Ranger Diary
The big ones
Archives
- Surprise flamingos
- A long death
- Tumi and family
- The brave caracal
- Of leopards & elephants
- The western kill
- The draw (lions)
- Search for lions
- Pilanesberg night drive
- The big ones
- Hippos and Elephants
- Hippo Carcass
- My amazing game drive
- Lion hunting zebra
- The one that got away
- Lion hunt
- The brown hyena
- Rare carnivores
- Bird watching
When any ranger in the Pilanesberg gets a request from guests to see buffalo, it is guaranteed to bring out a laugh! The reason being that it is one of the most difficult of the big 5 to find in this reserve! The buffalo here much prefer thick bush over open plains and resides mostly in the wilderness area to the west of the park. Hence when I got the request this weekend I told my guests that we'll try our best but it is better not to get our hopes up. The first evening drive bore no fruit, and then this morning.
Driving along we saw a head sticking out of a bush, the head being right over the road. Thinking to myself, man that's a big wildebeest, we got a bit closer and true enough, it's our mighty friend, the buffalo. Not just one, but a whole breeding herd (of which most were obscured in the bushes of coarse)! After spending some time driving up and down we got a relatively clear view of an old bull. Once everyone had their fill of these 'wild cows with bad attitudes' we moved to where there was a possible breeding herd of elephant. To everyone's delight we found it, and to add a little something special, there was a calf of only about two months of age with the herd! We could make out that the herd was very stressed and kept our distance, giving them the option of approaching us. After about fifteen minutes they started crossing the road only 20m in front of the vehicle, all clearly comfortable with us observing. The little calf even tried utilizing his still useless trunk, but failed miserably! There were also two young bulls with the herd, play-fighting to hone their skills for when they get older and need to compete for mating rights!!
When the herd moved away from the road we went for a warming coffee break, no-one could stop talking about the cute little calf.
Ps: on returning to camp we found out that that specific breeding herd of elephant was chased by a helicopter to get them out of the area where they were darting a rhino. That would be the reason the herd was so stressed.
Ivory Tree Game Lodge
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