The safari game drives were mostly about the wildlife, so I’ll post some more animal photos. I’ll show a few different animals and some stories to go with some of them.

This is a spotted hyena, also known as the laughing hyena. We saw quite a few hyenas and we heard more than that, both during the day and the night. While they don’t look it, our guide book calls the spotted hyena the second largest carnivore in Africa, behind the lion. They are a solid looking animal with surprisingly long legs and very big teeth. Most carnivores kill their prey and then take their time consuming it. The hyena, on the other hand, bypasses the killing stage and just starts eating the animal, while it’s still alive. Our guidebook says an adult spotted hyena is capable of running down and killing a bull wildebeest and that packs of hyenas kill zebras and even larger animals. This guy may not look that dangerous, but he’s one to be wary of.

We came across this group of elephants in the Okavango and they reacted to us rather strongly. They circled around their two babies and warned us to stay away. It reminded me of the old western movies where they circle the wagon train for protection. Those babies were quite safe from us and probably from everything else as well.

This is a Tsessebe Topi, which is an antelope. These animals are built for speed and endurance with high shoulders, deep chest, and long legs. Our guide said this was the second fastest animal on earth, behind the Cheetah. Sometime later, he called another animal the second fastest on earth, so I’m not sure about second or third but I think it goes without saying that they are very fast. This antelope is a pure grazer and is usually found in the grasslands. But with this being the dry season and a drought period at that, they were seeking food far and wide, including in the woodlands.

This is a Bushbuck. Our guidebook describes it as “the smallest member of the tribe; a secretive woodland antelope”. We only saw a few bushbucks. The bushbuck is a mixed feeder on green grass, foliage, herbs, fruit, and flowers. This is one you wouldn’t want in your garden. For much of the time, they are a solitary antelope. This one wasn’t all that small and I liked its look.

I put this photo in mostly for the story. This is a combination of a rank of impala and a troop of baboons. So why are they mixed in together? They hang out together for mutual protection. The baboons have excellent sight and the impala have excellent hearing. That gives all of them an advantage of earlier detection of predators over if they grazed separately.