It started with a Giraffe

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We were awoken this morning with a “view from our window” of a browsing giraffe, and then gazing a bit further into the bush, a grazing zebra.

Literally on our front doorstep. What a special way to start a Sunday.

And what more can one ask for than a cup of coffee, while sitting on the veranda, enjoying the giraffe and zebra.

In areas where elephants occur, the snap and crack of a branch usually indicates that an elephant is close by. In our reserve, the snap and crack of a branch indicates a giraffe is close by. Listening to a crack in the near distance, I knew we had more than one giraffe close by.

A little bit later, whilst hanging out the washing, I noticed a movement out the corner of my eye. It was a little cocktail ant – just one – dragging the body of a very dead bug. I’m not sure where it was taking the bug, but I had to admire the strength and resolve of this one little ant, with its stash of “bug” so many times bigger than itself.

And while watching it on the move, I also noticed how incredible the shadow of this little ant was, as it made its way along, navigating past the various obstacles in its way.

Much later in the day, just before the sun began to set, we set out with the dogs, on our normal evening walk. Again we were blessed with a beautiful sunset, the light casting a beautiful copper soft light through the trees and over the grasses.

Evidence of the giraffes visit in the morning, was very much present. There were giraffe tracks everywhere.

You can see in the picture on the left, I have drawn lines with the giraffe prints between the lines, but there is also a tiny little print at the top right of the print, which is quite round, and I think is a genet track. We have seen a number of large spotted genets on our camera trap.

On the right, you can see my footprint for size comparison. Granted I don’t have the biggest foot, I’m a size 4 roughly, but it still gives you an idea of size. Interestingly the footprint belonging to me, was not me standing next to the giraffe print, rather the giraffe just so happened to walk right next to my print, which was probably from the previous day.

A bit further along we came across this very old scat. I think it’s probably an old jackal dropping. There is no way to be 100% sure on this, but I’m sticking with that. It does have little bits of fur in it.

There are many droppings all over from the various game we have, and given that we also had zebra this morning to start the day, I took a picture or two of zebra droppings as well.

Obviously the difference between the zebra dung and the jackal scat is in what the individual eats. Zebras eat grass, and so when their dung breaks down, it looks just like a pile of dried grass which was mown down and left to dry. It is perfectly safe to handle and also smells pleasant, just like dry grass.

The bush is full of nature’s little pieces of art, scattered randomly around. Little pieces of wood are one such example of these little artworks. They come in all shapes and sizes and are distinguished in their “art” by the wonderful textures and patterns found in them.