Spotted hyenas, a blur in the night. On the prowl.
Day 9, Part 1: Awake at 3:15 AM, for the morning brushwalk. Sore mor animals on the drive to the walk than the walk itself. We hiked in a line for 1.5 hours before seeing anything! So during that time one of the guides explained things like the dung beetles, how the rhinos mark their territory (with dung piles) and so on. We finally saw 4 rhinos close together. After a snack, we hiked back, an hour or so. After another nap we left Krueger for the drakensburg mountains.
Spotted hyenas, a blur in the night. On the prowl.
This was a sleeping giraffe, until we woke him. There were 3 of them laying down on the side of the road. They sleep laying down, but with their heads up in the air. 2 of them ran off.
View from my spot in the safari vehicle
Safari Nick and Safari Dave. Hats sold separately.
Our two native guides.
A falcon
This dung bettle is rolling a HUGE ball of dung!
The female oftentimes just hitches a ride, while the male does the rolling. Even if you stop them and try to change their direction, they know which way they should be going and they'll correct. These bettles help with the health of the park, b/c they remove much of the dung.
A millipede. They don't have millions of legs. Maybe a thousand, but definately not a million.
startled.
these teardrop-shaped things are birds nests
In the distance, there are white rhinos!
These big boys have poor eyesight, and are prone to charging when alarmed - especially the black rhino. It has even been known to charge trains and elephant carcasses!
They don't know we're here yet.
We can see four now.
We alerted them and they took off, but I snapped this one picture thru the trees.
David snuck off from the group to relieve himself. Back in action!
Another falcon.
Malaria Zach
What is that???
We're all admiring a big concrete tub - don't ask me why.
A spider striding the water.
This is a creek, filled with silt. Where we had parked the car and started walking.
More wildebeasts!
Basically, these are like honery, African cows.
A leopard tortise. This one has managed to stop several cars.
Yeap, looks very leopard-like, except for his speed.
I believe this is a fork-tailed drongo, or maybe a southern black flycatcher. If so, it is a bold and tough bird, which harasses other birds and cats many times larger than itself, and also mimics the calls of other birds.