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By Odette Fourie, Field Guide - Bayete Zulu
Another sunny day here at Bayete Zulu means just one thing for our mini trackers visiting the lodge: time to get close to nature and appreciate the wonder of the bush from the back of a game viewer and, where opportunity presents itself, to stop along the road to investigate animal tracks and learn who they belong to.
On one such morning, I slowly made my way towards the riverbed with an enthusiastic entourage of would-be game rangers. It was a particularly good morning as we met interesting and fascinating animals around every bend – from a tiny Leopard Tortoise, which is one of the small five that we learn about, to a Purple-crested Turaco – who has a call to match it’s fantastic-sounding name. We were also lucky enough to spot a few of our elusive reptiles along the way: a Blue-headed Tree Agama running up a tree – which had the children in awe of his bright blue colour and agility in the branches; and even a Water Monitor, which we had to stop suddenly for, as it ran across the road.
We finally reached the river, which we traced for a long time with our footsteps as the children attempted to identify which animals had left their tracks on the river banks. The group identified the distinctive tracks of the Savannah Baboon, which were intermingled with haphazard Kudu tracks, as the buck had lazily wandered about. We also found the far-stretched tracks of baby warthogs that had been playing in the area – and even some elephant tracks as they’d obviously crossed the ground there in search of some shade.
We walked around a bend and found something that none of us had expected – a skeleton! And so began the biology lesson right there in the bush! By process of elimination we ruled out the option of a warthog because of its long legs. Its distinctive teeth definitely belonged to a browser, and once the horns were identified we knew it was an antelope. A Nyala, to be exact, which had been the unfortunate lunch for one of the most mysterious and shy hunters in the area, the leopard!
After a walk filled with adventure and amazing treasures, we headed back to the game viewer and back to the lodge, seeing baby hippo and baby giraffe (that can stick its tongue in its own ear!) along the way. The action-packed gaming experience ended with some water fun in the pool before joining the parents for dinner and stories about wanting to become game rangers when they grow up...
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