Africa Wild

Lovely view of the buffs and tree.

Cheetah!!

Lisbeth wrote:What a beautiful tree all alone in the open

That's what we call Harveys Tree
There are bee hives surrounding it to try and keep the elephants from knocking it over. Apparently they don't like bees very much

Obviously it works.....it is still there and they have honey in exchange

You found the cheetahs!!!

Some concerns maybe, PJL...

Bringing in Kruger elephants like Valli Moosa to increase tusk size...?

That buff seems to be different from "normal" Addo buff regarding horn size?

Cheetah didn't or don't belong in that area of SA?

Thoughts?

Interesting points RP

Richprins wrote:Bringing in Kruger elephants like Valli Moosa to increase tusk size...?

Not so much tusk size as genetic diversity. The original elephant population dropped below 100 I believe so they wanted to bring in some fresh genes which does make sense. VM is the only big tusker of the Kruger bulls who were re-located. Apart from Skukuza who was killed in a fight a number of years back.

Richprins wrote:That buff seems to be different from "normal" Addo buff regarding horn size?

It's fairly typical for horn size. Some of the Addo buffalo bulls have larger horns than him

Richprins wrote:Cheetah didn't or don't belong in that area of SA?

Agreed. They broke into the park so there is a genuine aim to move them out at some stage - probably over to the Kuzuko area or Darlington way which is where they would have naturally occurred. Problem is they move so quickly... so until they happen to sit next to a ranger who happens to have a set of tranquillisers I think they'll be staying. The kudus have been taking quite a hit from them though

Once we were all packed up and had lunch we drove back south in the direction of the cheetahs. They had moved about 3km up the valley and quite a lot closer to the road which was great news. All three were visible but they seemed intent on resting in the afternoon heat



An unexpected surprise came further down the Addo heights road about 200m from the east gate... Josie and her sub-adults had made a warthog kill and were close to the road

Unfortunately although they were close and we could see them fairly well, the bushes they had gone into were really thick so trying to get any kind of pics was a mission





We had a good few hours left in the park and were treated to lions and cheetahs about 3km apart. The question was which would get up and move first

Two nice sightings!

I'll say cheetah!!

I am delighted that Josie and her sub-adults are doing fine

Flutterby wrote:I'll say cheetah!!

It was indeed Flutts

The cheetah decided it was drink time, so wandered even closer to us which was fantastic
There was plenty of drinking, scratching, playing and marking territory... hence a lot of pics. I'll split them into a couple of posts