WILDLIFE BLOG

We started off with a rather sad sight - this baboon appears to have a skin condition which has caused him to lose all his hair. I suspected that he would be very thin, but his condition was good and he didn't appear to be bullied by the others. I suspect he might struggle in the direct sunlight, especially with that area of pale skin on his back. If we see him again, we will report [...]

We always take care when walking around outside because we live very close to the National Park. In fact, there is a lot of wildlife living on our side of the river, even thought it's not actually National Park. So it is with a small pride of 5 lions which have been seen (and heard!) on several occasions around our house and in the nearby area. I have often seen lion foot prints outside our house [...]

Here's a taste of what's going on now! The sky is blue, the grass is green, and everything is vibrant and healthy. It's also very humid and the birds are noisy in the trees. All the trees have grown new leaves, and there are little 'windows' into the bush everywhere. Fat impalas feed on the new grass. The elephants are probably happiest of all, having suffered heavily through the shortages of last year. They are looking [...]

In the early rains, the grass is the first to grow, shooting up and covering the park in a lush green carpet. But it's almost too green for taking photos as the brightness of the grass detracts from the subject. With this in mind, I took some shots over the weekend to illustrate.....

In front of our house, a group of bull elephants were messing around in the muddy water. Soon a tussle began between two of the sub-adults and they were shoving and wresting each other on the slippery ground. A small calf with her mother (seen in the background) headed off to a safer place at the sight of the boisterous boys!

For me, 2014 will be the year of interactions. I saw so many interesting, unusual and touching moments between individuals of the same species, or between competitors. The album below (which will get captions soon!) brings the highlights of the year......although of course the real highlight of the year doesn't come until the end. Happy New Year! An image from the UK early in the year, when a mature Roe Buck approached to a distance of [...]