Posts Tagged With: leopard

Big Five

We had seen four of the big five in Balule Nature Reserve and then spotted a white rhino late in the day at Kruger National Park. The big five animals are lion, elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, rhino. The term comes from when big game hunters came to Africa to hunt. Now tourists come just to shoot them on their cameras in the wild. People become obsessed about seeing them, even considering their trip unsuccessful if they don’t spot them.

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I want to see everything, not just the big 5, including birds; I have to admit I am a closeted bird watcher and can’t believe how many new birds I have seen; I have positively identified well over a hundred. Helen calls me a ‘twitcher’, a derogatory British term for bird watcher! I don’t care, I love birds.

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Yellow bill hornbill on termite hill

 

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Marshall Eagle takes flight

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Hello gorgeous. Lappet-faced Vulture

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Categories: South Africa - October 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Leopard

Out to find a leopard this morning. After some hunting around, we found the carcassĀ of a young kudu dragged under some bushes. It was a fresh kill and the predator that caused this should still be close by.

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We drove off-road through the underbrush, over fallen trees, making our own path in the bush. Behind a rock was a long black and orange spotted tail, we approached to within six feet of a male leopard with a full belly laying in the brush, clearly in a food coma, relaxing and not paying any attention to us at all.

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Categories: South Africa - October 2013 | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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