For my last few days in South Africa my family and I had the privilege to explore Kruger National Park. Over four excursions through the Phabeni and Numbi Gates we managed to see the ‘big five’ along with a truly staggering amount of other species. I’ve never seen so much diversity of life in such close quarters before. Zebra, wildebeest, impala, and warthog grazing next to each other. We even saw a leopard casually toying with a herd of impala, with a hippo watching from the watering hole as a crocodile tried to lunge out at the big cat. It’s a bit blurry, but I captured a photo of the encounter with six species in the frame: leopard, crocodile, hippo, impala, egret and blacksmith plover.

I also included some highlights from a private game reserve we visited along the Garden Route, but only three photos are from there because I think private reserves don’t represent animals in their natural habitat nearly as well as in Kruger.

In order of appearance:

June 24th, 2017 (Garden Route Game Lodge)

• Springbok
• Wildebeest
• Eland
• White Rhino
• Lion and Lioness
• Zebra
• Hippo
• Cheetah
• Red Hartebeest
• Waterbuck
• Elephant
• Giraffe
• Kudu
• Birds: Hadeda ibis, common fiscal shrike, guinea fowl, cape spurfowl, crowned plover, blacksmith plover, cape wagtail, weavers, spotted eagle owl, egyptian geese, coot, white necked raven

June 26th-29th, 2017 (Kruger National Park)

• Zebra
• Giraffe
• Hippo
• White Rhino
• Elephant
• Civet (very rare)
• Spotted Genet
• Cape Buffalo
• Wildebeest
• Impala
• Bushbuck
• Nile Crocodile
• Scrub Hare
• Hyena
• Baboons
• Dwarf Mongoose
• Klipspringer
• Waterbuck
• Warthog
• Kudu
• Nyala
• Vervet Monkey
• Mozambican Spitting Cobra
• Leopard
• Duiker
• Terrapin
• Steenbok
• Tree Squirrel
• Lion
• Birds: Tawny eagle, bataleur eagle, white headed vulture, natal spurfowl, glossy starling, yellow-billed hornbill, red-billed oxpicker, long tailed shrike, swainsons spurfowl, lilac breasted roller, grey lourie, brown snake eagle, magpie shrike, saddle-billed stork, jackal buzzard, black stork, fish eagle, emerald spotted dove, tree squirrel, gray hornbill, ground hornbill, wolly necked stork, white egret, blacksmith plover, white neck stork, hammerhead, fork tailed drongo, marshal eagle, crested spurfowl, red-billed hornbill, turaco, pied kingfisher, grey heron, scops owl, reed cormorant, red rumped swallow, goshawk, dark chanting, grey-billed hornbill, african jacana, three banded plover, water thickknee

Antelope

Small Mammals

Giraffe, Rhino, Elephant

Wildebeest and Zebra

Birds

Big Cats