A majestic bull elephant in Madikwe Game Reserve. These animals are so big and so impressive! I know they are often called gentle giants, but for me the emphasis is on giant, and not so much on the gentle. If such an elephant wants to go somewhere, he will, no matter whether your car is in the way…
Tag: animal
Lioness resting
An old lady lioness lying on the ground with a full belly in the sunset. Her eyes seem to plead for some undisturbed rest. Although gamedrives keep their distance and do their best not to disturb the animals’ lives, I sometimes do feel like an intruder in their world…
Yellow meerkat
In Afrikaans, the yellow mongoose is called rooimeerkat or witkwasmuishond. The ‘meer’ in meerkat is derived from the word ‘mier’, which means ant or termite. Mongooses and meerkats use termite mounds as shelter and the termites themselves as food. This yellow meerkat in Rietvlei Nature Reserve was digging away, looking for some nice grubs to eat.
Leopard in a hammock
I don’t care who you are, the pressure is on to go to the next task immediately. What happened to the days of hanging out in the hammock all afternoon?
– Josh Brolin
Hello there!
A yellow mongoose is scanning its environment in Rietvlei Nature Reserve. Very happy with this sighting, we had never seen them there!
Waiting
A lioness on a stone wall in the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria, waiting for the sun to rise above the horizon. Or maybe for the weekend?
Melancholic leopard
My practice leopard in the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria. Looking a bit melancholy here!
A moment of tenderness
A brief tender moment between two female lions in the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria. One of the lions is a white lion, a rare color mutation also knows as leucism. There are tales from over 400 years ago about white lions in South Africa. Today, because they were a favorite hunting trophy, there are only a few of these white lions in the wild – one famous example lives in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
A mighty bull elephant
A huge bull elephant comes for a drink at a waterhole in Madikwe Game Reserve. Male elephants are generally solitary creatures, although friendships between groups of males have also been documented.
For one month of the year, bull elephants go into the condition of musth. During this time the bull produces 40 to 60 times more testosterone than usual. It makes him aggressive and unpredictable, and the best advice for other elephants and humans alike is to give the bull lots of space.
Musth is similar to what happens to Popeye when he downs a can op spinach. In musth, a male that is way down the ladder can challenge a dominant bull and win. When a bull elephant has broken tusks like this one, it may well be the result of a fight with another elephant!
Awesome wonder 