Big cats of Kruger

Now to the animals that everyone has been waiting for- the big cats!

Check out those teeth!!!

This lion decided that he was tired after his big roaring session (to be posted later when CP finishes with the videos), so he decided to lay down on the pavement.

Two female lions walking in unison.



We came across this male lion and a female lion (not in this picture) together. Our guide told us that if a male and female are separated from the rest of the pride, it means that they are mating. They do this for 4 to 5 days EVERY 20 MINUTES. Wow.

CP takes good photographs.....

We came across this bunch of mothers and cubs laying down by the river. Adorable.

This adolescent male lion decided to play with a stick he found on the ground. He and Fuzzy Britches would be best friends! :-)

We came across this pride as they were trying to chase a giraffe. Sadly they lost....as that would have been really fun to see.

The cubs of the pride recovered well by playing with their mothers....as this one is doing.

We spotted this former impala hanging in a tree. When leopards kill something, they haul it up a tree so that lions and other animals are not able to steal it. There wasn't much of this kill left, but often a leopard won't eat the animal in one sitting.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see the leopard that killed this impala.

However, we did get to see this hyena at the bottom of the tree waiting for the former impala to drop so that he could eat the leftovers. He was a very patient animal....




We also came across this hyena a different day....he ran into a hole and let out his hyena cackle....which oddly enough DID sound like a crazy laugh.

Although we didn't get to see a leopard, we did spot two cheetahs. They weren't doing much because it was hot and the middle of the day, but cheetahs are usually harder to see than leopards, so we were pretty psyched to see them. I kept calling them "Chester" and asking if they had any Cheetos. Yes, I am 10 years old.

Heavy animals of Kruger

This is the last week of honeymoon pictures....then we will be back to our regular-scheduled programming. :-)

CP used his fish-eye lens for this picture. Gives you an idea of what we looked at while searching for animals. However, within a mile the terrain could turn into red soil with no grass on the ground.

This elephant was in the middle of shaking water off his head. To the left of him (not pictured) were hippos and he was having fun throwing water and mud on them. Why? Simply because he could.

This is a man-made watering hole and as you can see, elephants get pretty desperate when they need water. The two biggest killers of elephants? Humans and drought.

This herd of mothers and babies just crossed the river (which is why the lower half of them is darker in color). The babies had a bit of trouble getting up the slope in the middle.

Black and white close up. Check out those eyelashes!



A ridonkulously large elephant- with a broken tusk!

Baby elephant

We came across this white rhino just as he was finishing marking his territory. Basically, they take huge poops, then step in it and walk all over their territory. Lovely.

Rhino close up

Mother and baby rhinos running away from us.

It is VERY rare to see a black rhino- there are only 350 in the park. Unfortunately, we came across this dead one with a crocodile getting ready to eat it (a rhino's butt is the softest part of its body so the crocodile starts there). :-(

Larger animals of Kruger

On to some of the larger animals of Kruger....

Female Kudu.

Male Kudu- their horns are so cool!

Reedbuck- another rare sighting in Kruger.

Impala. They are ALL OVER Kruger. Our guide called them JAFIs (Just Another F*ing Impala). LOL.

Waterbuck.

Zebras.

Buffalo. I kept wanting to call them "water buffalo" for some odd reason. I really liked their ears.

Blue wildebeest. CP did not mess with the color of this photograph at all.

Baby hippos with birds on their back.

Hippos fighting in the water. Hippos are actually the number one killer of people in the park every year. People don't realize that they are fast (at least in covering short distances).... and then it's too late. They also have ridonkulously powerful jaws.

Giraffe just hanging out. Giraffes have horrible eyesight so they actually walk towards you to figure out whether they should be scared of you or not.

Giraffes are hilarious. Gotta love the black tongue!

Medium-sized animals of Kruger

Continuing with honeymoon pictures.....

A large lizard.

This is a community spider. Hundreds (or even thousands) of spiders work together to create this web. *shudder*

Warthogs. They were pretty funny creatures. When they were scared, they would run away with their tails straight up in the air. This is because they have poor eyesight and need to follow each other into the brush. They also were poorly designed in that they have to get on their knees in order to search for food.

Chacma baboon heading up a tree.

Baby chacma baboon

Baby chacma baboon being adorable.

Vervet monkey. These guys were hilarious- mainly because they have blue balls. This resulted in a large number of jokes at their expense. Oh, and they also liked to play with themselves.

A rare sighting of a female ostrich in Kruger. She was running away from the male ostrich playing hard to get.

This poor male ostrich (also a rare sighting in Kruger) ran after the female ostrich, trying to court her. We saw him do his preening/ mating dance for her (twice), but you will have to wait for the video for that as it is hard to tell what he is doing in the picture. There was a second female ostrich that CP didn't get a picture of, but she was basically chasing after the male ostrich. Poor female ostrich couldn't give herself away!

This crocodile caught a catfish in the water and then was promptly chased by an even bigger croc! Eventually, this guy had to release the fish...otherwise he risked getting eaten by the bigger croc.

Birds of Kruger

Our first day in Africa we were groggy and tired of plane flights. Our flight into Johannesburg (Joburg) from JFK was 14.5 hours, the headset wasn’t working very well and CP has a hard time sleeping on planes. I tried to pull the “we are on our honeymoon- are there better seats you could put us into?” ploy, but the South African airline employees weren’t having it.

After a three hour layover in Joburg, we hopped on a prop plane for the short flight to Nelspruit. Our lodge outside of Kruger National Park was beautiful. We stayed in one of the bush chalets- a two-story cottage with a queen bed on the bottom floor, two twin beds on the top floor and two bathrooms. The Lodge even left a bottle of champagne as a congratulations gift!

Kruger National Park is known for being the best place to see the “Big Five” animals: elephants, lions, rhinoceros, leopards, and buffalo. These animals were named the “Big Five” because they were the most dangerous animals for hunters and poachers to kill. The gates open at 5:30am in the Spring and it is best to get there early to try to catch some of the nocturnal animals before they head to bed under a tree for the day.

On to what you REALLY want to see- pictures!* Today's post will focus on the many birds we saw in Kruger- there are over 500 different species in the park!

Cape Glossy Starling

Cape Glossy Starling in flight

Weaver

Weaver in flight

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

This guy especially loved to mug for the camera....despite his old-looking face.

Pearl-spotted owl

The smallest owl in Kruger.

Lilac-breasted Roller




Lilac-breasted roller in flight (and food in his mouth)

Kingfisher

Guinea fowl

Grey go-away birds

Goliath Heron

Egyptian Geese (one in flight) with hippos in the water

Crowned Eagle

Crested Barbet

African Hawk Eagle


*All pictures were taken by CP. He has a natural eye for photography (I admit, I am a bit biased). The videos that I shot will be in a later post. :-)