My African Safari: Kruger National Park

This is the wild, natural, beautiful and untamed land of Africa. South Africa’s 600 national parks are home to many of the world’s most endangered and yet dangerous animals. Nestled in the northeast corner of South Africa is Kruger National Park bordering both Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Here the Big 5 animals (elephants, buffalo, rhinos, leopards and lions) roam with the zebras, wildebeest, giraffes, wild dogs, hippos, dung beetles, antelope, monkeys and so many more animals over the 35,000 square kilometers (or over 21000 square miles, about 2/3 the size of Belgium). The bushveld and lowfeld ecosystems in Mpumalanga province are the perfect setting to encounter the beauty of nature as well as the dangers like the malaria parasite. The visibility and the sheer number of animals as well as the accessibility of the park make this one of the best safaris of the world and indeed the best on the continent. On our 1500 kilometer (about 1000 miles) trip across this land I experienced one of my best experiences in my life with nature and people.

Our trip began in Cape Town. The unusual Cape of Good Hope weather delayed our disembarkation from the ship and we made our way to Johannesburg. The two local Cape currents, one cold moving north from Antarctica and another warm moving south and west from the Indian Ocean, made for a beautiful sunrise through the haze and fog but disrupted our captain’s maneuvering of the ship. We spent one night at a fun and lively hostel named the Backpacker’s Ritz. The conversation and people off-setted the uncomfortable beds and loud dorm rooms. Early the next morning, Mary Anne from Bundu Safaris (bundu means bush in South African slang) picked us up in our custom built safari vehicle. This glass yellow box as it was affectionately called after 5 days was our home and transportation across the beautiful wide expanse from Jo’burg to Kruger and back. Across the trip we never took a break, sleeping each night about 3 hours to wake up again early for the best game sightings. 2 Irishmen, 1 Canadian, 1 English, 2 Germans and 3 Americans and 1 South African guide—what a group!

Among the “stop!” calls from our group, our hunt for the Big 5 initiated our first day at Kruger National Park. We spent most of our time in the southern and central parts of the park, where the largest concentration of animals live. In the south, the grasses are the highest and most numerous due to the rich, red, iron-heavy soil. In central Kruger, the trees and lush trees are replaced with savannas providing open land for prides of lions. To the north are the mopani forests, where grasses are sparse due to the shallow root systems of the mopani trees and elephants populate the land. We entered the park at Malelane Gate over Crocodile River. The first two nights we camped in safari tents in Berg-en-dal Rest Camp and Maroela Satellite Camp. These unobtrusive bushveld camps allow for more of a wilderness experience, complete with the most beautiful views of the sky and Southern Cross constellation. The last night we were pampered in a Private Game Reserve and lodge, bordering the park. Despite being the rainy season, the southern skies were clear and sunny by day, beautiful and starry by night. At Bundu Private Reserve, we enjoyed a sunset and nighttime drive through the reserve, with buffalo as close as 2 feet away and giraffes we walked about with! The view of the Lembobo Mountains and setting sun were coupled with a sundowner drink and some bush games. We swam at night with the moonlight under the Southern Cross, and enjoyed Castle beers and South African wines. Our welcoming hosts talked about the politics of apartheid, South African’s gay community, animals and their behaviors, and the history and complexity of South Africa culture.

Since 1898 when Paul Kruger founded the preservation, 1 million visitors have come here each year. The Skakuza, or “Broom” in Zulu as Kruger was known for brushing locals off their land, was an avid hunter and naturalist. Most animals here are native to the land, and only white and black rhinos had to reintroduced due to the over hunting and popularity of their horns as trophies. During our voyage, we saw wildebeests, zebras, giraffes, elephants, dung beetles, African Buffalo, Vervet monkeys, Chacma baboons, cape ground squirrels, jackals, wild dogs, lions, white rhinoceros, warthogs, ostriches, hippos, antelopes, nyalas, elands, kudus, duikers, gemsboks, bonteboks, steenbok and waterbok. We didn’t miss anything!! We also had a rare sighting of wild dogs while in Kruger. Their numbers, devastated by rabies and hunting, are making a comeback now but still with maybe a thousand left in the park. They hunt and live in packs of 20-30 dogs. We saw four of them shading while waiting for their upcoming meal. Mary Anne, our guide, taught us about how the young dogs from the pack do all of the hunting while the old alpha males and females waited for the youngsters. The pack takes cares care of its own.

One of my favorite animals to watch is the elephants. Each group run by a matriarch, these animals are part of the Big 5, the most dangerous 5 animals to hunt in the bushveld. Here in Kruger there are 17,000 of these sometimes destructive animals, although the park estimates it can handle 10,000 with food, savanna, trees and other animals. Many are exported to game parks or outside the continent, often unaware of their insatiable appetite and destruction of trees. Still, the park is currently debating whether or not to cull several thousand of the elephants. Since hunting is forbidden, the rangers would put many to sleep, donating the ivory for aphrodisiac nagamo purposes and the meat to locals. However, what animals to put down? Strong matriarchs run a tight-knit community, allowing babies to be born only at the right time and conditions and running aggressive males out of the herd. If the wrong elephants are put down, other matriarchs, weaker, younger and less experienced, will step up and not be able to control the group. These younger females allow for “teenage pregnancy”, aggressive bulls and a poor community. Older, wiser females seem to be a key link in the success of elephant herds.

Only with extraordinary reasons do the rangers and staff interfere with nature at Kruger National Park. Some tourists and foreigners sometimes falsely believe Kruger to be more like a zoo than a safari park due to the high numbers of animals. However, this foolhardy believe can be dangerous when tourists act with a false sense of security. One day we saw a huge bull elephant crossing one of the paved roads in Kruger in front of a car ahead. The driver positioned the car for the best pictures seemingly unaware of the elephant’s actions. Quickly the elephant, a lone and dangerous male, moved in to charge, but changed his mind running away into the bush. Each year elephants in the park flip uninformed tourists without guides and kill and injure many people. In these circumstances, the ranger staff move in and put the animal down. Any contact with humans, either feeding or attacking, is grounds for killing the animal. Still, the park intervenes rarely in the case of human contact or during periods of extreme drought when watering holes are created to save the animals.

We had unbelievable luck during our 4 day safari. Similar to fishing or hunting, some safari adventures see nothing but the ubiquitous and inquisitive impala. Their numbers are high, and their gregarious and curious nature lends them the check out the vehicles on the mix of paved and dirt roads between high jumps and fast speeds. Most safaris rely on luck and being in the right place at the right time to see anything. Rangers and guides share information, but our sightings rely on seeing animals cross roads, resting in the shade or finding the animals hiding in the lush forest in the middle of the rainy season.

In the afternoon, we listened to the African fish-eagle, otherwise known as the voice of Africa. I am amazed by the complexity and resilience of nature and animal behaviors. One afternoon, we witnessed the behaviors of dazzles, or groups, of zebras. Each bull holds a harem of a dozen or so mares. Among these beautiful creatures, he will not mate with his offspring, but occasionally loses females to new or other males. Sometimes a new zebra will come and kidnap a young mare from his harem. Immediately the father will hunt and search for his lost daughter and fight the kidnapper. This fight will include kicking and biting, but never death—it is merely a test for the suitor in order to ensure the success of his daughter and his genes. It is a touching story of both fatherhood and nature at work.

Another fascinating story comes from the influence of man and lions. There are 2,000 lions in the park, and they mostly prey on buffalo, impalas and zebras. On occasion, lions are also known to attack a hippo or giraffe or a baby animal like elephant calves if they are really hunger. Lions especially love giraffe youngsters. Giraffes oddly have no social order whatsoever, and routinely forget about their offspring. Nevertheless, with the addition of paved roads to Kruger Park, the lions have learned there are other options than youngsters. When we arrived, a pride of lions had recently pulled down an adult giraffe by chasing the giraffe across the paved roads, causing it trip and fall down. Once tripped, the lionesses move in for the kill. The giraffe was a feast for vultures, hyenas, lions and other scavengers for a week.

Speaking of giraffes and their favorite food, the acacia trees are known to communicate in Kruger—not literally of course, but more in illustration of the power of nature. In park management terms, I’ve also discussed the numbers of animals that parks can handle, and plants also have their own methods. The acacia tree is popular vegetation for a number of animals like giraffes and impala and buffalo. Over time, the acacia has developed thorns to protect itself, but the giraffe also have specialized traits like long tongues and uniquely designed palates for eating the small leaves. In the constant battle of nature, the acacia tree has temporarily won. It releases tannins that other trees “smell.” When the acacia trees lose a lot of leaves to the grazing animals, they release more tannin into their leaves and into the air. Other trees immediately start to put more tannin into their leaves, thereby protecting their now remaining leaves by making them more poisonous and less digestible. In this way, the acacia trees protect themselves and also, informally, control the numbers of grazing animals by not becoming someone’s next dinner.

The signs in Kruger also request you to never feed the birds. Come on, I said, I understand not feeding the lions and elephants, but the birds?! It seems that the baboons and vervet monkeys observe us feeding the birds and learn from the behaviors. They come to the camps and break into the “baboon-proof” trash cans and beg and steal from park visitors. After I observed these behaviors myself, I realized that we are not very different after all. Other animals, like us, also pair and mate for life like the Egyptian crane and the jackal. In the case of the Egyptian crane, if one mate dies the other refuses to live. At first it loses most of its feathers only to die later from starvation. Love is also alive in the bushveld.

Humans are equally resourceful creatures. Several different types of termites in southeastern Africa build huge mounds and lairs. One type of termite collects leaves and eats the fungi that grow on the decomposing vegetative matter. In order to protect their sensitive bodies from the sun and predators like the anteater, they mix saliva with the soil to build strong structures. In this land of resourcefulness, the locals have learned to build houses and bricks from this strong saliva-rich soil.

My safari across the Kruger bushveld was unforgettable. But scratch the surface of this beautiful landscape and you will still see the scars of a land still very divided socially. “Yebo (yes in Zulu), the whole world over is racist,” Mary Anne our guide said, “but the media blew up our problems for the world to see.” You could almost hear her feelings of being a White Africaans victim, but also her optimism. “But change starts with me,” Mary Anne continued, “because change in me is the only one I can concentrate on.” For South Africa, my hope is change not only racially but also the continued preservation of this magical land.