The Big 5

Well, it took until day 3 (Monday) and my 4th game drive, but I finally saw the last of the big 5….the African buffalo. BTW….you may be wondering why the lion, rhino, African buffalo, leopard and elephant are called the big 5. Well….back in the days of the big game hunters, these were the 5 animals that were the hardest to track on foot. The moniker stuck.

There is also a Magnificent 7 which includes all of the 5 plus the cheetah and African dog, both of which are endangered. Unfortunately, we didn’t see either of those on our drives.

On the other side of the coin, there is an Ugly 5…warthog, hyena, maribou stork, vulture and the wildebeest. We saw 3 of them.

Jeffrey promised that we’d see the buffalo today as it was the only animal we were all missing. We saw not just one, but a herd of over 100!!

I would have thought that the buffalo would have been one of the Ugly 5, but nope.

We caught up the lions we saw on our first drive. This time only one of them was asleep. We found one of the brothers as he was walking back to the others. He passed not 2 feet from the side of our jeep but apparently, he doesn’t see us as a threat (as long as we keep quiet and don’t stand up). Also, in spite of what we see in the movies, lions don’t eat people. They will only attack if they feel threatened.

Also saw some hippos. They have very sensitive skin (kind of like me), and their skin gets pink and cracked if they’re in the sun (also like me). So, they only come out of the water at night.

We found another rhino and her baby. These are white rhinos but they’re actually grey. The black rhino is endangered, but we didn’t see any of them.

Here’s another type of antelope.

After a restful few hours at the camp which included both breakfast and lunch (they feed us a lot here) we went back out for my last game drive. One of the first things we saw were the leopard trio again. They hang out close to the property so they’re easy to find. Yesterday, mom killed an impala which was food for several days for her and her two 1-year old female cubs.

Today what was left of the impala was up in a tree to protect it from other predators, especially the hyena. Mom was eating again when we got there but quickly finished and hung out in the brush with the kids.

A few minutes later Jeffrey spotted something on the other side of the tree and when we got there, we found another leopard. This one is the older sister and oldest offspring of the family. There is also a brother between this one and the kids. The females go off on their own at about 18 months while the males hang with mom until they’re about 2 years old. So, this female has been on her own about 1 1/2 years.

Well….she smelled the impala and knew mom was on the other side of the tree, but mom couldn’t smell her because of the wind direction. It was fascinating to watch the leopard creep up to the tree, constantly looking across at mom and glancing up at the kill in the tree, just waiting for the right minute. When she thought the time was right, she quickly leapt onto the tree and climbed up to the impala where she started dining.

Jeffrey said that if mom had known the oldest offspring was there, she would have protected the kill but now that the other leopard was in the tree, there was nothing she could do. She would have fought her on the ground but not in the tree. The kill was supposed to last the 3 of them another day, but after the older sister finished feeding, there would be no meat left.

Maybe I’ve seen too many Disney movies where the animals talk, but all I could think about was mom saying to the kids (in Meryl Streep’s voice): “Sorry girls, there’ll be no dinner tonight as your big sister ate it all.”

That was about all that happened on the afternoon drive. We saw more animals, but nothing new except for a couple types of mongooses, the dwarf mongoose and the white-tailed mongoose. The latter only comes out after dark so I couldn’t get a picture of it, but here’s the dwarf mongoose.

My phone is working again. Dale told me that his guy found a tiny rock wedged in the charging port which was keeping the cord from attaching. He got it out and all is well again. Yeah!!

So, here’s a bit of catchup from Sunday with pictures from my phone that I couldn’t download.

Once back at camp, dinner was outside. It was set up beautifully with a campfire, gas lanterns and candles. Dinner was delicious as well. Sorry foodies that I haven’t been better with meal pictures. I was always so involved in conversation that I kept forgetting to take pictures. I’ll be better once I get to Vic Falls, I promise.

The sunset yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, so I’ll close with that. I’ll post today’s (Tuesday) action after dinner. See you soon.