April 12 - Animals Part 2

Continuing with the Big Five, we saw lots of the Cape Buffaloes on our drives; including one behind our suite, but it was at night, so we couldn't get a photo.  Our suite looked out at the Sabi River, and served as a water source for lots of animals.

These guys can pretty much go where they want, and healthy, mature ones like this one need only fear a group of lions. Most other predators can not take it down.

We came across this guy being stalked by a hungry juvenile leopard, however, he didn't seem to be worried

We came across this "Senior Citizen" and his "Senior Buddy" after we had driven down a river bank, crossed the dried
river bed, and up the other side of the river bank.  As we came around a corner, there they were.  Our guide said they had
past their prime, but will stay together for companionship as well as safety.  They were huge!

This is his buddy.  They started walking down the road to the clearing you see ahead on the right, then went into the trees.  Don't you hate when slow drivers stay in the left lane!!! (that's Joe, our spotter, in the front seat)

                                                                         RHINOCEROSES!!!!!

We were so excited when we came across this group of rhinos on our last morning drive.  It completed the Big Five for us.
The other truck had spotted them the day before and we wondered why their driver had not radioed our driver of the location.
We found out that this is the one animal they do not communicate about via radio because of poachers who listen in to radio
transmissions.  Poaching rhinos for their horn is a major problem.  We passed trucks of anti-poaching patrols on our drives.  They looked like military patrols and definately not guys you'd want to aggrevate.

The group had several females, a couple males and this adorable?? little girl who was more curios about us than hungry.

Big differnce in size.  They looked like they were wearing dark gray rubber wet suits

This looks like a face-off, but they were just eating in the same area.

These were black rhinos.  To cool off, they wallow in mud.  Luckily, we missed the previous hot days the area had recently
had.  Our 4 days were pleasantly cool, which allowed us to see more animals later into the day.

"Are you looking at me?"

The sassy little lady moved a little father away from the bushes, turned her back to us, then.......

When you gotta go, you gotta go!!!!!