It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we had just had a yummy high-tea and were setting off for the afternoon game drive.
In the front of the lodge were two old buffalo bulls (dagga boys), enjoying the coolness of the water. While watching the buffalo, two elephant bulls came down for a drink. My guests took some stunning photographs of the wallowing buffalo with the elephants in the background.
After 10 minutes or so of viewing the buffalo and elephant, another ranger called in on the radio that they had just found a rhino. I quickly started the Land Rover as we had to get to there as soon as we could as the property that the rhino was on only allowed us to go off-road for lion and leopard, so we could very easily lose sight of the rhino if we didn’t make it on time.
On our way to the rhino sighting I was driving parallel to a dry river bed. As we approached an open clearing alongside the river, one my guests spotted two leopards up in a Marula Tree! At the base of the Marula Tree we could also see a pride of 7 lions! AWESOME!!! The lions had obviously chased the leopards up the tree and seemed to be patiently waiting for them to come down again. I said to my guests that I was certain that both the leopards and lions would be there for a while and that we would return after viewing the rhino.
We managed to get to the rhino just in time to watch it for 5 to 10 minutes before returning to leopard and lion sighting.
All of this in just 45 minutes! That’s what amazes me so much about the bush, you can out on game drive for hours and hours without seeing much, or see a lot of game in a matter of minutes.
We must not forget about the smaller things that we often miss, like the birds, insects and trees that can often be more interesting than the "Big Five".
The Opportunistic Predator
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.
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.
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