Potpourri of Wildlife – Where Are They Now?

While the big five and the migration dominate most folks’ wish list to see in Africa, they are not the only draw. Africa literally has a potpourri of wildlife. It includes more traditional animals like these giraffes, where saw both the Masai Giraffe and the Re ticulated giraffe (who only lives in Northern Kenya). Their spot patterns differs, we actually liked the reticulated giraffe better, maybe because we only rarely see it.

The giraffes have an interesting way of fighting, swinging their necks at each other . When done for real, it can be deadly. Our two fighting giraffes were on the young side and just practicing

And as you can image, it is best captured by video.

Another traditional African animal is the spotted hyena, one of Africa’s top predators and which is a member of Africa’s ugly 5. However, this couple showed off their tender side, which makes them almost lovable.

Their less common cousin, the striped hyenas, are in many ways the opposite. Good looking and are mostly scavengers, they feast on the carcasses of large animals.

We also saw two of our favorite African birds, the Ground Hornbill and Vulturine Guinea Fowl

A most unusual antelope is the gerenuk, which is also know as the giraffe antelope due to its long neck. Like the giraffe, it has the ability to reach the high foliage, though it gets there not by it size but by standing on its hind legs.

Showing what a small world it is, we saw a the old world relative of a common US rodent, the porcupine.

This picture was taken at a night blind in Southern Kenya. We spend 5 days there because of the unique images you can get shooting at night. However, it is definitely an acquired taste. You spend all night in the blind, and if you are lucky you get 8-10 visits by the wildlife to the waterhole. Thus for 12 hours of watching, you get maybe a hour’s worth of shooting. Two things made it work, first you had a native guide who would wake you up when the wildlife approached, so you can get some nap time in, and second the resulting images are stunning:

Genet

Common Zebra