Schotia and the Addo National Elephant Park

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Started the weekend making an appearance at the Pearson High School Valentine's Day dance and showed some of my students my moves 😊 Ha! No, but it was fun and interesting to see them all out of uniform and dressed up! There were two bottles of liquor confescated and three packs of cigarettes, but I tried to tell the teachers that was nothing compared to home anymore! But, other than that, it was cute, nice decorations, the IT teacher was taking pictures, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Then, Saturday, we were picked up around 2:00 pm by Justin Bean. Justin is a 6th generation Bean and helps to run the Schotia Private Game Reserve. The land has been in his family since 1863 when his great-great grandfather farmed it. About 20 years ago, his father decided to bring in the "game" and spoke with the elephant reserve next door and decided to open it to the public as a game park. Addo Elephant Park opened its doors to the public first and then Schotia. They began giving tours at Schotia and were soon asked to do the same at Addo and so began the game drives. Not long after this, game reserves popped up all around South Africa and the Eastern Cape. So Schotia is the "oldest, biggest little game park" in South Africa. They currently have giraffe, zebra, ostriches, warthogs, yellow mongeese, lots of wildebeest, heartabeest, spring bock, and "deer-ish" things of that sort, as well as 7 lions (3 lionesses and 4 lions), two rhino, two hippos, and two crocodiles. I think that they started with only two lions, a male and female, and eventually brought in one more male for breeding and now have 7. Everything is natural and the motto of the reserve is "take only pictures and leave only footprints". So, other than the fact that the baby giraffe and some ostriches are kept fenced off from the lions to ensure population growth, they do not interfere with the wildlife what so ever. And as you will see, we are in a drought so everything is very brown. The last time it was green here was about 8 months ago! The lions apparently hunt every day and while we did not see the catch Saturday we could smell it, and you will see in my pictures, the lions were enjoying whatever it was in the cover of the trees and then came out full and lazy.

We rode around most of the afternoon on top of a landrover and were then treated to dinner. We rode around more later that night and were able to see a few different wildlife at night than from the day. Everyone's favorite seemed to be the lions but there was lots to look at. Probably the funniest event of the evening (and you might have needed to be there) but they have little jack-rabbit-like hares that are nocturnal and jump around all night like miniature kangaroos. We drove up on a few in the landrover at one point and sent one off hopping. I am not sure if he wasn't paying attention or was just startled by the truck but he proceeded to run into the legs of a spring bock and both went flying into the air and stumbled off, startled, in separate directions accompanied by our laughter. It was quite humorous.

As was the hippo story. The hippos stay in the water most of the day and we tried to sneak up on them at night to see them out of the water but sent them scurrying back in their pond at the sound of our vehicle. But, when Justin's dad ordered the hippos a couple years ago he was supposed to receive one male and one female in hopes that they would reproduce. However, after a mix up of sorts and a few tests later, they realized that they had two females, and therefore no hopes of babies! So, they are currently trying to get ahold of a male in hopes to increase their hippo numbers.

They also only have two rhinos at the moment, Bonnie and Clyde, but these actually are male and female and Bonnie is thought to be pregnant. They will hopefully know in a couple weeks time when Justin's biologist friend sends them back the results from her fecal test (yummy).

The crocs are also male and female but are only about 14 years of age. I did not know this, but crocodiles can not reproduce until they are about 24 years old and so this will still be a while!

I also found it interesting the way that the animals "deworm" and "de-tick" themselves. There is a plant that grows here in Africa that has lots of tanins. So most animals don't eat it but sometimes the zebra will eat a little bit of it to "clean themselves out" and the giraffe will strattle it basically and rub it all on their belly and in the "arm pits" of sorts to remove the fleas and ticks. So, pretty cool way to keep themselves healthy.

You'll also see pictures of our "bush camp". We pulled up to a bush, literally, and Justin said "Welcome to bush camp". He had been quite amusing all afternoon so we thought maybe he was joking but really...it's a camp...in a bush. And other than the antenae-like structure sticking out of the top of it, you wouldn't know it was anything more than a bush. It was really quite cool! And not really roughing it at all either. There was hot running water, a bathroom and a shower, and very nice sleeping accomodations. We lit hurricane lamps and candles and had a camp fire, it was rather peaceful.

We got up and drove around some more in search of the rhinos again, hoping they'd be doing something more exciting than laying around, but weren't so lucky. We had a really nice breakfast though, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and potatoes so I was happy of course!

And then Justin took us to Addo. Ali's cooperating teacher is quite the Addo and elephant lover so she was intent on taking us through Addo, so she met us there. She also got us the "hook up" because she told the ticket people we were all South African students which got us into the park for about 5 dollars vs. the international price of $30! It was a very hot day so we were fortunate because it was easy to spot the elephants...just head for the water holes. There were probably 50 elephant at the first hole we stopped at, at least 100 at the next, and maybe another 30 or so at the last one. We also had lots of elephant crossings on their way to the holes. It was awesome! We weren't allowed to get out of our cars, which was unfortunate because it was hot, and I wanted better angles for my pictures, but it was still quite stunning. That many elephants in one place was fascinating. There were elephants of all different ages and it was hilarious watching them spray water and mud all over themselves and wrestle with each other in the water. I wish I could have taken a dip myself!

At lunch, we read the story of Harpoo (I'm pretty sure that was his name...or close), one of the first elephants at Addo. He was the head male at the beginning of Addo as an elephant reserve. He sired most of the calves during the expansion from 11 elephants to almost 40. There were a couple males who tried to overthrow Harpoo during his reign, one fight ending the yonger elephant's life. Harpoo was named after the hole in his ear that was thought to be made from a bullet of a hunter. So, Harpoo held quite a hatred for humans his entire life. At one point, a cow in the heard had an absess in her foot. The rangers at the park tranquilized her with a dart to try and treat the absess but after Harpoo and another cow tried to keep the tranquilized cow standing for quite some time, when she finally fell Harpoo stabbed her four times and killed her. He was also known to charge at cars in the park and had quite a temper. However, there finally did come a male, consequently enough it was the son of the cow that Harpoo had stabbed, who ended up overthrowing Harpoo and kicking him out of the herd. He became a loner, something that did not suit him in the slightest. So, he tried to climb out and over the "elephant proof" fence and because the rangers knew he would stop at nothing they finally had to shoot him. He was somewhere around 45-55 years old and is quite the legend of the park.

There are lions, rhinos, water buffalo, and lots of other animals at Addo as well but we're guessing they were all laying low in the shade during the hot day. We did see a black backed jackal trying to get a drink at one of the watering holes but not having much luck among the gigantic elephants. But we had quite a weekend of animal sightings! It was lovely!

So, that was our hot and exciting weekend. It's about 90 here today and very sticky, it's not pleasant when you are supposed to look nice! But I guess I'll get over it. I wish I could sleep in my bush every night, that was very comfortable! Other than that, all is well here, still having a great time. Not gonna want to leave!

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Photos

Close call
If you look at the stripes on his butt they don't line up anymore, this is where a lion almost got him at one point and he must have escaped. But his stripes will never line up again.

Anteater hole
They dig in the termite mounds looking for the queen! Seems like an awful lot of work for me.

King of the moutain
They were really hard (obviously) and home to millions of termites. These were everywhere.

Bones!
These were scattered all over the park. First the lions, then the hienas, then the buzzards.

Thorny trees!
These are everywhere! They are meant to keep animals from eating them but the giraffe have it down pat.

Comments

[Laura Heil]

Jess, your pictures are amazing!! I'm so jealous! Looks like you're having a wonderful time! Don't worry, it's only freezing and gray here.

[mary jo Riley]

Hi I want to see some pictures of the Bush. You look sooo healthy. You have gotten really good with the camera. Of course, you get good at everything you set out to do. I will write more in a regular email. Love ya, Mary Jo