Last night we saw several bush babies (after many failed attempts by me to actually see any that were pointed out during previous night drives), and a couple hyenas that we followed with our truck. Today though, was the most exciting! After we finished our really easy habitat assessment (because there was no bush to measure), we went on search for the rhinos that the new uni students saw yesterday.
The other group text our awesome field guide, Daniela, saying that they found a herd of elephants. Obviously we weren't going to pass up seeing more elephants, so we headed in that direction. We reached where the elephants were and took some pretty good pictures.
The one pictured right above got pretty agitated by us.. again another scary encounter!
Then one of my groupmates, Juliana (in the photo above with the long poles) pointed out rhinos on the opposite side of the road that the elephants were on.I was ecstatic that I had finally see them after over two and a half weeks of not seeing any elephants or rhinos.
Instead of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, we were stuck between two rhinos and a herd of elephants! We stuck around for a while then went along our way. On our way we saw the pick up truck full of the German tourists that were staying in the Struwig camp as well. We caught up to them to let them know about the fantastic rhino and elephant sightings, but their vehicle wasn't budging. Apparently 2 elephants has passed by their vehicle and were walking down to the water at the dam to take a mud bath. It was so cute watching them fling mud and dust for a while. After those elephants had walked off we were heading back to camp. Then we saw a herd of wildebeest!
This was pretty surprising, because Frickie, the Struwig Reserve manager, bought 12 wildebeest but unfortunately the lions have been picking them off quicker than they can reproduce. We saw 8, so they must be doing pretty well. I thought the numbers would be a lot worse. Hopefully they will be in their hundreds like they are in the Serengeti! This has been the best day for seeing wildlife. I don't know if anything can top it!
- Erin
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