A beautiful hike in the Garden Castle section of the Drakensberg Mountains. The hike goes up to a cave called Pillar Cave. Although we didn’t make it all the way to the cave (still struggling with my back…) the scenery was amazing. The smoke in the background is from controlled burning of the grasslands to create firebreaks, protecting the World Heritage Site of the Drakensberg.
Tag: nature
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!
Zebra family portrait
A mother zebra and her young, in the early morning light against a black background. What a nice family portrait! (If I may say so myself…)
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!
Leopard stare
From three months old, leopard cubs start to accompany their mother on the hunt. This one, though, was left to fend for itself during the day while his mother was… what? Hunting? Going to work? Shopping? I don’t know. At the end of the day he grew restless and tried his luck on some guinea fowls, who laughed at his attempts to catch them. There are a lot of skills a young leopard has to learn. They often do not leave their mothers until they are a year or a year and a half old. Some may even stay for longer than that.
Elephant in a hurry
A beautiful elephant in a hurry on its way to the waterhole. Such an impressive sight! My mother used to call me an elephant when I stamped up the stairs in our home, but in reality elephants really don’t make a lot of noise…
