All creatures great and small. iDube Game Reserve

 

 

 

 

In ancient times, the African zebra was called hippotigris (“horse tiger”) by both the Greeks and Romans.

The ancient Greek empire stretched from the Mediterranean east to the borders of India and south into Northern Africa during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. During these explorations of the African coast, they discovered an animal that they believed may have been a cross between tigers they had seen in Asia and horses, which had already been domesticated.

When the Roman Empire came to power, they continued to refer to the animal as the hippotigris and incorporated them into their circuses.

‘iDube’ is the isiZulu word for Zebra, and hence the name of the lodge.

 

 

 

This quote has been attributed to Robert Ruark:

‘A buffalo always looks at you as if you owe it money’

Seeing the title of this post is ‘All creatures great and small’, and already having used an image of an elephant in the title, I decided to utilize the buffalo in the body of this post.

In my opinion, this is one animal that deserves its place in the Big 5 as it is probably the most dangerous animal on the African continent.

“But what about lions”? I think I hear you ask… Have you seen what a lone buffalo can do to a lion? They do not accept that they are a prey species and they will fight back, either as individuals or as a herd, often inflicting life-threatening wounds on the cats.

They are also known for doubling back on their tracks and attacking humans for no apparent reason.

 

 

 

Leopards are fast and agile felines that are capable of running more than 58km/h and there has been a recorded vertical leap of 6m by one particular individual!

Unlike lions or cheetahs, leopards are solitary animals and, aside from mating and raising cubs, spend most of their time alone.

Therefore, they cannot, like lions, rely on the pride that will come to the aid of a sick or injured member, and thus have no backup so that, if sick or injured, they will have to rely on instinct to survive…or not.

Kilo for kilo, they are the strongest cat in Africa. Although they are the smallest, they are strong enough to drag a 50kg carcass into a tree.

I don’t usually go out on a game drive when it is raining, but I am glad that I did on this occasion, as this was to be the first leopard sighting of the trip.

 

 

 

A female Boomslang had made her home in a hole in the tree near the iDube reception. Its common name means “tree snake” in Afrikaans. These snakes have exceptionally large eyes, and their head has a characteristic egg-like shape. Boomslangs have excellent eyesight and often move their head from side to side to get a better view of objects directly in front.

With it, in the tree and me on the ground with a powerful telephoto lens, we were both safe from each other.

In trees, the species poses no threat to humans as it is extremely reluctant to bite and hence bites are rare.

Even though it is back-fanged it can open its mouth extremely wide and can therefore deliver a bite to an arm or hand, rather than the popular fallacy that it can only bite onto a small digit.

 

 

 

A male Boomslang at the other side of the property. How they might get together is a mystery that guests might not be privy to.

One of the issues with boomslang venom is that symptoms emerge only several hours after being bitten.

 

 

 

A Leopard Tortoise, one of the Little 5, and a LOT faster than you think. They are considered the fastest among all tortoise species and walk at a speed of 1km per hour.

Leopard tortoises can also climb and can float and swim slowly as their large, domed shell has a sizeable lung space that allows buoyancy. They stay underwater for up to 10 minutes and have been documented crossing dams and streams.

 

 

 

A recently born Nyala. Will this youngster grow up to be male or female? Only time and a look at genitalia will tell.

Nyala is the most sexually dimorphic antelope in the world. Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. For example, in some species, including many mammals, the male is larger than the female

When young, both the bulls and the ewes look identical, but once they start to mature, the males change colour and look like they have put on a grey overcoat. Which leads them to be referred to as ‘icoati’ in isiZulu.

 

 

 

A Blue-headed Tree Agama. The natural range of this species is over the entire South Africa and Botswana, excluding only sandy areas of the Northern Cape and portions of the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

The Agama usually eats ants, crickets, caterpillars, worms, and spiders, however, they have also been known to eat seeds, berries, fruits, and eggs of other lizards and birds.

 

 

 

Unusual to find a solitary ant.

Fun facts:

Ants hold the record for the fastest movers in the animal kingdom.

Ants can be found on every single continent except Antarctica.

Ants are social insects that live in colonies.

Ants don’t have ears, and some of them don’t have eyes!

The largest ant’s nest ever found was over 5954,5 km wide!

The ant is one of the world’s strongest creatures of its size. A single ant can carry 50 times its body weight, and they’ll even work together to move bigger objects.

Individual workers weigh on average between 1 to 5 mg, according to the species. When combined, all ants in the world would weigh about as much as all human beings.

 

 

 

“Made it Ma, top of the world”. Originally the quote is from the 1949 movie ‘White Heat’ with James Cagney.

The press blurb for the movie read as follows: Deranged and disturbed in every way, the only place criminal gang leader Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) can find relief from his mental headaches is in the Oedipal embrace of his mother. When she dies, he becomes even more unhinged, spiraling out of control and leading to a climactic police standoff atop a giant gas storage tank.

Cornered and outnumbered, and with the tank about to explode, he bellows the infamous line to the heavens, just in time for the whole thing to go up in flames.

I somehow do NOT believe that is what this particular ant was thinking when it reached the stalk of this leaf.

 

 

 

After much speculation, and with input from several sources, this was identified as a Conehead Mantis ( Empusa pennata ). Not often seen in the wild, this was yet another unusual sighting for this trip.

Empusidae is a family of plant-mimicking mantises consisting of 10 genera, holding almost 30 species. Empusidae mantises are ambush predators, with mouthparts adapted to feeding on other insects and small animals. The majority of Empusidae species are distributed throughout Africa, but they are also found in Southeast Asia and the southern parts of Europe.

 

 

 

And so ends another day in Africa or more specifically, Sabi Sands…

 

 

 

4 nights at our favourite camp in the Sabi Sands was not nearly enough and we are already making plans to return in 2023. If you want to find out more about their current specials and offers, click on the logo above to visit their website