Some Animals of the Kruger National Park

I was fortunate enough to spend a few days touring the Kruger National Park with friends (further to a workshop there) last week and here are some images from this amazing piece of untamed Africa (an area larger than Wales or Israel).

Zebra gather at the waterhole

Vervet monkeys

a contemplative young baboon

African Buffalo - here a bull quietly grazes. Reportedly the most dangerous animal in the park - 750Kg of muscle and attitude.

Well-fed and sleeping lions

The white rhino (some impala in the background)

A young elephant enjoys a mouthful of blossom and leaves .... and thorns (which is one good reason for not running over their dung on the road as significant thorns pass through). 

An impala caught in the evening light

A distant male lion.

A handsome warthog

A couple of male impala square up to each other

Rutting like this occurs in early winter (which this is)

Burchell's Zebra [Equus burchelli]

The extraordinary face and gait of a spotted hyena -
once mistakenly thought to be exclusively a scavenger they are now recognised as very successful predators. Working in well coordinated packs they can take animals as large as giraffes and even drive lions from their kills. (They can also open the back doors of cars.) More of them in a future blog.

A dwarf mongoose

The tallest animal - the giraffe - reaching 5.5m and able to feed in the tree tops

A kudu female

The giraffes in Kruger are the South African subspecies

The blue wildebeast or gnu

Another white rhino - note the little feathered hitchhikers on his back

Giraffes at the river

An African Crocodile

And finally

A hungry hippo and friends

Also encountered but no good pictures achieved -
banana bat
black backed jackal
leopard - with its kill (an impala)
honey badgers
bushbabies
steenbuck
nyala
genet


Thanks to Jamie for making the arrangements and also to him and Nigel for driving.

Still to come - Birds of the Kruger and A Gathering of Elephants