Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Addo Elephant National Park
March 7th 2014
RamblingRosies
1403-116 Welcome to Addo Elephant National Park–our self-driveThe Addo Elephant National Park, Friday, March 7th. Sunny day.
The third largest national park in South Africa, Addo Elephant National Park covers about 180,000 hectares or 444,700 acres. The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only sixteen elephants remained in the area. Today, it is sanctuary to over 550 elephants plus lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique and rare Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo.
We drove around various dirt and tarred roads looking for animals first thing this morning. This is the wildest we will ever be able to see these animals even though they are in a fenced and gated area for their protection. Animals that have historically been in this environment have been introduced to the park over time, but not those like the impala, giraffe, and white rhino that have not. We finished very slowly driving a road loop and came back to the campground at noonish for lunch and a nap before going out again in a different direction. We did this until the gates closed at 6:30.
This day we
1403-117 Leopard Tortise alongside the roadsaw right alongside the RV or standing in the road:
bullet; Over 100 elephants (really too many to count), many of the females had babies beside them.
bullet; Herds of Burchell’s zebras;
bullet; Many red hartebeest, and elands (both are types of antelopes);
bullet; 6 million and 405 wart hogs, including all the babies running alongside of them;
bullet; 5 leopard tortoises;
bullet; Several different species of birds;
bullet; One, black-backed jackal, that was very pretty and exciting to see,
bullet; A few yellow mongoose (mongeese); and,
bullet; 5-6 flightless dung beetles, but not any of them rolling along their dung balls–Signs are posted to watch out for them and they have the right away in this park when they walk down the middle of the road. Saw several balls of dung where they had rolled it up in the road that we carefully made sure not to drive over.
Elephants eat as much as 660 pounds in a single day but they only digest about 40% of their intake. Therefore, an elephant will spend much of the day, 16 to 20 hours, grazing or eating leaves, branches, fruits, nuts and seeds from trees. We watched a goodly number of them eating and they
1403-118 Looking out over parts of Addo NP and neighboring reservesdidn’t seem all that particular about what they ate. They just stripped foliage with their trunks and mowed down trees and shrubs in their way. Since they use only their trunks to eat, grasses are pulled up, roots and all. When they had been through an area, you found torn limbs and debris in the roads as well as lots of dung. The dung is rich in nutrients and solid food matter, so it is beneficial to dung beetles and many species of bird.
They drink as much as 50 gallons of water in a single day by sucking it part way into their trunks and then pouring it into their mouths. Because they drink so often, and so much, they are never far from water. They also use the mud to keep them cool and to rid themselves of parasites on their skin. Valerie took lots of pictures and several videos of a herd in a water/mud hole having a great time while we sat in the RV and watched. For two of the videos, see: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203351264443682set=vb.1273183320type=3theater and https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203351307404756set=vb.1273183320type=3theater
When the gate to the animal drives closed, we then sat in a bird hide that overlooked a
1403-119 Flightless dung beetlesmall pond filled with reeds for a bit. Here we saw dozens of nests and a couple of new birds including a brilliant red and black bishop. Before it got dark, we headed back to our camp spot for the night very satisfied with our sightings for the day.
Article source: http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Addo-Elephant-National-Park/blog-837919.html