Hot as hell!

In the arid savanna in the middle of South Africa is place called Hot as hell. Believe it or not its true. Its spelt Hotazel. Same diff!!

Well any way close to here is a large expanse of bush and there live the most amazing little creatures…. Ground squirrels!

The colony I stumbled across was about 50 strong and that is quite average for a colony. They dig burrows into the ground and are very sneaky about coming out of them cuz there are enough predators who would just love a juicy ground squirrel meal. So “look before you leave” is what is posted over the ground squirrel burrow exit. As a gregarious group of animals they forage together in small groups or even alone. The youngsters are always escorted by a knowing adult or two to keep them alive. All that said they do not venture far from a handy burrow entrance. Their enemies are on the ground and in the air and so they keep a close watch on both. 

The would be leopard!

A serval is a smaller version of the leopard. At about 10kg top weight it is a small a lithe hunter and is rarely seen. They are crepuscular and are seen in twilight at best of times and that if at all. In places with high leopard and lion concentrations they may not be seen at all. A shy elusive and yet beautiful cat.

I had the joy of seeing them and taking a few pictures in the highlands of Natal and also just north of Pretoria on a game reserve. In Natal in the twilight I was lucky to find two sub adults playing on the road and next to the road. The rhinos that were hardly 15 mtrs away were ignominiously ignored in favour of the two youngsters.

North of Pretoria in a place where predator concentration are particularly low it was the middle of the day, literally at lunch time; and we had sandwiches and serval for lunch. Ha!

The African wild cat, the serval, the caracal, the civet, the genet, all these are the rarely seen crepuscular and nocturnal predators. Rarely seen and even more rarely photographed.

Come and explore Africa!

The bird barbers of the bushveld!

Believe it or not there are birds who run a mobile cleaning and grooming service for animals in the bush. Red billed oxpeckers, as they are called do just that.

The birds literally travel on animals from warthog, impala and kudu to buffalo rhino and giraffe and clean their fur of unwanted skin parasites and ticks. The mighty elephant disdains this service, preferring to douse himself with mud and scrape off the little nasties with the dried mud on a convenient tree.

I got a neat video of the birds working on a large client, a giraffe, and was able to see them work first hand.

These guys even build and line their nest with the hair of their clientele but there is a dark side to them as well. They are one of the only birds who feed almost exclusively on blood and blood sucking insects and so when their host has a wound they make the most of the easy pickings and sometimes delay healing by weeks.

Bull elephant, up close and personal.