With the rain comes the dung beetles and the insects. They are abundant and especially the dung beetles are high on the menu of the lilac-breasted roller. They are like chocolate cake for these beautiful birds.
Here the buffalos and the hippos are keeping the water channels open and clean so the water of the river can flow. Every animal has its own role to pay in this amazing ecosystem of the wilderness.
There is always that one little fighter in a litter. This one would likely also survive till adulthood. Just a few months old but look at those canines.
The plains are teaming with new life. This is a very young giraffe. The giraffe is the only animal that is born with horns. And only move into position later. The calf is about 1,5 m high when it is born, but they grow very fast in their first year. It grows around 0,5 m a day and will double in size and weight in the first year.
The Nile crocodile. Our fiercest predators in the waters of the victoria and the river. This one is lying on a perfect spot in the middle of the day. His mouth open, he is expelling excess heat from his body. The yellow part in the back of his mouth is called the gular flaps. These flaps close under water and allows the crocodile to swallow without the risk of choking or drowning.
If you look you will see that this giraffe is chewing on something very strange.
Yes, it is a bone. Giraffe will very often reach down and pick up bones to chew on. They need a lot of calcium to keep their bones strong. This practice is called osteophagia.
This is surely the best way to experience wildlife in their natural habitat. The do not mind the boats and keep on with their daily business.
Elephants love water and they will take a bath regularly. The females, or breeding herds, does not show this fondness of spending too much time in the water playing around. They cross as quick as possible. The reason for that is that they have young ones with them, and it is not safe for babies in the water.
The males on the other hand, are like children on the beach and in the ocean. They just cannot get enough. We often see this peculiar behaviour where the males get unto each other’s back. This is not mating, as many people would ask me, or homosexual behaviour by the males. This is just pure fun. Dipping each other, trying to dip a friend under water, all this is purely fun. But there is more to that. It is very often a dominance display but in a friendly way. Here the display is done in a fun way and never becomes dangerous to any of the participants in the pool party.
Oxpecker are good at cleaning all the parasites from the buffalos and other animals in the wilderness,a good morning from my beautiful pearl of Africa.
The skin of a hippo can weigh half a ton. Yes, 500 kg.
The endodermis varies in thickness across the body from 5-6 cm thick on the back and rump but less than 1 cm on certain parts of the head and belly. The fat layer can be up to 12 cm thick. During the winter months the water can get very cold, and they lose a lot of heat. Sunbathing helps them to heat up, they can dehydrate very quickly so they will move back into the water when their body temperature rises enough.