Water to die for....

In our recent quest to get images of Brown Hyenas (see Brown Hyenas at Tswalu) we set up a camera-trap at a small water-hole. We did get some fleeting images of a Brown Hyena but, for me, there was something more interesting happening there.

This image, taken at mid-morning showed a pretty peaceful scene: Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) doing what they probably do most days of their lives.

They were followed a little while later by some Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) and Gemsbok (Oryx gazella) who initially looked pretty chilled......

......until the Zebra got spooked by something.

The Red Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) then ambled down to the water..........


....until they too had a panic attack.

But this is dry country so it wasn't long before the Zebra were back......

.....but didn't stay long.

However their thirst got the better of them....

.......until.....

The reason for their panic became obvious shortly thereafter:

....................................................................................................................................................................

I'm grateful for a great many things in my life but I've just added a new one:
that I don't need someone to watch my back when I get a drink of water!

Postscipt:
We were driving in the area the next day when we came across this scene:

There is not much of the carcass left, but the last remains of a Zebra can just be seen.

Brown Hyenas at Tswalu

I've just returned from a trip to an amazing wildlife reserve called Tswalu Kalahari.  I went there with Elsa Bussiere who is starting her PhD on Brown Hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) on the reserve, and wanted to test out a variety of camera-traps.

Tswalu is a huge and beautiful place!

But over and above the gorgeous landscape there is a fabulous diversity of wildlife. Even though our objective was to locate and 'catch' the Brown Hyenas on the camera-traps one couldn't but photograph some other great mammals:

A Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus

Gemsbok (Oryx) Oryx gazella

Common Duiker Silvicapra grimmia

But the real prize was these guys:

I'll be posting more images shortly but if you want to know more about Elsa's hyena project go to her blog.