Ears and Tails – Lions, Leopards and Cheetah

When searching for the three largest cats in our parks, we often find them but can only see an ear or tail twitching in the grass. These fortunately can be used to distinguish one from another as each species have different markings.

Educational slides

Vine-leaf Vagrant (Eronia cleodora) Pieridae

Males have a wingspan of around 45-60mm Mainly found along the eastern coastal areas.

Sulphur Orange Tip Butterfly (Colotis auxo) Pieridae

Wingspan 35-40mm. Found along the eastern coastal regions.

Common Orange Tip (Colotis evenina)

Family Pieridae Pierinae

Males have a wingspan of 38-45mm

Elephant - mixed herds

Although animals mix freely at waterholes, elephants dominate and will chase others away.

Young elephants have a lot of fun running after warthogs which run away with tails in the air. :)

Kerstens Sprite (Psuedagrion kersteni)

Family Coenagrionidae

A mating pair - the female being held under the water during the process.

Long-tailed Starling

Family Sturnidae

A local resident in the northern regions and are fruit and insect eaters.

Small Orange Tip (Colotis evagore antigone)

Family Pieridae Pierinae

A smallish butterfly with a wingspan of 28-35mm in the males who are larger than females.

They are found throughout the year.

Serrated Hinged Terrapin (Pelusios sinuatus)

Family Pelomedusidae

This is the largest of our fresh water terrapins with the females being bigger than the males and can weigh up to 7kg.

Musk glands are located on the soft skin which exude a foul smelling substance when they are stressed.

They breed throughout the summer and lay between 8 and 48 soft-shelled eggs in a clutch and two clutches per year.

Marbled Electric Ray (Torpedo sinuspersici)

Family Torpedinidae

 

What luck! Taking a walk on the beach and looking into the rock pools, I found this Marbled Electric Ray (Torpedo sinuspersici) swimming in it. It is about 30cm in length from nose to tail tip. As it kept on burying itself in the sand it was difficult to take a picture of so I caught it in a bucket, took the pics, then let it go again.

An extract from Wikipedia:

“Little is known about them. It is a sluggish predator of bony fishes. At night it actively hunts for food, sculling slowly through the water about a meter above the bottom; during the day it usually rests on the bottom and opportunistically ambushes unwary prey. It uses its broad pectoral fins to envelop the target fish before delivering an electric shock to stun it. Usually solitary, they may form groups during the mating season. It measures up to 130 cm long, although most are less than 100 cm. The angling record from South Africa is 13 kg.

 Reproduction is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryos initially surviving on their yolk sacs, and then on enriched uterine fluid produced by the mother. Litters of 9-22 young are birthed in the summer. Newborns measure about 10 cm wide; males mature at a disc width of 39 cm and females at 45 cm.”

Buquet's Vagrant (Nepheronia buquetii)

Family Pieridae

 At a glance this looks exactly like the green form of African Migrant (Catopsilia florella), its green eyes make it a different species. It is the same in size but found only along the Natal coast.

Hermit Crab fight - Yellow-banded Hermit Crab (ClibanariusVirescens)

In a shallow tidal pool, I came across three Hermit Crabs fighting for the possession of a larger shell. For a while I thought the drab grey one would win but it was two against one. Then a forth crab joined in ….

The smallest crab is about 1cm in length but can grow up to 2cm. They are found along the eastern coast.

Unfortunately by this time my camera battery got too low so I never saw who the victor was.

Excuse the poor quality of the pictures but these were taken through the water.

Elephant touching

Elephants not only use their trunks for eating, smelling and drinking, but also touching each other, especially when young.

This re-enforces the bond between the animals of the herd

This baby is only about 18 months old.

Rock Hyrax (Dassie)

 Family Hyracoidae Procaviidae

The Rock Hyrax reaches a length of 50 cm (20 in) and weighs around 4 kg (8.8 lb),  

They eat a varied species of plants and grass and are able to go for many days without water due to the moisture they obtain through their food.

Hyraxes live in colonies of up to 30 individuals. These colonies are subdivided into smaller groups consisting of a few families. These consist of 3 to 15 related adult females, a dominant male, and several young. The dominant male defends and watches over the group. The male also marks its territory

They give birth to two or three young after a gestation period of 6–7 months. The young are well developed at birth with fully opened eyes. Babies can ingest solid food after two weeks and are weaned at ten weeks.

They live on and amongst rocks and can be found in most habitats. They come out early in the mornings to absorb the first rays of the sun