Animals, animals

We have only ten days left in South Africa, as we are leaving May 27th for Minnesota.  I am now in the "pull-push" time of being extremely anxious to get home, and not wanting to leave.  How could I have been here almost four months - and not posted a single blog entry?   I have been busy, but I need to make up for lost time.

Let's begin with what many of our friends think of first when they think of South Africa, and that's the wildlife.  Yes, we went on a safari - a short one, close to Port Elizabeth where we are staying. 

And, we saw an amazing assortment of animals.  I'm happy to share a few favorites:

 

Impalas are the most often caught 'fast food' of predators,
hence the "M" (for McDonald's) on their rumps.

Excuse me... I'm eating here!

They are trying bee hives to keep
elephants from destroying certain trees.
(Elephants are afraid of bees!)

I am a male nyala

You can really see the facial warts on this warthog.

Each giraffe is uniquely patterned

This elephant baby was born this year.

He's still nursing, but this day he was practicing
using his trunk to eat like the adults.
He missed his mouth as often as he hit it.

Aren't I beautiful?

Poachers tranquilized this white rhino and cut off its horn.
 Rhino horn is smuggled to, and highly valued in, China and Vietnam.
Sadly, rhinos are often killed for their horns.
This one lived - and will eventually grow its horn back.

The lions were eating a fresh kill.

The little one got his own "leg"

You could tell it was likely a kudu by its horns.

I'm the one that did all the work.

Wildebeasts

I learned the names of several groups of animals that I think are especially well named!  What 

do you call a group of…

…giraffes?                          a tower

…guinea fowl?                   a confusion

…hippos?                           a bloat

…zebras?                           a dazzle 
because their stripes make it hard for lions to pick individual zebras out of the crowd.  And, my favorite:  What do you call a group of hyenas?  A cackle!

A "dazzle" of zebras

So, yes.  The animals are amazing.  But, there is SO much more to South Africa's intrigue than its animals.  There are the complexities of its fragile democracy, the urgency of conversations about race, the poverty of the townships, and the vestiges of Apartheid that haunt present day. 

Please ask me to tell you some of those memories, too, when I get home.