Backyard Animals - South African Style

So, I know I promised you a post on the wildlife of South Africa. Here it is.  In Kansas we tend to see backyard wildlife that are similar to this:

  

In South Africa, it's not uncommon to see animals like these ostriches roaming through your backyard:

If you live in the northern part of South Africa, you can visit the Kruger National Park and see hundreds of different species of wildlife and plants in just one day.  While in Kruger (from 6:30 am - 5 pm) we saw the following (short list):

Wild dog (rare), hyena (very rare), giraffes, lions, cape buffalo, black rhino, elephants (the previous 4 are 4/5 of the Big Five) wildebeest, zebras, baboons, kudu (antelope, the hide of one which now resides on our floor), crocodiles, monkeys, hippos and so much more.  It was straight out of The Lion King!

It was absolutely amazing to see, up close, all the animals which I had only seen on Animal Planet or in the zoo before.  One night we were at our hotel, Hippo Hollow Resort, and the sign on the lawn read:

At that same hotel, this guy was sitting on our balcony and his friends were running around on our roof. 

We made sure not to leave the windows or doors open that night. The last thing I wanted was to wake up to a monkey rummaging through my stuff or sitting on my bed!  We did see a hippo that night but thankfully no crocodiles came and made a tasty snack out of it.  We did see some action while there:

This mama elephant was not happy that we were in close proximity to her babies and she trumpeted at our convoy and half charged! We left promptly.

It was an amazing trip and I hope that each and every one of you travels abroad at some point in your life.  You'll never forget it and you'll certainly never regret it.

Until next time,

~Buzzard~