Rhinoceros of Kruger National Park

Rhinoceros are endangered because of the poachers who harvest their horn. Apparently there is a huge trade in rhinoceros horn and they are worth a fortune and as a result they are in huge danger. Every year more and more rhinos are getting killed.
I was lucky enough to see just over twenty rhinoceros in Kruger.

Buffaloes (Syncerus caffer) at Kruger National Park

Ok, so those are clearly not the buffaloes I usually blog about (the Bison bison) these are the African buffaloes.

After a mud bath this guy is scratching himself against the tree.

 ...and quite the mud bath it was.

This fellow has lost his tail.... must have been quite the scare!

You see them alone, in small group but also in large herd, this one was on the plane by Satara camp.

On my last morning as I was driving out of the park I was :held hostage" for twenty minutes by that small herd. I was eventually "freed" by a big work trcuk who drove slowly through them.

it isn't that they hadn't seen me. 

Spotted hyenas in Kruger National Park

I had never seen hyenas before but from photos I thought that I liked them. Well, it is confirmed, I LOVE them. I want a pet male spotted hyena to take home with me .... ok, not really but so close, really close, if only it was a reasonable thing to do.

Seriously, look at this face. Don't you just want to take him home?

The hyena below is eating. You can sort of see the horn of the impala it is eating. I stayed there for a while. I could here the bones crunching, impressive jaws....this is probably why a pet hyena is not a great idea.

The book I have says about them: "the call is a series of long drawn-out Who-o-oops, rising in pitch and trailing out in a low moaning. It also grunts, groans and giggles, and yells and whines over kills." I didn't hear them this time, apart from the bones crunching, but previously when I heard them (I was told it was hyenas) I thought that the sound was a bit like the yipping of a coyote.

Cheetahs in Kruger National Park

Second the cheetahs. I was very lucky to see cheetahs. I saw two, not together, on different days. The photos I realize are not great but as reminder of the moment to me they are awesome.

I am telling you, in real life, right there not far from you, cheetahs are pretty cool. The bottom three photos are from the second cheetah I saw and amazingly enough to me, it got up from its noon time rest in the shade because baboons came after it. So I am not the only one who dislike baboons and distrust them.

I am staying at a hotel with wifi in the lobby and I will try to catch up a bit, then back on the road with no internet for an unpredictable amount of time.

Zebras in Kruger National Park

I started my road trip in Kruger National Park and had a great time. I really saw a lot. Now is the catch up part, first the zebras because of one funny picture... at least I think it is funny and I like it a lot.... not this one.

Zebras apparently do not like to have their picture taken and turn their back on you, so you get a lot of bum pictures.

I wouldn't want to miss the too easy "zebra crossing" joke.

With their stripes detail pictures, I think, can come out really nice.

One thing that zebra often do is the "pull-me-push-me" animal ( this name I think comes from Rudyard Kipling). I can't somehow find a good picture of how it goes, but here is a mum and kid doing it. When done perfectly with two zebras of the same size and lined up just right from the side it looks like a zebra with two heads, one at each end.

From the end it looks like this:

Which leads to the funny zebra mustache photo:

Somehow this photo just makes me laugh.