Addo 2020

[PJL]

Not surprisingly, visits have been a bit sparse to the park this year

However I realised that we had a trip shortly before the lockdown that I forgot to include... and now another new one from last weekend - our first since the park has re-opened

So first up, the trip back in March. It appeared that yellow mongoose had taken over the previous bat-eared fox den on Vukani loop



The southern loops were pretty quiet, but we found a nice kudu near Lismore. The park was also looking very green back then after some decent rainfall... not nearly enough to ease the drought, but enough to make everything look better



There really wasn't much going on, so we ventured further north and on Gorah loop found a few eland soaking up the sun



There was another yellow mongoose family along the loop



One of the most amazing things during the day was the number of zebra we saw. I still remember in years gone by when it would be almost rare to see a zebra, but they seem to be dominating lately



Near Carols Rest we found one of only a few elephants we saw on this trip



As well as a rather battered old buffalo bull



Heading to the main camp for some lunch we found a tortoise near Domkrag, and shortly after a black-headed heron was struggling to swallow its lunch





Our drive back south through the park after lunch was fairly quiet as well. We saw a juvenile pale chanting goshawk and a treekat





I'm not entirely sure what the elephant had eaten for breakfast, but whatever it was these dung beetles were swarming for it! I don't think we've ever seen so many in a concentrated spot of poo before





A last splash of colour to round off the day was this cape longclaw seen along the southern access road

[Mel]

About time you bring some news from the Addo again Of course none of your fault, but I was and am missing reports from my favourite parks.



Beautiful photos! And the number of dung beetles in on dung heap is amazing indeed.
Love all those mongeese

Bring on the lions if there are too many zebra

[PJL]

Bring on the lions if there are too many zebra

Absolutely! But they got rid of a lot so we only have 7 left in the park now

[harrys]

Some beautiful photos

[Alf]

A treekat

[Klipspringer]

Great dung beetle observation

March might be breeding peak time

[Lisbeth]

Traffic peak time in the dung

Mongooses

Maybe there are not enough lions and the zebra numbers grow

Lovely to have news from Addo

[Flutterby]

Lovely pics.

[PJL]

Maybe there are not enough lions and the zebra numbers grow

The lion population has been significantly reduced because they were finding it too easy to take down the buffalos - the drought has meant the buffs are not in such great condition. The park makes a lot of their money from buffalo sales so they're just protecting their income stream. To my mind interfering like that will simply have other consequences.

[PJL]

Our first post-lockdown visit to Addo was last Saturday. There is quite a lot of information circling around at the moment about the lockdown guidelines. From what I had read, if we did a pre-booking and arrived with all the paperwork pre-printed it would simply be a case of having our temperatures taken whilst in our car before being allowed in to the park. It wasn't quite so simple

The gate entry form had to be re-entered because the online version doesn't match 'their' version or something like that. Then we had to queue up at reception in order to get our gate entry permit. Despite the pre-booking, that took forever which I couldn't understand. You would think that the whole idea of the pre-booking and pre-printing of forms would be that it could cut out the reception interaction and hence be safer. To be honest the confusion around what to do had people moving around more than they would on a normal visit

Anyway, once in the park we went straight to Peasland and had a bit of a hunt for anything interesting around there. Friends had travelled Vukani without any luck so we then took Ngulube. At the waterhole half way round the loop we stopped to scan for a bit and it payed off with a hyena popping its head up



The rest of the south was quiet. At Marion Baree we saw a shy jackal



There was a bit of nice early morning activity at Hapoor with a couple of buffalo enjoying a drink





At Rooidam we came across this magnificent kudu bull, as well as a Bokmakierie singing away





We had our lunch at Hapoor and some ellies had started pulling in for a drink



At spekboom there was also a herd with a couple of youngsters in tow





Back down on Ngulube we found a bull elephant who seemed to be playing King of the Castle



Near the end of the loop these 3 musketeers were strolling up the road with Algoa Bay in the background. There can't be many places that you can see elephant with the sea behind



The last sighting of the day was a secretary bird on Vukani