Our Blog Has A New Home - www.wildplanetsafari.com

Dear Readers

Wild Planet Safari have a new blog that is run and maintained on our website.

You can find our newsletter on the link below

Wild Planet Safari News

Thank you

Let`s Safari

February Bush Telegraph

February The Month Of Rain.

Internationally, February is the month of love, strange that it is the shortest month of the year. Here in South Africa we love rain and we certainly have had allot of rain this Feb.

The bush in Kruger is lush and green a stark contrast to 12 months ago during the hard drought. The grass is tall and an overall healthy look can be seen throughout the park.

So far Skukuza has received has received over 100mm of rain compared to last years 9mm. A shocking difference!

It has become much harder to find some of the more elusive animals but our luck and skills at spotting have ensured we have found most of the animals most of the time and our guests have really enjoyed this exciting month.

We have run 3 tours this month with another 2 to come. We had some great sightings of Lion, Wild Dog and Cheetah but the leopard has eluded us on all but one of our tours this month.

We happened to be camping in Berg en Dal when Tropical Cyclone Dineo hit land. Luckily for us the path of Dineo was much further North of us. We did receive some very heavy rainfall and the camp got a little flooded while we were cooking dinner. 

This is a video of a river running through our camp, notice the fire is still going, dinner was ready on time.

Sighting of the Month

This month we found Wild Dog on two separate tours, very lucky for our guests.

 On this particular sighting  the guide, Adriaan, found a small group of the Skukuza Pack just outside of camp. The Wild Dog were quite far from the road and by the looks of things they had just woken for the day. Knowing that they would spend the first part of the morning catching up with the rest of the pack, Adriaan carried on to see what else he could find. 

About an hour later the group returned to where they had seen the Wild Dog. Just as Adriaan predicted the dogs were now together with the other members of the pack and they were on the road. 

The group followed the dogs for a while as they moved along the road in search of prey. After a while the Wild Dog changed direction and ran towards the group and then disappeared into the bush on a breakfast hunt.

Meet Adriaan

Adriaan is the newest member of Wild Planet Safari, he has been with us since October 2016 and has already run many fantastic tours. He is our second guide and takes on the role as operations manager.

He is better know as Trompie and is a passionate and happy guide who enjoys nothing better than sharing his knowledge and stories with guests. 

Trompie has guided in many countries across Africa and has had a pretty Wild time doing it. His stories are best enjoyed with a glass of wine around the fire.

Favourite Animal: Black Rhino

Favourite Kruger Camp: Berg en Dal

Photo of The Month.

One evening, on a recent tour, we could hear the lions roaring close by all night. We departed early the next morning and managed to find the noise makers on the road just outside camp.

There were two males this was the younger of the 2. It looks as though we is snarling at something just to the left of the camera, in fact it is actually the end of a big yawn.

February Featured Bird: Grey-headed Kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala)

This is a fairly uncommon bird to find in Kruger, the bird has a beautiful azure tail and chestnut belly. They migrate between southern African and Central Africa. 

They prey mainly on grasshoppers, crickets and locusts but will also eat caterpillars, spiders, scorpions and small lizards. They very rarely catch fish. 

You can find the grey-headed kingfisher along along the dry riverbeds and in the mature woodland near water.

Wild Planet Safari News

We are very excited to introduce our new and improved website due to be unleashed upon the world in early March. The website will include all of our latest tour itineraries, a new flashy gallery, videos and all the information you will need to start planning the ultimate South African safari.

It will also have a great new `Book A Tour` option for you to get in touch with us instantly and directly. 

March is going to be a great month for us, both our guides celebrate their birthdays in March (Ryan and Trompie) and we have 8 tours that will depart. We will continue to post videos and photo`s on our Facebook Page so that you can enjoy a little bit of safari wherever you may be.

Cheers from The Wild Planet Safari Team.

Wild Planet Safari - 7 Day Kruger Tour

Wild Planet Safari - 3 Day Kruger Tour February 2016

Wild Planet Safari - 4 Day Kruger Tour - February 2016

Banded Mongoose - The Bushveld Gangsters

Banded Mongoose are small carnivorous mammals with a long body and tail. They have a large head for their size and small ears. Banded Mongoose have a series of dark, narrow stripes that run across the back from behind the shoulders to the base of the tail. These stripes or `Bands` are responsible for their common name. They have a long haired tailed that ends in a thin dark tip. Banded Mongoose can grow to a length of about about 60 cm and can weigh up to 1,5 Kg.

Banded Mongoose diet consists mainly of insects, they also enjoy a mix of fruit, spiders and a variety of small vertebrates. Banded Mongoose are quickly habituated to human presence and are often found stealing food from campsites and rubbish dumps. On a recent trip to a National Park in South Africa our guests were relaxing in the bungalow with the doors open due to the extreme summer heat. We rushed to assist them after hearing screams of panic. To the guests and our surprise a pack of Banded Mongooses had entered the bungalow and were hastily searching the place for any available snacks that were within reach. There were about 20 of them inside and it took a long time to round them up and get then to leave.

They also enjoy eating eggs when they can be found. They are very clever animals and have a very unique way of breaking the eggs open. The mongoose will hold the egg in the forearms and throw it between the legs onto a hard object such as a rock. The egg will crack on the rock and the mongoose will enjoy the meal. 

I was once given an orphaned Banded Mongoose to transport to a new home in Zimbabwe. The mongoose was only 3 months old but already had a huge appetite. He would sit on my shoulder and constantly cry for food, if he did not get any insects he would start to nibble on my ear. I would actually spend more time searching for insects than I would driving him to his new home. I had to find a way to keep him busy while I was driving. I remembered I had a golf ball in the vehicle and stopped to find it for my little friend. His excitement when he saw the golf ball was something to witness as he thought it was a nice big egg! I handed over the golf ball and he would spend the rest of the journey throwing it around the truck trying to crack open his `Egg`, this kept him busy and allowed me to focus on driving.

  

Banded Mongoose are highly social and live in packs from a dozen to about 30 individuals, the largest pack recorded was in Kruger National Park and had 75 individuals. They sleep together in dens which may be in dead trees or holes in termite mounds. They will wake up at sunrise and lie in the sun close to their shelter until they warm up. They will then go out in search for food, if they are in a large group they will split up and forage in smaller groups.

Food is located by sight and smell, as the group separate in search for food they constantly keep in contact with a continual high pitched, birdlike chatter. Banded Mongoose do not post a sentry to keep watch, rather they rely on each individual to keep vigilant. If one mongoose spots a threat it will give a sharp twittering call to warn the rest of the pack, they will then stand up on their hind-legs to look around and locate the danger before they disappear into dense vegetation, down holes or to some other safe place. If there is sudden danger they will immediately scatter  at full speed to the nearest cover. Banded Mongoose will readily defend themselves and each other against predators.

On one occasion I saw a dog catch a young mongoose, the pack went into a frenzy of twittering and chased the dog down. The mongooses pushed together and charged the dog, the dog then dropped the mongoose from his jaws as he started to bark. The captured mongoose dropped to the ground and immediately joined the pack of advancing mongooses. The entire pack then slowly withdrew to safety after successfully saving the young pack member.

Banded Mongoose will from mating pairs and mating is synchronised in the pack. This allows the females to give birth at the same, most of the time they will give birth on the same night. A female will then suckle any of the babies and shows no favouritism  to her own baby. The babies will drink milk for the first 5 weeks, during this time they will stay at the den with one or two females while the rest of the pack forage for food. After 5 weeks they will travel with the pack and younger males will catch insects and teach them to forage. The adults are very protective over the babies and if danger threatens they will from a circle around the young and move off slowly in a unit. 

Banded Mongoose are very entertaining animals to watch and photograph, during the day the are always on the move and you never know when they might pop in for a visit. Just be sure to keep any snacks out of reach from the bushveld gangsters or it will be stolen.

Klipspringer - The Bushveld Ballerinas

Klipspringer are a seldom seen and often over-looked African Herbivore. They are a delightfully attractive antelope and can be a special sighting on any South African Safari. The name Klipspringer is an Afrikaans name, translated to English it is 'Rock Jumper'. This is a very suitable name for the animal as it perfectly describes the habitat and unique behaviour of the Klipspringer.

  In South Africa, Klipspringer can be found in the mountain fynbos areas to the West and the rocky koppies in the woodlands and savanah areas to the East. They stand on the very tips of their hooves which are cylinder shaped and specially adapted to life in rocky territories. They are sometimes referred to as the 'bushveld  ballerinas' because of the way they jump and land on their tip toes. The hooves are like a hard rubber that can mould to the rock for extra grip as well as absorb the shock of their boulder leaps.

Look closely at the hooves and you can see the Klipspringer standing on the tip of the toe.

Klipspringer are relatively small and grow to a height of 60cm/ 22 Inches. This puts them in a group called dwarf antelope and visitors to the bush often mistake the adults as baby antelope. Their coat varies in colour and contains shades of grey, black, brown and rusty red. This creates a speckled colour often referred to as 'salt and pepper'. This speckled camouflage is perfect for blending in with colours of the granite rocks. The hairs are hollow, this has a double effect for the Klipspringer. The hollow hair can be a cushion that will protect the Klipspringer from smashing on the rocks during a fall and from sharp sections of the rock. The hollow hair also helps the Klipsringer to deal with the huge range in temperature that can be found in their rocky territories. The hair will also shake and rattle when the Klipspringer is alarmed.

 

Klipspringer live in Monogamous pairs in very small territories, however the offspring may stay with the parents in areas with exceptional food source. In South Africa only the males have horns which grow between 10 and 15cm in length. Klipspringer eat a variety of leaves, flowers, fruit and lichens. They will eat grass in the wet season and different succulents throughout the year. Klipspringer do not need any drinking water they can survive on the water they absorb from the plants they eat and from the moisture they get from licking rocks. 

Klipspringer mark and defend their territories and can often be seen standing on a projected rock to show their presence. They mark their territories by inserting small twigs from low bushes into their pre orbital glands, this leaves a sticky black secretion on the twig which is marked many times. 

The Pre Orbital Gland is the black patch at the front of the eyes.

Klipspringer need to be on the look out for predators such as leopard, baboon, caracal and eagles. There will always be one Klipspringer watching while the other is feeding.  If they spot a predator they will will release a sharp whistle as a warning to their partner and to show the predator it has been spotted. 

On a recent trip to Kruger we heard the whistle alarm call of a Klipspringer, we have seen this particular Klipspringer many times in the past. Once we located the male we followed his eyes directly to a wandering leopard. The Klipspringer are so fast and nimble in their habitat that can easily avoid danger once it is sighted.

It is very rare for an established mating pair of Klipspringer to leave their territory and their territories are so small and unique in the bushveld that we often see the same pair when we are passing by their koppies. We will be sure to introduce you to the Bushveld Ballerinas when you join us on your next South African safari.