Tag: wildlife

Cubs

One of the highlights of our trip was finding this mother lion with two cubs in a river bed. At this age – maybe three months old – they are still reliant on mother’s milk and too little to engage in the hunt with the rest of the pride, so mother will hide them for long periods to go hunting and come back for feeding and play time.

Falling…

A leopard dozing in a tree above us. In fact, he was dozing so hard that he lost his balance and needed some claw action to prevent him from falling out of the tree and on top of… well, me. That was a scary moment!

At first sight

It was a long journey from the Netherlands to Tangala Safari Camp in #Thornybush Nature Reserve. We were just in time to catch the departure of the afternoon safari drive – and this was the first picture I took. What a welcome in South Africa!

Dutch safari

We had heard about the deer rut in the Hoge Veluwe National Park, so we decided to check it out yesterday. Waiting for the gate to the park to open, it hit me: this is a safari! We drove our car slowly through the park, full of anticipation. The map indicates a few hotspots for deer, which were already filling up. There must have been a hundred other people in the park, setting up their tripods, waiting for the deer to arrive where they should be according to the map.

From where we stood, I could see a small group of deer resting on a grassy field. There was a strong wind blowing from behind us. I was worried that the deer would smell all these people waiting for them and wouldn’t come out. But, a little while later, Hermen came running, saying that he had spotted a deer a hundred meters down the road.

It was amazing! It seemed like the worst (or best) part of the rut was already over. The male deer had already collected their groups of females and were not that interested in fighting each other – at least not while we were there.

Such proud animals, with their heads held high! And such antlers must weigh quite something! Back in our original spot, the group of deer that were resting had also woken up and came close to the road. Great, these animals that follow the maps! We’re very happy to have had this chance to go on safari in the Netherlands.

Lions in Pilanesberg

It had rained all night on this day in January 2020. We even got up a little later to give the clouds a chance to clear up. It was still raining as we got into the park and we didn’t really expect any great sightings – we expected the wildlife to be hiding well under the green bushes.

It was therefore a huge surprise when we encountered a pride of lions in an open area, just finishing off their catch of a zebra. The males already had had enough and were lounging on the grass. One by one, the females also walked off from the carcass to lie down. After spending an hour with these magnificent animals, they leisurely ambled off and out of sight.

This is a compilation of some video material I took on this sighting.

Lion with cubs

From the archives:
We went to Madikwe Game Reserve for the first time in 2018, and were blown away by the hospitality and the brilliant sightings we had. This was one of the highlights of our trip: a pride of lions, I believe it was two females and about four cubs, walking around in the early morning light. A breath taking experience!