Cheetah are one of my favorites and I had been on the lookout for them since we entered the park several days previously. On the last day we had a long drive from the Satara campsite to J’burg airport and so it was another early morning. We drove slowly down the road and spotted lots of wildlife, including sable antelope, hyena, and a chameleon. I had all but given up on seeing cheetah but as we came around a bend in the road we spotted two casually walking down the middle of the road. Initially we were the only ones around and slowly followed them along the road. However, within a few minutes another car approached from the opposite direction and instead of stopping and letting the cheetah continue to move along the road, the people drove right up to them to try and get some pictures. The cheetah calmly moved off to the left into the green grass and low laying trees and shrubs that were charred black from a recent fire. Like most of the wildlife in Kruger, they didn’t seem to mind the human attention too much and I was able to get a few decent photos below.
Another roadside spotting. The first day we arrived in the park it had just stopped raining and these guys were all out sitting on the side of the roads looking for insects and warming up on the asphalt. Farther down the road we came across a green snake trying to eat on of these frogs but the frog inflated itself so much that the snake could not get it’s jaws around it and gave up. Unfortunately my camera decided to malfunction at this precise moment and all the pictures I had taken were out of focus.
These prehistoric looking birds have historically been difficult for me to get close enough for decent photographs but I have seen them on numerous safaris in Kenya and Uganda. However, this family of three consisting of 2 adults and a juvenile were walking along just adjacent to the road between Satara and Olifants camps in Kruger National Park. They didn’t seem to be bothered at all that we were there and they continued to search for food. They are opportunistic in what they eat which can include insects, lizards, snakes and even hare. When they catch something small enough to shallow whole, they first toss it up into the air like a piece of popcorn before consuming it.
This photo of a juvenile ground hornbill shows a bit of their playful personality. Just prior to taking this photo the bird walked up to this torn apart tree (compliments of a hungry elephant) and grabbed at a piece of the bark. It pulled back and forth and jumped up and down until it was able to rip a piece off the tree. As if to show off it’s accomplishment it flew up onto the tree with the piece of bark still in it’s beak. However, it quickly lost interest and after pausing for a few seconds it tossed the bark up into the air, jumped down and went back to foraging for food.
After stopping at a camp to stock up on supplies we had a look at the wildlife sighting map. Each camp has a map of the surrounding area that people can mark down the various high profile wildlife sightings (elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah and wild dog) for that day and the day before. We were both hoping to see wild dog, but we would really have to be lucky to spot them as they are very rare in the park. Someone had posted on the board that they had seen wild dog in the area and so we headed off to try our luck. While we didn’t see any wild dog we did come across a lot of other wildlife including a large herd of elephants playing in a waterhole (photos to come), zebra and of course impala. However, with most wildlife drives I usually see something unique and unexpected, which is what these three photos illustrate.
This terrapin seemed to pose for me but I suspect he was just annoyed that I was not giving him any food! Most of the other terrapin had moved back into the deeper water at this point but any time we moved the car forward they would all come racing back up.
By this point we had managed to cross the water to the other side of the pond but not without being followed by one of the terrapins. The females in this species are generally larger than the males and so I think this was a curious female terrapin. She walked right up to my lens before deciding to return to the safety of the pond and we quickly left before anymore decided to come up for another visit.
I’m back! I know it’s been quiet some time since I last posted photos on my blog so thank you for hanging around. Hopefully in the next few months I can start updating my blog on a more regular basis. I still have lots of photos from my trip last year to Kenya to add in addition to all the new photos I have of wildlife in Alberta, Canada. But I thought I would start off with a few photos from my most recent trip to South Africa. The reason for the trip was because I was teaching a course at the annual Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) Healthcare Workshop hosted by JGI Chimp Eden in Nelspruit, South Africa. The workshop is for veterinary personnel working in sanctuaries throughout Africa that care for great apes (gorillas, chimps, bonobos). I have been involved with PASA since 2003 and I am always amazed each time I come to these conferences to meet the vets working throughout Africa that do so much for the wildlife in their sanctuaries with so little in terms of supplies and basic things like reliable electricity. If you are interested in learning more about PASA please visit 
Owen Slater Photography 