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Published: November 3rd 2012
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5:30am Morning drive, and last, at Shumbalala. We will miss our guide Ryan and tracker Herman, they really made these a great 3 days and went all out trying to make sure we saw everything possible! Saw: giraffes, elephants, warthogs, impala, red crested heron, buffalo, nyala, dung beetles, white and black rhino, termites, and found the CHEETAH!!
Elephants have very little instinctive behavior, everything is learned. At about 15 years old, the males go off on their own (they are pushed out of the breeding herd because their testosterone has increased) and try to find other males to learn from. They know each other and remember dominance should they encounter each other again even if they haven't seen each other for a long time. They live to be 60-65 years old. Most of how elephants communicate is below our decibel of hearing.
Red crested heron male calls to the female then will fly high into the air, spreads wings, and drops down next to her to impress her.
Buffalo live 20-25 years and mostly stay in the breeding herds.
Zebras have a harem system. One male with have 6-7 females with them. Male is protective and leads
them to water.
Nyala male and female have spiral curved horns, related to the Kudu.
John asked Ryan if they ever have to do anything about the animals. While Ryan has never had to use his gun, he said that there were two ~3 year old lions who had to be put down a few months ago as they were "behaving badly". When asked what that meant, we were told the story of an anti-poaching team (two men) who were out and being followed by lions. They cannot build fires at night because it will alert the poachers as to their presence, so they built a bit of a protective wall with thorn bushes to wait out the night. Unfortunately they fell asleep... one of the anti-poachers (this happened to be his first day on the job) woke up because of the sound of crunching bones... his partner had been dragged away by a lion and was being eaten. He couldn't call for help as the lion likely had grabbed him by the head and he was also probably in shock. The guy climbed up a tree and radioed for help... the two lions were then killed.
We saw a dung beetle which might not sound all that cool, but pretty fascinating watching him push a giant ball of poop as a gift to his lady dung beetle!
Then we saw the Cheetah!!! There are two brothers ~5 years old. Don't usually find females together past 2-3 years. The males aren't territorial as they can secure more food together and have a better survival rate. Females are solitary. These two cheetahs probably weigh ~125lbs.
The white rhino is at biggest risk right now of extinction... they are killed just for their horns which go for $60k/pound. In the last two years, so many have been killed that if this rate continues, they will be extinct in 10 years.
Since it had rained the day before, we saw thousands of reproductive termites leaving their termite mounds... which turns into a feeding frenzy for the birds. The birds coming out are all potential kings and queens of their own termite colonies. These termites have class distinction.
GOING TO MALA MALA
We then had a very long 3hr bumpy ride from Thornybush to Mala Mala. We drove there to see the towns and more things, glad
we did but next time we will do the 10 min flight instead 😉 The road was totally filled with big holes. There was a man we passed with a shovel who single handedly was trying to fill in holes. Our driver stopped and gave him money. It's been interesting to us how very nice drivers are on the roads here... they actually pull to the side so that faster drivers can go around, and they consistently do this.
We arrive at Mala Mala and FINALLY have a bit of sunshine! We met our guide Gary, and on our evening drive we saw: buffalo, impalas (Ryan's joke about Mala Mala was that he called it Impala Impala), Egyptian geese, nyala, wasps, a crab, herd of elephants, leopard (~5 years old), hyena, eagle carrying away a bird, hippo, bushback.
The female leopard has a whiter tail tip so it's easier for her babies to follow her. We've noticed most of the animals have some sort of markings like this on their butt... the impala have an M, the Kudu a big circle that looks like a bullseye, etc.
The best find today was the leopard as he was
in a tree with an impala he had killed and dragged up there. It was a little scary at first as the leopard was breathing very heavy and staring right at us, but then Gary explained that when they eat, their stomachs expand so much it makes it hard for them to breathe. The leopard won't eat the innards, so pulled them out and left them at the base of the tree before dragging the impala up. As we were watching, the leopard got up and went over to eat more... we have video and you can hear the bones crunching in it! As the leopard ate, we saw a hyena approach carefully and then run off with the innards... apparently they aren't as finicky an eater as the leopard! However, the leopard wasn't happy about this and came down the tree but the hyena was already gone.
Food at Mala Mala was good although not as good as at Shumbalala and it was a buffet style. There was a really yummy lentil lasagna at this first dinner though 😊
Dung Beetle Rolling Poop - Shumbalala:
Cheetahs!! Shumbalala
Nyala joining
us for breakfast - Shumbalala:
Baby Zebra running at Mala Mala
Hippo during our night drive:
All of the below are videos of the leopard eating the impala
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