I filmed this hippo last year at Lake Panic Hide in Kruger National Park, fortunately from a good distance…
Big male hippos use their tails to flick their poo around to send a clear and smelly signal to other hippos. It’s usually only done by males and certainly comes across as a very yucky ‘boy thing’, but it’s not unheard of for females to do it as an expression of submission.
“Um… what are hippos doing on Vanishing Species? There seems to be squillions of them.”
Despite seeming incredibly abundant in places, the hippo population has actually decreased dramatically (by as much as 20%) since 1996.
Ongoing habitat loss, ivory poaching and human-hippo conflict (which never ends well) have all contributed to the decline.
The Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) is on the IUCN Red List for Threatened Species as “vulnerable”. Population trend: decreasing.
I’m looking at the rhino and she’s looking back at me. Well, she’s not really looking back at me – to do that she’d have to see me – and she can’t. Just like me, the rhino is exceedingly near-sighted. But unlike me, she hasn’t been to Specsavers. She wouldn’t fit through the front door. And she probably wouldn’t want to anyway.
Her ear twitches awkwardly, telling me that she can hear me, and that despite her size, she’s nervous about the vehicle. She’s pretending to eat some grass but she isn’t really. It’s like eating M&Ms when you’re nervous and they miss your mouth and fall down your shirt.
The rhinos in Kruger make me smile. Every time I’m in their presence, I still have to blink a few times. How privileged we are that something looking so fantastically clumsy and prehistoric can live alongside us.
White Rhinos, Kruger Park, South Africa
Once, I was watching a rhino when suddenly a leopard casually walked in front of it, just inches from the rhino’s face. Neither bothered to look up and not the slightest glance was exchanged. How many of us could pull off an act of such utterly cool indifference? I certainly couldn’t.
Each rhino here is wild and beautiful. Each in its own way, with its own character. The ones who pretend to eat. The ones who bolt a short distance and then turn back towards you to check if you’re still there. And the ones who just sleep out in the open, while Africa happens all around them. I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with them all. And every now and then, something happens which secures their super-fuzzy place in my heart.
For the past few months, I’d noticed the road signs in Kruger were often lying flattened on the ground. Although never ruling out frustrated tourists, I assumed this to be the work of elephants. After all, elephants push everything else over.
But a few weeks ago, I watched a big, rough-looking bull laden with mildly confused Oxpeckers, casually wander up to a speed limit sign. He proceeded to bash it over with his horn before stomping on it and peeing on it. A most undignified death for a road-sign. This rhino didn’t care. He simply strolled off down the road looking for the next ill-fated sign in his territory.
Mystery solved. I can stop blaming the elephants.
It’s fair to say that rhinos absolutely rock my socks.
So can you believe that there are people who want to hurt my rhinos?
Did you think poaching was a thing of the past? The guests I take out on safari often do, and it’s left to me to shock them with some bad news.
Just in the last 3 years, rhino horn has become one of the most valuable commodities on earth. And what for? It isn’t bone, and it certainly isn’t ivory. It’s not much more than keratin, like our own hair and fingernails. Ridiculous rumours of its ability to cure just about anything have pushed demand to the most extreme levels imaginable. The only thing a rhino horn can do effectively is sit atop a rhino’s head where it can be used to smack other rhinos and knock over the occasional road sign.
IUCN Status
In Africa:
The Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis) is on the IUCN Red List for Threatened Species as “critically endangered”. The latest population estimate is 4,180 (December 2007)
The White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is on the IUCN Red List for Threatened Species as “near threatened”. The latest population estimate is 17,480 (December 2007)
Spekboom is a sprawling shrub found in South Africa, especially in the Eastern Cape where it pretty much dominates everything else. In Addo Elephant Park, Spekboom covers 80% of the landscape, so the elephants are literally up to their necks in it all the time, which works well because they love the stuff.
‘Spekboom’ translates to ‘pork bush’, but it’s rather a reference to the fat leaves on the plant. It’s very gooey and aloeish and if done properly, you can make the little rounded leaves pop, which is extremely satisfying.
And it’s delicious! Double win! One of its quirks is that it tastes much more acidic in the morning than it does in the evening. I have tested this. The leaves taste a lot like acidic peas. Nobody likes acidic peas, but when you’re out in the bush, the leaves are like chocolate. Chocolate that grows on trees. This is so wonderful that my mind can’t process it. I once sat at the Addo hide with two plain pieces of bread, which I proceeded to fill with Spekboom leaves that I had plucked from the bush beside me, as onlookers gasped in horror. I can assure you that it’s quite good in sandwiches… and as a result, I had the hide during prime viewing hours, all to myself!
Spekboom also works well as natural fencing. It effectively blocks views, but doesn’t dampen the sound of your elderly campsite neighbours playing swing music and generally being rowdy. And the walls don’t stop monkeys from stealing kitchen utensils, like Sporks.
It’s wonderfully adapted to living in Addo and it has to be. Addo has a lot of elephants. And I mean A LOT. They eat a lot of Spekboom. Fortunately, Spekboom has the ability to grow without having to plant seeds anywhere. A branch gets snapped off by an elephant, falls on the ground and a new Spekboom bush starts growing. Beautiful. This feature makes it very beneficial to the environment, because it can grow from nothing in horribly unfavourable conditions. Useful when you have a patch of arid land you need to regenerate. Love.
It’s wonderfully adapted to living in Addo and it has to be. Addo has a lot of elephants. And I mean A LOT. They eat a lot of Spekboom. Fortunately, Spekboom has the ability to grow without having to plant seeds anywhere. A branch gets snapped off by an elephant, falls on the ground and a new Spekboom bush starts growing. Beautiful. This feature makes it very beneficial to the environment, because it can grow from nothing in horribly unfavourable conditions. Useful when you have a patch of arid land you need to regenerate. Love.
