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| Impala ewe & lamb, November 2013 |
The anticipation is building.......
Impala lambing season is starting any second now......
And then you won't be able to see the bush for the babies!
In the meantime, there are many other young mammals to be seen......
Not many of Krugers mammals are strictly seasonal but it is definitely noticeable that more babies arrive at this time of the year than in other months.
Here are just a few that we've seen over the last few weeks.
This was a great sighting! Hippo mothers usually keep their young well away from human presence.
Thankfully the rains have arrived not too many weeks after the extensive wildfires of late September.
This elephant mothers gaunt appearance is probably due to the lack of suitable food (end of October).
She should recover quickly now that the bush is becoming greener.
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| White Rhino calf |
This young rhino like many youngsters was quite curious about us.....
Fortunately for us the number of tourists & vehicles in Kruger dropped quite significantly in the first week of November, so we had 15 uninterrupted minutes with this calf and it's mother whilst they took their time crossing the road.
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| Vervet Monkey |
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| Baby Chacma Baboon |
The primates are some of my favourite animals - just so human-like without any of our inhibitions.
The babies are particularly cute.
(Which is why so many people "adopt" baby Vervets & then abandon them when they become not so cute adults!)
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| Warthog (aka Pumba) |
And then I laughed and laughed.....
These three, 4-day old "hoglets" were careering around like maniacs whilst their mother was chomping away as fast as she could on the lush green lawn of the lodge we were staying at.
Sorry, folks, it was almost impossible to get a "sharp" photo of these little ones. They hardly stopped moving.
And of course that's one of the joys of the baby season.
It's just amazing, and hilarious, to watch all those new, innocent animals bounding around with very little fear or caution.
I'm so looking forward to seeing the 2014 crop of impala lambs!
For more baby pics check out my posting on the same topic last year. (click on the link below)
It's baby time in Kruger
4 comments:
Hi Sue - wonderful shots - and how lucky you've been to see so many babies - all my favourites .. but I do love warthogs - I have them around here ...
Cheers - thoroughly enjoyed seeing these - Hilary
Gosh Hilary - do you really have warthogs near you?
They can become an awful nuisance if their numbers are not controlled by predators like leopard & lion - or do you have some of those too? ;)
Baby everything is so cute, even the warthogs. Someday I'll be there for spring birthing.
Gaelyn, I just hope I won't miss too much of the spring birthing myself.
Now that's something I would still like to see - an actual birth :)
Sue
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