This is an East African Crowned Crane.
This is a Rhea, a member of the ostrich family. He was pecking at the stickers on the car window, and the swallowing, as if he'd managed to take a piece off and eat it. A rather unattractive creature, yet still part of God's creation, and reason to glorify our Maker.
The white rhinoceros. With that horn, they look like mean animals, but they do not hunt other animals. They eat bulbs, grass and other foliage and the horn is used to allow them to dig their food up. According to the "Official Guide Book", the horn is not attached to their skull, but actually grows from the skin. They are large animals, second only to the elephant when considering lannd mammals. I always think they look uncomfortable in that thick heavy skin.
A wild yak.
Zebras - they certainly do look similar to horses, but not nearly as friendly. They are untamable.
Giraffes. Quoting from the "Official Guide Book" again: "The majestic giraffe is the world's tallest animal...Giraffe have chestnut brown blotches against a buff background that blend with the shadows of tree branches. As the giraffe age, their colour darkens. Like fingerprints on humans, eachgiraffe has unique markings make each visibly different". Based on that, it seems that the plural of giraffe is giraffe, not giraffes. That's something I learned today :)
The lions and cheetah (another word where plural and singular are the same) are awesome. They were quite active when we drove by, and some of the adults even roared/snarled at each other, which was very cool. There is one male lion and several females at the Safari, as well as some cubs.
I think the feet on these big cats are so neat - they are so big. The pictures don't show it, but it was neat to see them walk. They certainly are related to the domesticated house cat!
The markhor are part of the goat family. They were in a separate pen all by themselves, but none of the literature indicated why. This picture is kind of neat, it seems that a young markhor is challenging an one of the few older males for "king of the castle" status.
We saw the elephants the most. They really are enormous creatures. Twice daily they go for a swim, and they have a grand time. It is neat to see them walking over to the swimming hole too. They walk in single file, holding on the tail of the elephant in front of them with their trunk. The Safari currently has 15 elephants, all Asian elephants, including three that are quite young - 1 or 2 years old. Eight elephants went swimming, 6 adults and 2 of the "toddlers". The "toddlers" didn't have to be part of the chain, they just walked beside the others. The one strayed twice to grab a low hanging branch from a nearby tree - a little snack to fortify him for the swim!
There was also an Elephant Roundup, where the elephants demonstrated some of their tricks for us. They are intelligent creatures. And HUGE!
A North American Elk - the antlers are quite something.
A flamboyance of flamingos!
Some eland - the largest member of the antelope family. These animals are apparently easily domesticated.
A bald eagle that they have trained to some degree. It was part of a Birds of Prey demonstration.
Bison, or buffalo as they are more commonly known.
Baboons! Unfortunately we didn't get any nice pictures of them, but we did watch them for a long time. There are lots of them at the Safari, and they rarely sit still for an instant. There were lots of young ones too, some so young they were still being held by their mothers.
Of course, they were clambering all over the cars, but the van escaped unscathed. We drove through the Reserves a second time later in the day, and then there were several cars where the people were feeding the baboons. It was quite upsetting. That's why the baboons are climbing all over the cars - they get a lot of food - food that isn't good for them.
That's it - it was an enjoyable day, and a treat to have an extra day off work!
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