If there’s one word for the brown hyena it must be shaggy. The brown hyena has a longer coat than the better known spotted or striped hyenas. This, however, doesn’t make it a glamorous animal. Rather, his coat looks mangy and moth eaten. Brown hyenas are mainly scavengers, crushing even the bones of carcasses that other predators leave behind. The animal in the picture is marking its territory with a white and a black paste. Research has shown that the white paste is a general boundary marker for other hyenas: this is my territory. The black paste communicates to members of the same clan that this area is already searched for food; the smell of this paste fades after a few days.
Photo taken in Pilanesberg National Park
Tag: nature
Giraffe
Giraffes are so tall they are actually quite hard to photograph with a telelens. Glad to have gotten some landscape in there with this one!
Photo taken in Pilanesberg National Park
White-bellied sunbird
The white-bellied sunbird is one of the beautifully colored sunbirds of southern Africa. I took this photo in Pilanesberg National Park, but they are common around our house as well. Actually, once a female white-bellied sunbird flew through a window into our livingroom. She sensed immediately that something was wrong and perched on one of the windowsills in front of a closed window. She didn’t protest when I scooped her up in my hand and let her outside. A white-bellied sunbird is 10 cm long and weighs between 6 and 10 grams. Such a special experience to hold this tiny bundle of feathers in my hands!
Baby zebra grazing
A small baby zebra is gingerly tasting the green shoots between the rocks on the ground. Zebras are born after thirteen months of gestation. They start nibbling on grass within a few weeks from birth. The coat of a baby zebra is more brownish than the clean black and white of the adult. It is also adorably fluffy!
Photo taken in Pilanesberg National Park
Don’t look back in anger
As he walked away from our attention, the leopard threw one last look at us over his shoulder. These sightings are always too short!
Photo taken in Pilanesberg National Park.
Beautiful male leopard
That moment when you drive over a bridge and look down into the eyes of a big male leopard… Pilanesberg hosts a good many leopard, but spotting them always seems to be a game of chance. I can tell you my hands shake every time I meet one of these magnificent creatures!
Photo taken in Pilanesberg National Park
Baby rhino
An adorable baby rhino resting in the shade. Rhinos spend their days and nights grazing, only resting during the hottest hours of the day. After birth, a baby rhino can walk within an hour. A rhino is born without a horn, but the front horn becomes visible within one or two months. The back horn starts growing when the calf is about a year old. The calf will stay with its mother for about three years before setting off on its own.
