there were in many cases just as wonderful as the encounter with animals.  There’s not much to say about these photos individually so I am presenting them in the next three posts often with little commentary.  The subjects are (1) water, (2) trees, and (3) general countryside.  The same will be true, for the most part of the photos of animals which will follow.)

I’ve mentioned that more often than not on the game drives, we were seeing the countryside, not animals.  And while we were supposed to be keeping a sharp eye out for animals (and avoiding getting injured by a sharp eye), there was still plenty of opportunity to appreciate the countryside – especially since we had a driver and a spotter also watching for animals – and they were much better at it than I am.

So, what better way to appreciate the countryside than to capture it digitally, and then share it with all of you.

One of the things our tour leader tried to tell us when we were coming into Manyeleti was how to notice hidden game and how to keep scanning.  But just imagine trying to find a lion in the following.  Fortunately we had our driver and spotter, so we did get a rich game sighting experience.  And I quickly learned to appreciate the countryside for what it was – a beautiful sight rather than a place hiding animals.

Manyeleti Countryside

Some areas had little vegetation and thus little spots for animals to hide – but not much to attract them either.

Barren Countryside

The area below is a dry river bed – at least dry in the dry winter season.  We’re going across a bridge here in our vehicle, although the bridge is really more of a ford across the river along a drop from higher to lower elevation.  I think that means that even in the rainy season the river is fordable at this point.

Bridge/Ford on Dry River Bed

I really love this shot where the white bark of some of the trees make the entire landscape seem almost ghost like.

Ghost-Like Landscape

One of the import denizens of Manyeleti, and indeed of most African game area, is a little seen insect that leaves large reminders of its presence – the termite.  The termite is very important in several different ways.  First, it feeds upon brush and thus reduces the amount of brush available for large fires.  And termites are reputed to be a good source of protein (but I cannot speak to this from personal experience).  You do find termite mounds which are evidence of the termites’ presence.  This particular picture was shot from a moving vehicle and is the only termite mound I have from Manyeleti so please excuse the lack of sharpness.

Manyeleti Termite Mound

And, if you’ll excuse some geographic inaccuracy, here is another termite mound taken a few days later on the trip, this time in the Chobe National Park of Botswana.

Bostwana (Chobe Park) Termite Mound

As I’ve mentioned, as sundown approached on our game drives, we would take a break and have what are known as sundowners, although we’re probably stretching the British term a bit here.  The Brits refer to sundowner as a drink taken at the end of a work day.  And that was not true here for two reasons.  One was that it is really hard to classify what we were doing as work.  And two, if you did consider this work, we still had about ½ of the ride ahead of us.  Still, we did make sure to indulge in this custom whenever we were given the opportunity.

I'll Drink to That

And, since sundown did come soon after we had our sundowners, let’s look at sundown at Manyeleti.

Sundown at Manyeleti - 1

Sundown at Manyeleti - 2

Sundown at Manyeleti - 3

Sundown at Manyeleti - 4

And, as the sun was completely below the horizon, what should make its appearance in the sky but the moon.

Moon Over Manyeleti

Next up: One of the big five.
Link to Full Resolution Photos