Noises

I swear I just heard a lion attack an elephant.

It's hard to imagine a lion being so brave. But first I heard the angriest lion roar I've ever heard. Then a loud elephant trumpet. I had never heard that before.

Maybe they were teaming up against a poacher.

I could never get used to these noises.

Lions on the loose

As I've mentioned, my house sits on a farm within Wits Rural Facility, a large gated area where many scientists, doctors and students stay while working at the hospital, Wits, or Kruger Park. We are surrounded by private game reserves that have some noisy lions that have kept me awake at night.

Two nights ago I woke up to actual roaring (rather than the sort of lion humming noises I'm used to) that sounded extremely close to my bedroom. Then Friday morning I received an SMS:

2 lions seen at Caravilla this am so don't walk around and if you have staff give them lifts.

Caravilla is the other side of WRF, maybe 1km away from my house. Susan and I nervously laughed about whether the lions knew the shortcut to our house from Caravilla, then we went on our way to work. As we rolled down the hill toward the gate we were shocked to see three lions, two white and a third tawny. These specific lions are mentioned here.

After a bit of stuttering---"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" from me, "Li-li-lions!" from Susan---I was able to reach for my camera and indiscriminately click away. They kept walking down the road, and after a moment of hesitation I decided we should follow. As we got closer all three walked into the bush to the side of the road. Two were further ahead and disappeared quickly, but one wasn't scared and eyed us as we pulled up next to her.

I was only able to get two photos where you can see her. The second one shows the side mirror so you can see how close we were.




And the close-up...


Once this lioness blended into the bush we sped down the road to alert the guards.

I saw a male lion in Kruger Park a couple months ago, but he was very distant and didn't move. Looking at these three walking down the road was awesome in the original sense of the word. They have such obvious power. I wish I had video of them walking. It was the most thrilling and scary moment of my time in South Africa.

The people sent to capture the lions found a waterbuck the lions had killed and dragged it to the road to bait them. The plan worked and all three are back in captivity. Hopefully the holes in the fence have been patched...

Where the antelope play

I see impala just about every day. Yesterday I finally captured some for you in this terribly grainy video:

They are known as "McDonalds" because of the not-so-golden arches on their rears that look just like the M.

There's also a huge male waterbuck that seems to have taken residence behind my house. I couldn't get a picture of him before he ran off, but he looks a lot like this:

Yesterday a friend and I drove to the grocery store only to find it closed at 3:00 on Sunday, so on the journey back we travelled out of our way to go to a pizza place. The pizza place was closed too, but across the street was this friendly neighborhood rhinoceros. He was in a fenced enclosure chewing on grass like just any other domesticated animal. We joked that his owner would come out with a leash when it was time to go in.

I'm sure the rhino isn't that domesticated, but I'm not sure how to explain what he was doing there. I also can't imagine he gets enough calories from the little dried grass on the ground this winter. Here's the evidence...




Plus a picture showing the mountains in the background.




Also on this trip I saw many waterbuck, antelope, warthogs, hornbills and baboons. Finding those animals has become routine so I don't write about it much.

They all look so small...

...but in real life they look large! Especially that crocodile.

Kruger Park

 
 
 
 

Babboons and hippos

plus bonus crocodile.

Kruger Park animals

Cheetahs, zebras, giraffe and wildebeast

In the hours of darkness

Last night I went to sleep early but was disturbed four times. First our house alarm was set off by some mysterious force. As far as I know the only way to set it off is to press one of the panic buttons that are placed in each room. My housemate and I were asleep so I'm not sure how that happened.

The next three times I woke up were due to a loud animal in the neighboring reserve. I think it was a lion. (EDIT: Confirmed--It was a lion, and it was very close. Maybe 1km from here.) It's sort of terrifying to wake up to the noise of an unknown but obviously large animal. Each time I opened my eyes I had a fleeting sense of panic. That feeling passes as I remember that the big five are trapped inside an even bigger fence and I'm inside a locked house, and I feel warm and secure in my bed. But as my brain starts working again, I start to process the strangeness of listening to an animal that, for me, only existed on TV. Sleeping in this bed suddenly feels foreign. My distance from home feels more real. It is a feeling that either doesn't exist or that I ignore during the day.

Saturday morning I'm planning to visit Kruger National Park for the first time. The gate is within 20 km from home. I'll go tell the neighbors to keep it down after 10pm. Readers of this blog will probably be seeing many more animal photos beginning Sunday. Maybe even an amazing video?

A poor photo of an elephant

Today I drove to Hoedspruit, about 25km north, for groceries and to get out of the house a bit. The road to Hoedspruit is bordered by private game reserves the entire way. Along that road is where I saw 5 or 6 giraffes on my way to Acornhoek from the airport. Today on my way home I saw some cars pulled over and knew they must be looking at an animal. I slowed down and looked over to see a pack of elephants at a watering hole. By the time I pulled over and got a picture, only one was left, and she/he quickly turned and left. Here is the evidence.

EDIT: Make that a herd or a parade of elephants, not a pack. These distinctions are important, as I believe there is a Jeopardy! category related to this issue.