06 November 2009

St. Lucia Part 2: Mammals…(KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa): October 11, 2009






St. Lucia also proved an impressive park for game with nearly twenty species seen during this one day alone (just under a third of all the mammals seen on the trip were recorded during this one magic day!). Best of all happened much as the birds did, before breakfast. Checking the grasslands for longclaws and pipits we came upon a pair of beastly White Rhinoceros (see photo) grazing the roadside verge. They were so close to our vehicle we hear them noisily chomping away on the grass! Also quite impressive was cross-eyed Buffalo (see photo) that looked all the more menacing for it. Out in the grasslands we also found a gangly-legged Common (Southern) Reedbuck (see photo), a number of Kudu sporting impressive “horns”, the now usual Impalas and many others. One parking lot proved a good stakeout for the scarce Samango Monkey that rather let its rare status down by begging for scraps around the camp! The same camp also held (along with the Brown Scrub-Robin photographed below), a rather tame Red Duiker that felt a little like a camp pet, and massive mob of Banded Mongoose roamed the lot, numbering some 40 animals (see photo)! We also encountered a pair of frisky Burchell's Zebras in a car park, that were getting so "fresh" with each other we felt compelled to look the other way (see photo)!


In the afternoon after this truly absorbing day that was packed with game and loaded with birds, we headed south to Eshowe for the night in readiness for our exploration of that rich area the following day...


No comments: