Safari Stories

The Opportunistic Predator

2009-01-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

A few years ago we had a very unfortunate incident that was bound to happen one day.

The lodge where I was working at the time was in need of renovations and new rooms were being built on to accommodate more guests.
The lodge was far from any town and so the construction workers had to stay onsite for the project.
There was no proper accommodation for the workers, so they decided the next best place to sleep would be on the ground between the Land Rovers in the garage. By the way the garage had no doors.

Early one morning at about 5 am I was woken by the sound of someone shouting and screaming from panic and pain! The sound was coming from our staff village which was unfenced and regularly had visitors of the four-legged type. This time it was a spotted hyena that came wondering through the village in search of possible food.

The construction workers who were fast asleep were unaware of the approaching hyena, when all of a sudden the hyena, using her powerful jaws, grabbed one of the men by the leg. Instead of killing him she ran off dragging the poor man behind her across the village floor.

The unfortunate victim was now wide-awake as you can imagine and started shouting and kicking at the hyena in an attempt to escape. This was all too much for the hyena, so she let go her grip and instead of running away into the bush she made a bee-line back to the garage to try her luck with a different meal. The remaining three men in the garage who were also by this time wide awake and on high alert started shouting and franticly waving their hands to try and chase the hyena away.
Their attempt worked as she made a quick u-turn and headed off back into the bush.

The construction worker that was snatched by the hyena was very lucky to be alive but did suffer from deep puncture wounds to his leg, which he had treated by a doctor in case of possible infection.

The reality of this is that incidents of this nature happen all the time in Africa with many people being injured every year as well as numerous recorded deaths by Spotted hyenas.

Life as a Game Ranger

2009-01-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

For most people going on Safari it means doing a Game Drive or Bush-walk with their Game Ranger.

The word “Game Ranger” is often used incorrectly. A Game Ranger more correctly is a person that works very hands on in the environment doing either game capture, game counts, anti-poaching or environmental analysis and has very little to do with tourists.

A Field Guide on the other hand is more involved in the Tourism Industry. To be a Field Guide is an awesome, but it isn’t as glitzy and glamorous as everyone else thinks. You get to drive a 4x4 in the wild in pursuit of the “Big 5”, and what really makes it cool is you get to walk around with a big-ass rifle while looking for dangerous game like Lion and Elephant. You’re a “Hero” in your guests’ eyes.This is all great but there are a few cons that go along with this all.

During the Summer time you need to wake up very early (4:30) to go game drive, not so cool if you’re not a morning person.

At most Lodges you host your guests at dinner. You go to bed when all the guests have gone to bed. Some guests won’t go on the early morning drive and instead party the night away, so you join the party and then do the Game drive the next morning.

The telephone is the worst invention ever. At 1 o’clock in the morning you get a phone call from one of the guests: “There’s a frog in our bathroom”. So you get up, get dressed then go remove the killer frog from their bathroom.
At 2 o’clock in the morning, next phone call, “Can we have some more milk in our mini bar please” or “What time is the wake-up call tomorrow?”

You are a Jack of all trades. You’re a plumber specializing in fixing broken or blocked toilets. You fix air-conditioners or at least try to. You learn how to work quite well with a spade when you repair the dirt roads in the reserve. You’re a Barman and a waiter and sometimes the housekeeper. Last but not least, you’re also a receptionist.

So there’s a lot to do as a Field Guide other than Game Drives and Bush-walks. But at the end of the day the pros by far out-weigh the cons and to me if you love the wild, it’s the best career ever.

Uninvited Guests

2008-12-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a really great story from a close friend of mine.

By Chris Stafford

It was a warm night, nearing the end of winter, and the group of students was tired after a day spent in the dry bush of the Pilanesberg, practicing their newly acquired bush interpretation skills. After making sure that the night watch schedule was understood by all, I went to bed early looking forward to a good night’s rest under my fig tree awning. Nature, however, had other plans and at one o’clock in the morning, a firm shake of my foot woke me, and my back up guide hissed “Wake up! We’ve got lions!”

Our group of trailists was camped at Three Trees in School Valley, and the weekend was a jointly run trail between Bushveld Training Adventures and The Wilderness Leadership School. The purpose of the weekend was to practice skills learned through the year, and to use the opportunity to introduce the students to the wonders of connecting with one of the last areas of wilderness available to us.

After scrambling out of my sleeping bag and grabbing shoes, rifle and torch (in no particular order), a quick assessment showed me that a pride of 6 female and sub adult lions were in the process of investigating our unfenced camp area. As our camp contained 2 groups at the time, my first concern was maintaining control of the students, but after all they’d learned, they proved to be quite a help, providing enough light with their torches for NASA to monitor! My back up, Graham, was keeping 3 lions at bay to the rear of the camp, the closest animal being a mere 12 meters away. Sakkie’s backup, Alan, was closely watching as another 3 animals approached our camp from the plain that we overlooked. Sakkie, having experienced this many times, mumbled something about “can’t you all just lie in bed and enjoy their presence?” as he staggered out to have a look, arming himself with a nearby stump of wood instead of the .375 rifle propped against his tree.

As Sakkie and I moved forward to confront a large lioness who had intent in her eyes, we gave instructions to two students to provide us support in the form of torch light. Our approach went smoothly until we crossed into the lioness’s comfort zone – the point where approaching humans wearing boxer shorts only became far too threatening! The response was a loud growl and a short rush, resulting in total darkness for us as the students hurdled the by now raging fire that stood in the path of their escape route. Upon finding that cocking his stump provided no meaningful result, Sakkie hurled his piece of wood at the cat, transforming her from a fierce beast into a feline version of a golden retriever! The tension of the moment was relieved as the cat satisfied her curiosity with the piece of wood instead of my leg. Eventually the lions decided that we were boring hosts, and slowly moved off down the valley.

A half hour later I was again woken by the sound of a cat fight down the valley, and a couple of minutes later our night watch raised the warning, “they’re back!” This time they filed past in a determined rush, the reason for which becoming clear a few moments later as a large male lion announced his presence with a resounding roar. With our torches we picked him out where he sat about 100 meters away, and there he stayed for the rest of the night, serenading us continually, and ensuring that we got no more sleep. What a way to welcome in the new day!

When spending time camping or trailing in big five country, you should always post a night watch. Lions are generally scared of humans, but at night their behavior changes and they can become quite inquisitive. There was no malice in our encounter with the lions, but all the same, I’d rather be awake and aware when they get that close! There is always excitement in the bush and whether it’s a battle between dung beetles, the majesty of a wilderness vista or uninvited guests in your camp, there is always something to keep you enthralled – just keep your eyes open and it will be there.

End

Buffalo Attack!!

2008-11-16T02:30:00.000-08:00

About 7 years ago in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve there was a very unfortunate incident with one of our staff members involving a buffalo bull. (For privacy reasons I will call the staff member “Alfred”, which is not his real name)

Our bush-clearing team which consisted of 7 men were out in the reserve opening up an area which had been totally encroached by Flaky thorn (acacia exuvialis).

At about 5 o’clock that afternoon it was time to return back to the lodge. Their transport which was a tractor had broken down and there was no time to try and fix it, as the sun would soon be setting. They had no radio contact at all with the lodge, so there was no choice other than to walk back home.

On the way back they could see in the distance a herd of about 250 buffaloes crossing the road ahead. Once the herd was out of sight the bush-clearers continued down the road, unaware of dangerous situation they were about to encounter.
When they reached the point where the buffaloes had crossed earlier, to their surprise there was still one more buffalo just meters away from them!
As soon as the buffalo got sight of the seven men it came charging at them with the intention to kill! The men scattered in all directions, running for the closest trees to climb and get out of reach from the buffalos thrashing horns.

One of the men (Alfred) was just too slow and before he could climb a tree in time the buffalo rammed straight into him with its horns. The buffalo dug its horn into Alfred’s stomach, just below the ribcage and then flipped him backwards over his back. Upon landing Alfred fell into a hole, possibly an aardvark burrow.
The buffalo intent on finishing the job came back again, thrashing with its horns to try and throw Alfred once again.

Alfred had the advantage of being in the hole as the buffalo couldn’t quite reach him and every time it got to close he started hitting the buffalo in the face with his elbows!
Eventually the buffalo realised he was fighting a losing battle and then turned around and walked off.

Once the buffalo bull was totally out of sight the other men left the safety of the trees to help Alfred back to the lodge a quick as they could. They wrapped clothing around his stomach to slow the blood loss and to keep his intestines from falling out.

Fortunately they were not too far from home and in no time the owner of the lodge flew Alfred in his plane to the closest hospital for assistance.
Alfred was very lucky to survive the buffalo attack but he spent the next 3 months in and out of hospital with all sorts of infections as a result of the buffaloes dirty horns been pushed into his body.

Horrifying Black Rhino Poach

2008-11-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

About 8 years a go I met a guy that worked for an anti-poaching unit in the Kruger Park region. He told me about a poaching incident, so horrifying that I then really realized that poachers have no feelings whatsoever for the animals that they slaughter.

A group of poachers with AK 47’s in hand went into one of the game reserves, obviously in search of Rhino. They came across a female Black Rhino that had a 2-week-old calf by her side. They then shot the mother, killing her (hopefully quickly). The calf out of fear then ran off to get away. The poachers cut off the mothers’ horns and then being as greedy as they were, went looking for the little calf. The calf had run into a watering hole, probably for safety but then got stuck in some thick mud.

A Rhino calf of such a young age does not really have much of a horn. It only has a very small bump on the nose where the horn starts to grow. The poachers never the less wanted the horn and when they found the calf stuck and unable to get away they just cut the horn out with out even shooting the calf!!

How can we help animals like Rhino and Elephant from being poached?
Donate money to Wildlife organizations so they can put as many anti-poaching units as possible out there to help catch these brutal poachers.

Strange Weight Questions

2008-10-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

With all the foreign tourists we have on game drive you will always get the most out of the ordinary questions. Many of the questions are very genuine, so one has to be honest and try keep a straight face when giving the answers.

I had this lady on drive one day and she was quite interested in the weight of just about everything we encounted.

The first animal we came across was a Giraffe.
The first question thrown at me was: “How much does a giraffe’s heart weigh?”
I answered: “Good question, I don’t know the answer to that but I will try find out for you.”
She replied: “I know. The Giraffe’s heart weighs 14kg.”
She was right as I found out later that a Giraffe’s heart is about 10% of it's total body weight which is roughly 14kg, for an adult

About half an hour later we came across a Dung Beetle busy rolling a ball of dung down the road. We stopped to watch the little guy in action.
The lady then asked: “How much does the dung-ball weigh?”

With that question, I thought to myself:“Okay lets try get a bit technical about dung balls.”
I answered: “Well, the weight of the dung-ball depends on a number of different factors. Firstly it depends on which animal the dung is from. Buffalo dung has a higher density than Elephant dung and is thus heavier.
Secondly it depends on the time of the year, as the dung will be heavier in the higher rainfall season as there is more moisture in the plants that the animals eat. This all makes it rather difficult to give the exact answer on the dung-balls weight.”
She then asked me again in response: “How much does it weigh?”
So I climbed of the Land Rover, took the Dung Beetle off its ball, held the dung-ball in my hand asif trying to weight it, and then told her: “It weighs 20 grams.”
She was happy with the answer so we then continued with the game drive.

One will always get a curve-ball of a question every now and again and that’s cool as it makes the game drives more interesting.

The Brave Hyena

2008-10-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

One morning while out on a game drive in the Kruger National Park, we decided to take a coffee and leg-stretch break. I parked the Land Rover in the shade of a large Weeping Boer Bean tree in the middle of a beautiful open plain.

While sipping away on our coffees and nibbling on the rusks my tracker noticed a dark shaded figure in the distance, moving slowly down the road towards us.

As it got closer we noticed it was a Spotted Hyena! My guest’s first reaction was to jump into the Land Rover to get out of harm’s way, but before they did this I told them there was no need to do that as the hyena was on its own and would be no threat to us. Gradually the hyena got closer and closer.

It was very well aware of our presence but seemed the least but worried or afraid. Eventually it stopped just 4 or 5 meters away from us, lay down and started chewing on a bone of some sort.

It was absolutely amazing! It was not bothered at all about us being there, even when we started talking and taking photographs of it. After about five minutes of bone chewing it stood up and casually walked away.

It was by the best animal sighting we had that morning. The bush is always full of surprises.

Ranger bitten by Cobra

2008-10-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

About 1 year ago there was terrible incident at one of our neighbouring game reserves.

An Egyptian cobra was found in the lodge and obviously being a safety hazard to the guests, had to be removed. One of the rangers that was there at the time decided to try and catch the snake and in the process he was bitten on the hand!

He held on to the snake and very calmly went to his house, which was at the lodge to go fetch a bag to put the snake into. He needed to take the snake to the hospital with him to make a positive identification on it so as to be given the right treatment.

About ten minutes after the bite one of the other staff members found the ranger dead outside of his car with the snake inside a bag next to him!
He was either bitten in a main artery, sending the venom straight to his heart or possibly even allergic to bees as normally a bite from an Egyptian cobra takes about an hour or two to kill the average person.

People that are allergic to bees often have a worse reaction to certain snake venoms and can die earlier as a result

Ranger Attacked by Lion in the Kruger National Park

2008-10-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning 10 October, a trails ranger in the Kruger National Park was on a bush-walk with a group of tourists when they came across a lioness with cubs.

The ranger gave the Lioness a wide berth which would normally get one out of danger but unfortunately was not enough. The lioness came charging out from behind a bush at the group! Even after two warning shots the lioness still got hold of the ranger and started biting his arms and scratching him all over the rest of his body and face.

The second ranger that was on the trail had taken the tourists to a safe point and returned and fired off 6 warning shots at the lioness which was enough to scare her away.

A helicopter was then called in to airlift the ranger to a nearby hospital outside the Kruger Park to receive treatment.

Awesome Lion Footage: Lions vs Elephants, Lion Attacking Hyenas! and the Battle at Kruger.

2008-10-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

Do Giraffe hunt in packs?

2008-10-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Since I've been guiding I've been asked this same question 3 times before and by 3 different people. The first time I was asked, I thought it was just a funny question, but after been asked for a third time I started to wonder why I keep getting the same question all the time.

Well. I found out why.

It all began a few years ago when a group of tourists out on a game drive with their game ranger came upon a dead Impala up in a tree. It was the kill from a Leopard and the Leopard had hung it there, which they often do.
There was no Leopard to be seen, so the Ranger told the guests as a joke that it was a Giraffe that had hung the Impala in the tree.

You see, Giraffe don't eat leaves as everyone else thinks, instead thay are vicious carnivores hunting as a team and once they catch their prey, they hold it by the head in their mouths and beat it against the trees and the ground until dead. They then hang the prey up in a tree to keep it away from the Hyenas and Jackals so they can feed on it at leisure. (This is obviously not true)

This story spread like fire, leading many other people to believe it. It got so out of hand that many other guides were telling the same story when they came across abandoned Leopard kills. The Head-Ranger of the game reserve, where it all started eventually had to tell all the rangers to stop telling the silly story.

So now you know.

Strange & Funny Questions

2008-10-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

All the questions below are 100% true even if you don't believe so. These are questions that myself and other rangers have been asked while on game drives and on bush-walks.

1) Do Giraffe hunt in packs?
2) Do Rhino's have nests in trees?
3) Do Rhino eat meat?
4) How many eggs do Hippo lay?
5) Is that mother a female?
6) Do you find animals on the left-hand side of the road?
7) Why are Elephants big?
8) Why does the Buffalo have a light-grey colour around its' rectum?
9) Do you think we will see a Tiger today?
10) What is that!? Answer: Its' the Elephants' penis.

DON'T RUN!!.....YEAH RIGHT!!

2008-09-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

One early afternoon on Ilkley Game Ranch, one of the guys from our anti-poaching unit knocked on my door and asked if I’d like to join him for a bush walk. Always keen for a walk, I decided to join.
Being a hot summer’s day we made a bee-line for a dry river-bed, to walk in the shade.

Not long into the walk, we came across some very fresh tracks of two Elephant bulls, so we took on the challenge of trying to find them.
The tracks were very clear and easy to follow as they had walked in the thick sand all the way along the river and within an hour we had sight of them resting in the shade of some large trees.
As we got closer we noticed a large termite mound right on the river’s edge with an old and very large tree stump protruding from it. The termite mound would serve as a great viewing point as it was downwind from the elephants, we could hide behind the tree stump if necessary and being right on the river’s edge, it was very steep on the one side from all the water erosion, which would prove very difficult for the elephant to climb up on.

For about an hour we sat very quietly watching the sleeping elephants when all of a sudden one of the bulls lifted his trunk to sniff the air. The wind had changed direction and he had picked up our scent! Being curious about the new smell, he decided to follow it and slowly made his way towards us. We had a good 50 meters before he would reach us, which gave us enough time to decide our next move. We decided to stay on the termite mound and hide behind the tree stump in hope that the elephant would soon lose interest.

A minute or so later there we were, the elephant on the one side of the termite mound and us on the opposite side sitting very anxiously behind our stump, wishing the elephant away. All we could hear was the sniffing of his trunk just 4 or 5 feet away! Fortunately we were out of his reach as the bull was standing in the river bed on the steep side of the mound.

After about two very anxious minutes waiting, the elephant turned around and walked away, or at least we thought so. The bull had found a pathway leading out of the river bed and before we knew it, he had sight of us and came running full steam towards us!
The ‘book’ says “DON’T RUN!!”.......YEAH RIGHT!!, if we had tourists with us we would have stood our ground but not on this day, so we took the chance to make a run for it as the surface of the riverbed was very uneven and filled with potholes and just 20 meters away from us was a very narrow but long trench which we could jump across and the elephant obviously not.
We jumped off the termite mound and at the speed of lightning ran as fast as we could while hopping over the potholes and in Olympic-style, long-jumped over the trench where we came to a halt.

Not 5 seconds later there he was, the elephant bull, standing on the opposite side of the trench, trumpeting like mad and not too happy of course.

With a sigh of relief and a clean pair of jocks needed we walked away from our unhappy friend and made our way straight back home.

Man vs Lion

2008-09-27T15:07:00.001-07:00

Funny Wildlife Videos

2008-09-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Naughty Nine

2008-09-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

I started working at my first lodge in August 1998, in a small Game Reserve called Ilkley Game Ranch. It was the perfect start for my career as the only dangerous game we had on the property was Leopard and Hyena.

Well I thought it was pretty safe until one day to our surprise we had 9 very large long-nosed creatures appear in front of the Lodge!
This was a heard of 9 elephant that had pushed over the fence of our neighboring property, Thornybush Game Reserve and made there way onto Ilkley Game Ranch. Awesome!! Elephant on Ilkley!!

It was pretty cool when they first arrived, especially for the game drives and bush walks but we soon realized why they were called the “Naughty Nine”. The matriarch of the herd was hand-reared as a youngster and introduced into a reserve in the Northern Province where she eventually started her own heard. The matriarch and the rest of her herd were relocated to the Thornybush Game Reserve where they showed us just how naughty they could be.

The elephants’ favorite game was to push over the game reserve fences. Even with the fences being electrified this was no problem to them. They would simply test the fence buy touching each individual wire with their trunks until they found strands that didn’t shock and then pull at these strands until the fence was ripped out the ground. The elephants went where ever they liked.

For the next five months to come I had the extra job of guarding the lodge by chasing the elephants away from the kitchen. The matriarch having been hand raised as a youngster knew that Lodge kitchens have an abundance of fresh fruit, just ready for the taking.

One early morning the elephants caught me off guard and to my shock when I arrived at the Lodge I found that the kitchen had been ransacked by the elephants! All the windows had been smashed from trying to reach the food on the kitchen counters, the front double-door was lying on the floor, the cupboard doors were ripped off and the fridge was also open!
I thought is looked bad enough when the Vervet Monkeys get into the kitchen to feast, but wait till you see what 3 baby elephants can do.

The next five months with the elephants on Ilkley Game Ranch were very exhausting but all very much worth it.

Elephant Attack!!

My Fist Lion Charge

2008-09-11T04:58:00.001-07:00

I will never forget the first time I was charged by a lioness.
One of the lionesses from a pride called the Molowati Pride (In the Sabi Sand Game Reserve) had left the rest of her family to give birth in a hidden place.

One morning we found her tracks going in and out of the same dry riverbed where she more than likely had hidden her cubs. Unfortunately it was not allowed for anyone to walk in this particular riverbed as the vegetation was very thick and some of the rangers in the past had been charged by lion and leopard numerous times in this riverbed.
We were so excited about having new lion cubs in the reserve, so we decided to break the rules and go look for the cubs. There were three of us, myself and two other guides (Mike & Jaco), Mike walked in the front as he had the best tracking ability, while Jaco and I walked behind him just looking carefully to see if we could spot the lioness.

It was not long, maybe 15 minutes of walking when all of a sudden there was a loud and deep growl followed by the lioness crashing out of the bushes like a torpedo straight towards us!
From the time we heard the growl it took her maybe 2 or 3 seconds to get to us. Fortunately she stopped about 15 meters in front of us, growling and spitting, not happy about our presence there.
This being my first lion charge was not what I expected as I thought I would turn my pants brown, but this was not the case as the adrenaline rush from all the excitement seems to keep you calm, as there we stood the three of us chatting away discussing how we were going to get the Land Rover into the same spot to possibly view the cubs.

Once we had planned our route in, we slowly walked away from the lioness, facing her all the time. When we were about 50 meters away from her she turned away and went back to her cubs.
When we back to the Land Lover, that’s when the nerves kicked in resulting in unstoppable shakes. That was awesome!! What a rush!!

Well we managed to see the cubs, two beautiful females just a few days old.

Leopard in the House!!

2008-09-06T02:02:00.000-07:00

This unexpected event took place in a private home within a reserve that borders the Kruger National Park.

One early morning a very old male leopard by the name of “one-eye” decided to explore a bit further in search of food than he normally did. Instead of looking for animals to hunt in the bush, he obviously thought he chances of catching something would be better in the residence of one of the local game rangers.
The ranger’s wife who was home at the time, left the house for 2 minutes and upon returning was absolutely shocked to see a leopard walking out of the house with one of their two pet bull terriers in its mouth! So in a space of just 2 minutes the leopard had walked into their home, killed both of their bull terriers and was on his way out to enjoy his meal elsewhere.
The room where the dogs were killed was the same room where the owner’s two-year-old baby normally slept. Fortunately for them the baby was not in the room at the time. Unfortunately the leopard was destroyed as they couldn’t take the chance of the leopard coming back to look for more.

This just goes to show you just how powerful and lethal a leopard really is, even if it is old.

Eat and be eaten

2008-09-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I worked with a ranger that had one of the most out of the ordinary sightings while out on a game drive.
I won't mention what the game rangers' name is, so I'll just call him Mike.
Mike had just left the lodge for the early morning game drive and was driving along the boundary fence of the game reserve. In the distance along the fence they could see a big male Lion, the Lion had killed something and was busy eating it. The question was, what was it? Whatever he was eating was pure white in colour.
As Mike approached the Lion he then could see that it was feasting on the chef of their Lodge!

The chef apparently had been stealing meat from the lodge and would then walk through the bush to give it to his friends on the other side of the fence. He obviously chose the wrong night to do this as the Lion probably followed the scent of the meat until he found the chef and then made a meal of him.

Moral of the story: DON'T STEAL!!

Charged by 3 of the Big 5 in 7 minutes!

2008-09-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

This story may sound bizarre or even difficult to believe. Believe it or not but it is VERY TRUE.

One of the duties as a game ranger in most lodges is to knock on the guests’ room doors to wake them up for the early morning game drive. Normally you don’t come across any dangerous animals when doing the wake-up but every once in a while you’ll come across an un-welcomed visitor, especially if there is no electric fence around the lodge.

It was summer time and we were waking the guests up at 05:00. At that time of the morning you still needed to walk with a torch (flash-light), as it was still a bit dark.
The rangers use to take turns to do the wake-ups and it was Mike’s turn this time.

Mike had woken up two of the rooms already and was on his way to wake up the rest of the lodge. He was still half asleep himself, but not for long as when approached the main lodge building a huge Elephant bull came charging out towards him! Mike shouted out at the Elephant. Fortunately it stopped charging and then turned around and walked out of the Lodge.

The last two rooms at the lodge were always an adventure to walk too as you had to cross over a small bridge through some thick vegetation to get to them.
Just as Mike was about to walk onto the bridge a Leopard came charging out at him! Mike started shouting again, loud enough to chase the Leopard off. At this stage Mike was very much awake.

Eventually he managed to knock on the last guests’ door. The guests were awake already and when they heard the knock they quickly opened up and told Mike that they had seen a Lioness outside their room just minutes earlier. Mike then told them that it must have been a Leopard as he had just seen one.

The guests closed the door and as Mike started walking off, a Lioness came charging out straight towards him! She stopped about 10 meters in front of him. She just stood there growling at him and then suddenly out of the dark came the Leopard. The Leopard stopped about 7 meters to Mikes’ right side also growling as well.
Fortunately Mike had a weapon, he then pointed it at the Lioness, started shouting and ran straight towards her. Luckily that was enough to chase both the Lioness and the Leopard away.

Later that morning, after game drive the guests told me about their adventure that morning with the Lioness and the Leopard.

At about 04:30 they heard the sound of an Impala (antelope) outside their room. It sounded like something was killing it. The husband then got up to look through the window to see what was happening. It was the Leopard and it had just killed the Impala. With all the noise that the Impala had made it had attracted the interest of the Lioness. The Lioness came sprinting in and chased the Leopard off the now dead Impala.

The Lioness then saw the guest staring through the window at her, and with that she then charged at him, stopping right outside the window! She then turned around and went back to the Impala to start feasting.

Yip. Another day in Africa.

Leopard Attacks Park Ranger!!

Black Rhino Charge

2008-09-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

One thing I do Love about the Kruger National Park is the vast areas between all the roads, this makes it such an awesome Game Reserve to do bush-walks in. When I worked in Kruger we would just drive around until we found a Hippo or Rhino pathway, then walk these paths to see what beautiful areas we could find.

One morning I was doing a walk with 4 guests on a well worn Hippo trail. We decided to stop for a short coffee break on the edge of a small plain. Just after we had finished our coffee I found some fresh foot prints for a Hyena.

While I was busy explaining the Hyena tracks to the guests I noticed something moving through the bush on the opposite side of the plain. At first I thought it was a lone Buffalo, but I then realized it was a Black Rhino! The problem with Black Rhino is that it doesn’t take much for them to charge. Luckily we were down wind from the Rhino and it was not on the plain yet, so I quickly told the guests that we should make a run for the closest thick vegetation to hide away before the Rhino got onto the plain and saw us.

Just as we ran off of the plain the Black Rhino must have seen us and with that it started to charge straight towards us! We had a good head-start on the Rhino, maybe 80 meters, so we managed to get behind a thick bush before it got sight of us again. A few seconds later you could hear the Rhino’s feet stopping on the ground as it came running towards us. Fortunately we were out of sight and he ran right past us. Once he had passed all you could hear was the snorting and blowing sound it made while looking for us. We waited for a while, just to make sure he wasn’t around anymore and once safe we made a bee-line for the Land Rover incase it decided to come back our way.

The funny thing about the whole event was that when it was all over I couldn’t help but notice that one of the guests had only half of her clothes on. I asked her why her clothes were off. She then told me that she had once read in a book: “when you are charged by a Rhino you should take off your clothes and throw them behind you. The smell and sight of the clothing with then distract the Rhino, giving you a head run to get away.”

I don’t know if this is true although it does make sense but it would not work in our situation as while we were running away from the Rhino, the husband of the woman was running behind her catching and picking up all the clothes off the ground.

Lions on Foot in the Kruger National Park.

2008-09-05T04:21:00.000-07:00

It was one of those days when we had no guests in camp, so we headed out to go do some much needed road maintenance. There were six of us (3 Rangers and 3 Trackers).
While busy fixing one of the roads one of the trackers noticed a large number of vultures sitting in trees about 400 meters off the road. With so many vultures around there had to be a kill of some sort.
The curiosity was eating us away so we decided to take a walk in to see what the vultures were looking at.
All we had were 2 spades, a panga (machete) and one of the Rangers had a kattie (sling-shot) on him.

Once we got to where the vultures were we would stop then listen very carefully for the sound of something maybe eating, look carefully around, walk a few more steps then look and listen again.

Eventually we were surrounded by at least 200 vultures in the trees.
Suddenly there was a loud growling sound from behind us! We whipped around to look, and saw 2 big male lions about 30 meters away! We had walked right passed them without even seeing them! As they stood there growling, 3 other male lions stood up from out of the long grass and started growling as well. It was the most amazing powerful sound, it sounded like 5 V8 engines revving it up, you could feel your chest vibrating.

One of the trackers tried to make a run for it, and with that we grabbed him by his collar to stop him from running. When in a situation like this you can’t run as it shows the lion that you are afraid. “When the mouse runs the cat chases.”
Slowly we started walking away from the lions facing them all the time until we were a good 80 meters away. They just stood there growling and eventually stop when we were out of sight.

Once back on the road we got into the Land Rover and then drove back to where the lions were. The lions had killed an adult Giraffe. We managed to find the rest of the pride, another 16 females and youngsters.