Birdies Part 2

When we moved here it was April, the beginning of fall.  There were 2 abandoned nests, from some bird or other, falling apart on the walls above both the front and back patios. 
Given that the house had been empty for so long we weren't sure if they would be back in the summer, but we were hopeful. 

Flash forward 5 months to September.  I'm out in the braai and a small bird flies right under the balcony and hovers for a fraction of a second then flies away again. A few minutes later the same thing.  I was so excited that I grabbed my phone for a quick video.

It went on like this for weeks.  Birds, we thought 4 of them, would do a low fly in, hover in various spots under the balcony and fly off again. I set up my camera trying to get a good shot so I could identify what kind of bird they were. 

Not a great shot, but we were able to identify them as lesser striped swallows. 

After about 3 weeks we found this on the wall.

Just a few splotches of something and some peck marks that were the same shape as the nests we had seen when we moved in.  It was like they had drawn a blueprint on the wall.  Cool.

After weeks of flying and hovering they had started building.  They were partially through the first nest and it was accidentally knocked off by a worker.  They started again in the exact same spot.  That one fell down too.  They started a third time but moved the nest over about 10cm.  It took about 1 1/2 weeks to finish.

It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  They would fly up with their mouths so full of mud that they couldn't even close their beaks.  They must have had it all the way down to their gullet because when they started to cough it up onto the nest I couldn't believe how much was in there.  Here is a photo of them in the building process.

I won't bore you with all the photos, I took several every day to document their progress :)  This was the final product.

You can see, to the bottom left, the mud stains from the first two tries.  I found it so interesting that the mud is in different shades.  Obviously from different locations. It made me wonder was the darker mud more like clay so the base of the nest is more sturdy?  I have no idea, but I makes me appreciate mother nature even more than I ever did.

Just before we left for Canada we thought that the eggs must have been laid.  We were sad that we would miss the hatching, but looked forward to coming back to PE to see the little swallows.

Sure enough when we came back there were 4 little ones already fledged and flying around.  Here are 3 of them are perched on our back door.

Not long after we got home I opened up the accordion doors to the back yard.  It really opens up the whole back wall of the lounge area to the outside.  Well the poor little baby swallows over shot the nest, got confused and did a bit of a tour of the house.  The kids were squealing and one poor little swallow couldn't figure out how to get itself out.  It was exhausted from flying at the window so I had to help it by scooping it up on a soft broom and lifting it out the window above.  What an adventure for the kids.

I had wondered how many eggs a swallow would lay and I had assumed 4 until a week or so ago.  I guess they had been running out of space in the nest for the 6 of them because I found a dead hatchling at the backdoor.  It obviously didn't survive very long from the looks of it's tiny featherless body.  So this pair laid 5 eggs and 4 survived. 

It is March now and we haven't seen the swallows for a few days, so maybe they have started their migration North. 

I look forward to watching it all unfold again next year and hopefully we'll be around to hear and see the chicks when they first hatch.

Birdies - Part 1

I love birds.  I always have.  Back in Canada I had bird feeders and used to love seeing which species I could attract depending on the plants I planted and the seeds I used.

When we were moving, there were certain things that we had to make decisions about. One of them being the bird feeders. It's illegal to move seeds or even remnants of seeds. In order for the movers to move the feeders we would have needed to thoroughly wash them and disinfect them. I decided to donate to friends that also liked birds instead.

Seeing as I had chosen not to bring our feeders I was excited to go out and purchase one here.  I had brought my sheppard's hooks from Canada to hang them on, so I got a tube feeder set up in the back yard, just outside our window and I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  It was fall/winter so the varieties of birds were limited but not one of them wanted my seeds.  

One bird that we saw everywhere was a medium sized black and white bird, A called it a penguin bird.  We would see it perched on fence posts, or our arbour in the backyard.  It especially loved the supports for the enclosure around the trampoline.  It's actual name is the common fiscal, a member of the shrike family. 

Even though they are all over the place it's been hard to get a good photo of one.  I never seem to be able to get my camera out before it flies away.

I couldn't figure out why they didn't want my feed.  It was winter after all.  I supposed maybe it was because winter here isn't like winter in Canada where food is scarce.  Here nothing freezes or gets buried by snow, there are still berries on the trees and grass seeds.  Still, they were the only birds around and they had to eat.  I tried changing the type of seeds, nothing.  I put the seeds in a flat dish and that attracted the doves and pigeons that couldn't sit on the tube feeder, but I saw no other birds. 

Oh well, so much for focusing on the birds, maybe in the spring I reasoned. I decided to inspect the different plant life in and around garden instead.  Our house had been empty for 2 1/2 years and there had been a severe drought before we moved in so the gardens were in pretty sad shape.

Take the acacia tree in our front yard. The main stem was damaged and you can see where the healthy, beautiful green truck changes to dead grey trunk.

Our neighbours have a healthy acacia tree, which looks like this.

The cool part of the acacia tree is what it looks like up close.

Each spike is around 10cm long.  I have been told that giraffe's are the only mammal that can eat the leaves without hurting themselves because their tongues are so long, but I don't know that for sure.

Anyway, one morning I was out gardening and watering around the half dead acacia tree and I notice something strange.  There was a big black beetle impaled on one of the spikes.  After picking the kids up at school I told them about this neat thing I had found on the tree and took them to see.  The beetle was gone.  "Yah, right, there was a bug there." They told me.

So, I kept an eye on the tree just to see what happened.  Every few days a bug of some description would appear.  Once there was even a snail.  It was always the same spike too, but I never saw anything else near the tree.  Eventually, the kids saw it too.

This went on for weeks.  I assumed it must be a bird of some kind, but I had no idea which one. 

I mentioned it to the gardener that I had helping me clean up the gardens and he said  "Oh, that's a butcher bird doing that."  I said, "Pardon me?"  He explained that the common name of the common fiscal was the butcher bird.  It's called that because it catches bugs or small rodents and then uses acacia trees to age the bug.  In a few days when it has aged sufficiently it comes back to eat it.

Well, now it made sense.  My bird feeder wasn't attracting any birds not only because they had all migrated north for the winter, but because the birds that were left were carnivores.

Now that spring is truly in full swing the birds have migrated back.  I've seen the bird feeder used by weavers, though they are often chased away by the fiscal's. The bird calls start at 0400 every morning. It has been interesting to hear all the different calls. Unfortunately, I have been unable to determine which call goes with which bird.  The trees behind our property are a little bit too far away to get good pictures with my current lens, so though I said in an earlier post that a telephoto lens wasn't necessary, it would be nice to have for the birds. 

Our most exciting observations of bird life have been very up close and personal, but that's for another post, so stay tuned.

Spring has sprung

I love spring. Always have. The way the crocus poke up through the snow. The way the rabbits used to eat all my tulip leaves, a centimeter at a time, as they pushed their way through the still frozen ground. 

Each spring from the time I was a little girl we had a saying in our home.

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where
The birdies is
We left Canada just as spring was starting and arrived to fall in Port Elizabeth. The leaves had fallen off the deciduous trees, the grass was browning and the birds were migrating north.  Yup, it's weird to say, but the birds migrate north from here.  I missed spring and I'm glad it's finally here. Spring, like everything else here is different.  There are no daffodils or tulips or crocus. It doesn't get cold enough over the winter for them to flower. Here they have daisies in the spring and road construction crews. You'd think, with the weather not going below about 14C, that they would work year round. Nope. Spring weather here, means construction just like in Canada.

Spring in our neighbourhood also means the wildlife are "twitterpated" as Thumper would say. The nyala had a fawn about a month ago, but they are very shy and I never got a picture of it when it was really young. Yesterday, as I was driving out of the subdivision I saw a baby impala. I only had my phone on me so the photo's not great, but here it is.

It was all legs, as you can see, and not too steady on them yet.  The neighbour texted me this afternoon to tell me that an impala fawn had been born. I texted back that I had seen one and asked if there were more.   She said no just the one that I had seen, but she told me that we could expect another 7 babies in the next week or so.  Silly me, I stopped counting at three pregnant impala's and figured I was just seeing the same ones over and over again.  Obviously not. 

So things are busy here in the spring.  My camera is getting a workout trying to capture all of the different and exciting things that I've seen.  I'm glad spring has finally sprung, that the grass has riz and if you stay tuned and I'll even tell you where the birdies is.

Addo Elephant National Park - The Circle of Life

The first few times we went to see indigenous wildlife here in South Africa, we went to private game reserves.  This was our first time to a national park.

The difference between this National Park and the 2 game reserves that we had been to, is that the national park allows nature to take it's course within the confines of the park.  Addo is home not only to elephants, but also lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. 

At the 2 game reserves we visited the carnivorous predators were in separate enclosures from the herbivores that would be their natural prey.  We arrived at the park in the late morning and stayed until late afternoon.  Predators like lions and leopards generally come out at dawn and dusk to hunt, so though we didn't see either, we saw evidence of their presence in the park.  What we saw gave us plenty of opportunity to discuss the circle of life.

Just at the side of the road I took this shot.

From the shape and width of the spine we think that this is a partial skeleton of an elephant.  It was just at the side of the roadway, far from any watering holes or flat plain areas where you would normally see lions.  So we wondered, was it caught by a leopard hiding in the trees nearby? Or maybe it was dragged there by a group of hyena's or jackals after the lions had finished with it?  We'll never know of course, but it was interesting to discuss.

We saw more evidence of the big cats at one of the watering holes, just below a lookout point.

This was a watering hole with a herd of kudu grazing nearby.  I believe this is the spine and skull of a kudu.  The position of the skeleton suggests that it was taken down and flipped over onto it's back in order to expose the throat for the final kill.

These were the only two skeletons that we saw on our trip, but there were more things to ponder in the circle of life.  Towards the end of our drive we came across this lone male kudu.

It was strange that he was all alone, as kudu are herd animals and usually travel in groups.  As we observed him we realized his rear right leg was damaged in some way and he was unable to put any weight on it.  DS #1 piped up "We should call him dinner".  Cruel, yes, but it shows his understanding of the circle of life.  It is the young, the old, the weak, the injured that are targeted by predators.  But why was this kudu on his own?  Was it his choice or did the rest of the herd leave him behind because he was injured and couldn't keep up?  What would the children do if a friend was hurt, would they leave him/her behind? More interesting discussion points for the family.

The circle of life isn't just predators and prey.  It's all animals and how they need each other within the circle.  Like this flightless dung beetle.

This particular dung beetle is found primarily in Addo.  It lays it's eggs exclusively in the dung of elephants.  They are a protected species.  Which is why the yield signs.

Not only must you yield to the beetles if they are in the road, but you are not permitted to drive over dung on the roadway as it may contain dung beetle eggs or larvae. 

But, perhaps my best lesson of the day came near the beginning when we came across a group of warthogs.

A while back when we had visited Seaview Game Park I had an "aha" moment.  We were driving through the reserve and came across a family of warthogs.  I remember thinking to myself, it's just a warthog, I've seen them before.  I told dh to drive on, I didn't need another warthog picture.   But, as we drove away I thought a bit harder about my decision.  By the second game drive had I really become complacent about seeing a warthog? I decided that just wasn't right.  How often do we take for granted what is so close to us? How could I be so laise faire about this amazing opportunity?  So, the next warthog we saw I asked dh to slow down so I could take a picture.  I resolved to take pictures of all the animals, even if I had photographed them before.  Really, I was resolving to slow down and appreciate all there was to experience on this adventure. 

So, we came across this little family of warthogs at Addo and I asked dh to stop so I could take a picture.

Apparently, I got too close.  Old momma warthog wasn't putting up with it, so she charged the car leaping towards the camera in my open window. 

This was the picture that I took as my finger spasmed on the shutter button in my panic to move the camera back into the car.

She scared the beejeebers out of me.  I'm sure it was 10 or 15 minutes before my heart rate returned to normal. 

I got to thinking about the fact that, outside of the car, in a one on one with momma warthog, I would lose.   I won't carry a gun or any other "safety tools".  So, I have come to terms with the fact that I'm really just a hairless weakling in the circle of life and this adventure of ours is best viewed from a safe distance or the inside of a car at the very least.

Addo Elephant National Park - The elephants

Addo Elephant National Park encompasses about 180 000 hectares (445 000 acres) of property.  Established in 1931 as a national park, it was home to the 11 elephants remaining in the area.    

The elephant population was decimated back in the early 1900's after farmers had killed off the majority of the elephants natural predators, and the elephants became a problem, eating crops and drinking precious water supplies.  Major P.J. Pretorius was hired to exterminate the elephants.  He called the bush they lived in, hunter's hell.  He described it as being so dense and thorny that you could only see 2 paces in front of you.  It took him 3 months to kill his first elephant.  Even with the conditions he was determined and managed to kill 114 elephants in 2 years and captured 2 calves to sell to a circus.  They killing stopped when the 16 remaining elephants took refuge on the farm of 2 sympathetic farmers, but they had an intense fear and distrust of humans.   In 1925 some land was set aside for an elephant park, but the elephants didn't want to move from their safe farm.  Eventually, a plan was created to herd them with warning gunshots and fires (to prevent their retreat), to the new park, but it was hard to keep them there, creating a risk to the bordering farms and inhabitants.  In 1933 park staff began feeding the elephants, the primary food source being oranges from a local co-operative, to keep them within the park boundaries.  In 1954 an elephant proof fence was constructed out of railway ties sunk 1.8 metre into the ground and held together with 3 lengths of  lift wire.  Though the fence kept the elephants in the park area, they would not stray from the feeding spot and they decimated the vegetation in the feeding area so that there was nothing left to eat except what was provided for them.  The elephants would approach the feeding truck screaming and roaring and grabbing oranges. The feeding was stopped in 1979 and the elephants left to eat their natural foods.  Given the long life of the elephants (approximately 70 years), citrus fruits are prohibited from the park, for fear that the older elephants will revert to their aggressive behaviour to obtain the fruit from visitors vehicles.

It became apparent how dense and tricky hunting in this type of brush must have been when our vehicle turned a slight left around a bend and we just about ran smack into the back end of this young bull.  The first elephant we saw that day.

We could neither hear, nor see him until we were just about on top of him.  Elephants are very quiet creatures.  The bottoms of their feet are thickly padded like cushions and they only lift one foot at a time to walk or run.  Later, we came across two even younger bulls.  They were play fighting.  The only sound you could hear as they fought with each other was the clash of tusk hitting tusk.  There was no other sound at all.

The landscape in the park is very hilly allowing for some pretty spectacular lookout points. 

I was completely oblivious to what this particular view was hiding until dh pointed it out.  Here's a zoomed in shot of the same brush.

If you look closely, in the middle of the shot, there is a large grey elephant head. I had thought that it was just one dead tree in amongst all the green ones.

After lunch we visited the information centre at the park.  This is Hapoor.  Well a cast of him at least.

Hapoor was the dominant bull of the Addo elephants for 24 years. On the plaque next to the head it says that the name Hapoor is related to his nicked ear, though I'm not sure what exactly Hapoor means or from what language.  It is believed that the nick was caused by a hunters bullet.  It was well known that Hapoor had a deep seated hatred for humans.  He was extremely aggressive.  He fathered the majority of the calves from 1944 - 1968 and increased the population of the herd from 20 to 50.  In 1959 he was challenged by another bull and killed his challenger in the fight.

In 1966 Hapoor killed one other elephant, a cow, this time.  Park staff had noted that the cow had a large abscess and had tranquilized her to attend to the abscess.  As the effects of the tranquilizer took effect Hapoor and another cow tried to keep her up and moving.  When they were unsuccessful and the cow fell, unable to get up again, Hapoor stabbed the cow 4 times with his tusks, apparently all brain shots.  No one knows why exactly, but I would like to think that it was a natural compassionate response that she not be left to suffer predators, which would speak volumes about the intelligence and social nature of elephants.

In 1968 at 44 years of age Hapoor was deposed of his patriarchal crown, by the son of the cow he had killed.   Which makes me wonder about the phrase, elephants never forget, and whether they have the capacity for revenge or if was it just coincidence.  Hapoor became a loner and before long broke out of the park through what was thought to be an elephant proof fence.  Due to the inability to contain him and his aggressive nature towards humans, the Nature Conservator of the park had no choice but to shoot him.  In his honour they named the largest watering hole in the park after him. 

Though not aggressive by nature, bull elephants in musth (those looking for a lady elephant, if you know what I mean) can become a little bit crazy and aggressive.

As we were watching the two young bulls play fighting they moved closer and closer to our vehicle.  At one point a much larger bull decided that our vehicle was too close and began to walk directly at us, with his head swinging back and forth and his ears flapping.  Dh took that as an aggressive, back off behaviour and backed up the vehicle slowly until the older bull stopped, apparently we had reached an acceptable distance.  It was a bit of a tense situation.  To give you a sense of how big elephants are, here's another photo I took from the lookout. 

Needless to say elephants have the right of way at Addo.

Addo Elephant National Park - The Circle of Life

Birds of Eden - Part Two

There were birds with funny beaks.  Like the Red Billed Hornbill, native toWest, East and South Africa .

There were birds with funny hair.  Like the Crowned Crane from South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.

Then there were birds that were so perfectly amazing that they hardly looked real.  Like this Mandarin Duck from Eastern Asia.

But the one bird that DD was dying to see was the flamingo.  The shallow pond that held the flamingo's and scarlet ibis was hidden just around a bend in the path.  DH says her face was priceless when she turned the corner and came face to face with her favorite bird.  It was all she could talk about for hours afterwards.  This is the greater flamingo from the Caribbean,  Africa, South West Europe and Asia.

There were many more birds and there are many more photos on file, but this is the last photo I will post of Birds of Eden because these are the ones that most fascinate DS #1 and myself.  They are weavers.  We have Cape Weavers around our neighbourhood and you can see their nests in the trees.  If you look closely in the photo you can just make out the Golden Palm Weaver hanging upside down and weaving his nest out of fresh twigs. Finished nests dry and turn brown as you can see in the right of the photo. 





The one bird in the book that eluded us during our trip was Branta Canadensis.  Native to North America and Eastern Siberia.  It's a shame really I would have liked to have seen such a rare bird as the Giant Canadian Goose ;)  

Next Post - Being Canadian

Monkeyland - Part One

For about 6 months before we left for South Africa, DD was terrified of the "M" word.  Yup, you got it, we couldn't even say the word monkey without her starting to freak out.  This was not a good thing just before moving to Africa.  We decided she needed to be desensitized.  So we took her to the Monkeyland website and showed her all the cute pictures of the wee little monkey babies.  It worked like a charm.   

With our psychiatric intervention complete we were able to visit Monkeyland, which is a really cool place.  It's the world's first multi-species free roaming primate sanctuary.  It is set in a forest where monkeys and lemurs who have been pets or raised and used for circuses, movies or zoos, all over the world, are brought.  The have 3 quarantine areas where new residents are housed in large cages containing trees among the free monkeys.  They are quarantined for health reasons, but also because most of them have never had the opportunity to learn to climb trees or how to be monkeys.

The park itself is surrounded by a 14 foot high fence that only one of the monkey species can climb high enough to get out of, though I can't remember which one at the moment. 

We were just waiting for the tour to start when one enterprising little squirrel monkey snuck in the cafe door past an unsuspecting visitor and ran straight for the sugar packets on the table.  He was pretty ingenious about it.  He started by getting close and playing peek a boo on top of the table umbrella, keeping a keen eye on the door as all of us visitors ooooh'd and ahhhhh'd.  The second the door was opened by someone distracted by what we were all looking at, he blew through the door, grabbed the packet and was shooed back out by the server.  

Here's the sugar addict with his prize.

Next we met Brad. 

Brad is a Black Lemur.  Brad was enjoying a lazy morning in the sun, when the guide told us that he was born in Canada.  His mate had died a few years back and he was the only one of his kind in the park. 

A lonely Brad, obviously, felt an immediate kinship with his fellow Canadians because as the group moved off Brad joined his Canadian peeps at the back of the pack for a walk.  That's his tail just to the right of DD#2's legs.

He stayed with us for 100m or so before he melted into the forest.  

The largest population in the park belongs to the Brown Capucian monkey.  Unbelievably cute, which is why so many of them are bought as pets and used in ads and movies.  We were told that the brothers and sister's carry infant siblings on their backs and take care of them while mom goes out to flirt with all the big daddy type capucian's.  That's why they are the most abundant in the park.  We got some time to get really close to a group of them.  It was amazing to see how expressive they could be.

This is curious.

This is, back off lady you are waaaaay to close to my sister.

You can't tell from the picture, but this was not a full grown monkey.  This was a juvenile taking care of a younger sibling.  The infant was about 5-6" long.  The eyes were still closed, but somehow those fingers grabbed hold of the older ones fur and it shifted it's weight instinctively with every step or movement that was made under it.  I was amazed by it.   I have a ton of photos of it.

It was never more clear than when I was watching that little group of siblings and cousins that there is some  connection between us and them. 

It wasn't just that I'd had that same, back off lady, expression on my own face a time or two.  

It wasn't this shot of one, nursing a bleeding wound on another. 

It was this one, of big cousin giving a tender puckery kiss to new baby cousin while big brother mopes because his baby sister is getting all the attention and he's been left behind at the kids table, again. 

If that isn't a typical extended Canadian family dinner then I'm a monkey's uncle.

Next Post - Monkeyland - Part 2 - Zabu and friends







Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre - Meerkats and Marabou's

The last part of our time at Tanikwa was self guided.  We were led to the meerkat enclosure and bird pond.

Now, I had caught glimpses of Meerkat Manor on the television back home every so often.  I have recollections of them standing up on their hind legs, very still, watching for predators.  These Meerkats were not still at all.  They were little, and they were fast!  It was really hard to get a good photo of them because they kept chasing our feet as we walked past.  I have lots of blurry shots, not so many clear ones.  One thing DS #1 commented on was how perfectly their feet were designed for digging.  He figured the long, strong, curved claws could move a lot of dirt quickly.

DD just thought they were "soooooooooooo cute".

Just beside the meerkats were Marabou Storks.  The marabou is the largest in the stork family and it shares the distinction of having the largest wing span of any land dwelling bird with the Andean Condor.   It is a carrion feeder much like vultures and for that reason has a bald (mostly) head.  The soft downy feathers have been used for hats. 

The Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa.  Commercial forests and civilization have been encroaching on it's natural habitat for decades and they are now endangered and their habitat severely restricted.  (That's just a shadow accross the beak.  It's not really darker)

Tanikwa has several Blue Cranes and as they are part of the conservation and breeding program their wings are clipped to prevent flying.  As we were walking through the cat exhibit earlier in morning the guide pointed to, what he thought was a hawk eagle, until we heard the distinctive Blue Crane call and the Tanikwa cranes answered it.  Our guide was shocked that it was flying so high.  He had never actually seen one that high in flight before.

It was a rare treat according to the guide, so we spent as long as we could watching and listening.

Next post - Monkeyland. - Part One





Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre - The Cats

Our first stop of the weekend was Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre.  Tanikwa has a wild cat sanctuary and a number of native birds and meerkats.  They also have a rehabilitation Centre that accepts any injured, abandoned or displaced wild animals from along The Garden Route.  Animals are treated, cared for and when ready, returned to the wild. 

They have numerous up close and personal interactive experiences, like a sunset walk with the cheetah's.  The only problem was that there was a height restriction of 1.5m.  We were told, on arrival, that though the cats were used to humans they are still wild cats and anything smaller than 1.5m could be seen as prey.  So, since none of the kids met the requirement,  we did the only "experience" available to us, The Wild Cat Experience.  It was a 1 hour guided tour around the facility to see indigenous wild cats and other endangered wildlife. 

We were introduced to the Centre through a video that explained how natural habitats were being effected by construction and commercial forestry.  How animals were being hunted for parts and the carcasses left to rot.  How farmers were shooting (and killing) endangered wild cats for attacking livestock.  A couple of the photos were graphic, but true, and the picture of the dead rhino with no horn was as disturbing as it was meant to be.  There was a greater message of hope however, that this generation could and was making a difference through education and conservation.  Their tag line is "we are the last generation who can make a difference". 

Wild cats go for the kill by biting the neck to sever the jugular vein.  There was a display of safety collars both plastic and metal that could be fitted around the necks of livestock to protect them and our guide told us of educational awareness programs to educate farmers that killing endangered wild cats was not necessary.  There was also a poster pleading that travellers not purchase porcupine jewelry. It has become commonplace for porcupines to be killed for all of their quills rather than the past practice of picking up quills that had already been shed in an effort to feed the demand for porcupine jewelry.  Because of this change in practice the porcupine is a threatened species here.

After the video we were instructed to take off anything dangly that might be mistaken for a toy by the cats. Our sunglasses had to be removed too, as the cats do not like it when the cannot see the eyes of what has entered their enclosure.  We were also warned not to look directly at any of the cats as it would been interpreted as a challenge.

With all of our gear stored, our first stop was the African wild cat.  We entered the enclosure with the guide and were told that the children should stay close to the grown ups in order to look like one large animal instead of several smaller ones.  Now, African wild cats are quite small,  in line with a really big house cat in Canada.  Why they are endangered is that they have been mating with common house cats and creating feral cats.  The actual pure gene pool of the wild cat has become very small thus endangering the survival of the species.

Here is an African wild cat.  Being nocturnal it was happily sleeping when we visited.

Next was the leopard.  His enclosure is not accessible for close up interaction.  It's wasn't hard to understand why, when we saw the size of the claw marks on the trees that he loves to climb.  We were told that this is the expression he gets when he is sizing up a little DD for a meal. 

The thing that struck me the most about the leopard was the size of his paws.  They were huge in comparison to his body.  It wasn't hard to imagine how big the claws would be if you looked at the paws and calculated about how far back a retracted claw would go.  Truly bone chilling stuff.

Next we met the Caracal.  What a beautiful creature.  He was really "friendly" with us.  You know how a house cat will come up and rub itself against your legs,  well that's just what this little boy was doing.  He was pushing his way in between us and rubbing our legs.  The guide told us that they do this to mark their territory and try to cull the smaller members of the group away by getting in between us.  DS #2 kept trying to reach down and pet the "nice kitty".  Thankfully dh and I were instructed to hold the children's hands, so it wasn't an issue.  The guide kept moving the cat away so that we could walk without tripping over him.  He was a beautiful and sleek cat reminding me of a small cougar or mountain lion, except for the ears.  It was hard to take a good photo given that he was so "friendly", but here it is.



Next was the Serval.  Sometimes they are mistaken for a young cheetah or leopard.  They are sleek and build for speed and jumping, like cheetah's, but eat small rodents not larger animals.

We were then escorted into the cheetah enclosure. They were still juveniles and fully grown, but not fully filled out.  Park policy is to have a second guide to locate them and assess their mood while our guide stayed with us.  We were lucky that they were in a good mood.  As we approached the female was very alert.  When we stopped walking closer she started to purr.   It was by far the most memorable part of the experience at Tanikwa to hear the deep throaty purr of this gorgeous creature.  In the end she was relaxed enough to groom herself a little in our presence.

The male was much more alert and wary than the female, you can tell from his look. 

The guide told us that leopards and cheetah's were often confused with each other because of their spotted coats. After seeing them up close, it is easy to see that the big paws, wide head and thick stocky muscled body of the leopard is built for jumping, climbing and pulling carcasses up into trees to eat.  Cheetah's are really quite dainty in comparison.  Thin, tall, small paws, and build for speed on the ground. 

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