Krugerpark on The Singemonkey

September 12, 2024

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 21:25:19 +0000

Long and lovely day. Goodnight.

February 14, 2023

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:12:11 +0000

A mess of hippos.

January 16, 2023

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 09:19:35 +0000

The Lowveld in summer mist. This kind of landscape is generally called ‘savannah woodland’ as far as I know. It’s not the open savannah grassland you find in much of East Africa. Beautiful bushveld trees are everywhere - making up in perfection of form what they lack in height and girth.

I see the potential to reverse the annihilation of natural spaces like this, done in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the population peaks this century and agriculture becomes denser and more efficient - allowing more and more land to be released back into a natural state. This is the flip side to the ecological doom that looms ahead. At this point we could go either way. If the people with the money decide, we know it will only go one way.

January 14, 2023

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 12:27:52 +0000

Little fruitbats dangling themselves to sleep in Satara restcamp. I think they’re probably Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruitbats. They’re about the size of my fist. When they’re settling themselves down they look like someone struggling in a sack.

January 12, 2023

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:15:28 +0000

A new zebra. They’re fluffy and their stripes are rather brown at this age.

January 11, 2023

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:32:01 +0000

Our cancellation-surfing approach to staying in Kruger worked less well than in other years we’ve done it. We ended up pinballing between camps a fair bit. Who can say why? Are more people doing it now? Are there companies grabbing cancellations and reselling? Or is it just the ‘post’-pandemic situation? Hard to say. It makes it a less appealing prospect for future trips, for sure.

January 09, 2023

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:33:58 +0000

Two large, impressive vultures. The lower bird is a Lappet-Faced Vulture which sports the largest wingspan of any non-seabird in Southern Africa. A huge, powerful vulture that’s able to tear open carcasses to the benefit of slighltly smaller vultures like the White-Backed Vulture shown landing here.

January 08, 2023

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:50:58 +0000

But when these doggos aren’t ripping impala lambs apart without bothering to kill them first, they’re very sweet and sociable. These painted wolves made a cuddle puddle under a bush to wait out the rain with the reassurance of family all around. Though they’re obviously vulnerable to lions, they’re not easily taken unawares with many ears and noses at work for their common defence.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 16:07:11 +0000

Painted Wolves (aka African Wild Dogs aka Cape Hunting Dogs) are the most desired large predator sighting in Kruger Park by regular visitors. We’ve been fantastically lucky to see them on most visits in the last decade. Packs are frequently wiped out by diseases of domestic dogs. Only the slow process of evolution or a genetic vaccine will restore them to the numbers they enjoyed in the late 19th Century.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 15:42:47 +0000

The Saddle-Billed Stork. I was delighted to find that the Indian Black-Necked Stork is a close cousin who’s eschewed the clown makeup for a gothic, vampire look. The perfect contrast.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 15:37:10 +0000

Dogs are always dogs. They love to play. They love to support and socialise. The painted wolf second from right has clearly been released from a poacher’s snare by the brilliant South African National Parks Board Staff. Despite the ugly gash, closeups reveal that it’s scarring over and healing nicely.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:38:54 +0000

I’d guess a lot of South Africans would be surprised to know we have indigenous parrots. This busy, curious little bird is the Brown-Headed Parrot. In some cities you can see Rose-Ringed Parakeets. But they’re the descendants of escaped pets. And they thrive in urban environments as they have for thousands of years in their native India. But this is a true Southern African parrot.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:27:06 +0000

Two cheetah brothers. In the second pic you can see the one brother calling the other down from his pedestal in his surprising cat-like high meow.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:20:17 +0000

A Burchell’s Coucal. The “rain bird.” Here drenched in rain. @withoutaleaf and I were laughing so hard at the Robert’s Birds description of its habits. This species is an absolute hot mess. Pure chaos.

December 29, 2022

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:15:44 +0000

The sportiest and slinkiest. The African Cheetah. Two brothers using the way markers outside Orpen rest camp as viewpoints and scent marking them. Seeing cheetahs in Kruger is special. Seeing them clearly and close is magic.

December 24, 2022

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:22:18 +0000

Monkeys. Genuinely fun. Especially when they come in different sizes.

December 24, 2022

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:19:33 +0000

Dawn impala. I’m trying some new camera settings and they take a bit of getting used to. Quite a bit of noise on this one. Correctible with care. But I didn’t need a very high shutter-speed for this kind of thing.

December 24, 2022

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:16:19 +0000

Dawn in the African bushveld style.

December 24, 2022

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 12:14:10 +0000

Oh hai! Guess where we are again.

October 28, 2022

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:28:03 +0000

Looking through some pics to make some prints and I discovered this lion pic from 2018. They really are strange-looking cats. Very long and lean. I guess they’re built for more endurance than Tigers and most other cats that are ambush hunters. Lions have to keep up with prey for longer periods of time, I think.

October 24, 2021

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 11:59:51 +0000

The Cape Buffalo - or African Buffalo. It has a far more violent reputation than most of its Asian cousins - especially the Water Buffalo which has been widely domesticated and provides mozzarella for your pizza. This buffalo has never been domesticated. It’s simply too strong and fierce. Of course they start off pretty cute.

September 15, 2021

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:06:33 +0000

A first for me: the eerie Bathawk (if I’m not mistaken). I WAS MISTAKEN. It’s apparently a brown morph Honey Buzzard. Well there you go… Who knows what circumstances in its youth led to an ordinary hawk leading a double life fighting crime in this frightening guise?

We’re home after the usual exhausting trip across the country - notwithstanding a wonderful time in Jozi with @sophdex, @ezlemoen, some lovely parents, and many cats and dogs. It took all of one minute in Observatory during which we were both inside for some rando to try steal the lens which this picture was taken with out of the car. He was most offended that I was suggesting that his reaching into the car, opening a bag, and trying to secret the lens under his arm implied that he might have been attempting to steal it. The nerve of me to suggest such a thing! I think he actually believed himself too.

September 12, 2021

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 18:58:55 +0000

Impala Lilies are blooming in The Kruger National Park in spring.

September 12, 2021

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 18:47:59 +0000

Another very common bird in The Kruger National Park: The Yellow-Billed Hornbill. And again, although they’re everywhere, they’re always fun. So full of arch, suspicious character and long glides just at windscreen level.

January 26, 2021

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 18:23:29 +0000

It’s not hard to love the warthog. Knee-high to most of the things you see on the savannahs and deserts of sub-Saharan Africa. Tough as nails. Trotting along with their maned and whiskered piglets in a train, their tails up like flags. Or down on their wrists nosing in the dirt. Unlovely but loveable - they’re jaunty endurance in the face of powerful challenges.

This, like the last one, was taken in 2012.

September 28, 2020

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:15:03 +0000

Our painted wolf is the most dramatic dog in the world. Like their distant cousins in the frigid North, they’re superb pack hunters. Even at this early age, they learn to work together as the most lethal mammalian hunting team there is. Unfortunately, they have no resistance against canine distemper that inevitably spreads among them from domestic dogs - wiping out entire packs at a stroke and reducing the numbers of this apex predator to a handful. Perhaps one day they’ll figure out a genetic vaccine that can be passed down from mother to pup. This is an old one from December 2012.

December 26, 2019

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:04:00 +0000

A waterbuck bull. It has big horns and a ring around its butt. What’s not to like?

December 25, 2019

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 19:06:23 +0000

This was the second leopard posing on our drive this afternoon. We only stopped for a few minutes for this one because it was 20 minutes to gate closing. The other one that @withoutaleaf photographed was even more amazing.

December 25, 2019

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 09:06:48 +0000

There have been heavy rains. We’ve never seen Kruger this green before. Photos can’t convey the glowing, emerald green of parts of the Southern Park. The animals look like they’re in one of those English ‘safari parks.

December 27, 2018

Thu, 27 Dec 2018 08:37:34 +0000

It’s hot in the Kruger Park. Yesterday was 42 degrees. Today is predicted for 44 (as usual, I have no idea what that is in loony units - join civilization and go metric). Everything we saw on our drive from Malalane to Skukuza was moving slow in the boil. Birds were panting in the trees. If anyone can say what this dark brown eagle is, I’d appreciate it. Brown eagles are my Waterloo.