Thursday 5 January 2017

Fish, frogs and snakes

Unfortunately the Maribou Storks ate all the bull frogs so we never got to see them closeup.  These storks are resident here because of all the available food which has now resulted in all the frogs being eaten.  Fortunately some frogs did manage to lat eggs and some tadpoles have hatched.

We have had a little more rain so the animals are dispersing and we see less of them although we do see some interesting smaller critters.  We found a Tailless Whip Scorpion in the house which is harmless but rather intimidating.  Some of the guides went fishing in the local small reservoir and caught a 10.5kg catfish!

We fed the wild dogs a couple of times which is quite thrilling riding on the back of the bakkie (ute) and having the dogs run alongside at 60 kph. They (25 dogs) devour a full grown impala in 15 minutes.

We have been mapping a lot more roads so the map is really improving all the time.  On our drives we came across a dead puffadder, rhinos and tortoises.

Today an egg-eater snake was brought to us so we photographed it and fed it an egg which it duly ate without us even seeing it!  When the egg is swallowed it is broken open by bony protrusions called gular teeth in the back of the throat and then the eggs shell is spat out.

Soon after we went out into the bush to see an African Rock Python which has recently shed its skin and was lying in the shade of a shepherd's tree.  We photographed it and then headed back to the lodge too look at all the pictures.

Tailless Whip Scorpion

Black Rhino

Leopard Toroise

Sparring elephant bulls

Rhombic Egg-eater snake

10.5 kg Catfish

African Wild Dogs running alongside the vehicle

Dead puffadder

African Rock Python

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