Baboon spider
Baboon Spiders look large and fearsome but if left alone they are quite docile. Even during lockdown at KwaMbili we have to keep an eye out for creatures large and small! We found a spider floating upside down in the…
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Ranger News
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Wild Cotton
The scientific name for Wild Cotton is Gossypium herbaceum. The Genus name Gossypium is from the Arabic word “goz” which means soft substance. Gossypium is Latin for “cotton” and herbaceum means herbaceous. This shrub is endemic to South Africa, occurring…Read More »
Life around camp
With the lodge closed during the corona lockdown there is much less human activity and we are experiencing an increase in animal sightings inside the camp. From kudu to leopard sightings, it may seem that KwaMbili is not only a…Read More »
Corkbush
Quite common in the area round KwaMbili is a small shrub called the Corkbush. It has a relatively light green leaf compared to the rest of the foliage and – unbelievably – it is used for fishing! But not in…Read More »
A giraffe’s “extraordinary net”
Giraffe will generally drink about 12 litres of water a day but a large bull can consume up to 48 litres. With their long necks one might wonder how they manage when lowering their heads to drink. The heart of…Read More »
Suprised by a python
It’s not always during game drives that we get surprised by animals – even just going to clear fallen-down trees from the road we have to keep our eyes open. While we were preparing to move a tree, we suddenly…Read More »
Big tusker
We were extremely lucky this week – seeing elephants is always a great experience but one of this size is absolutely extraordinary! It was a fairly quiet morning game drive and as we were driving along we found fresh elephant…Read More »
A zebra’s bacteria
Zebra never appear thin, and this has to do with a very special form of “friendship”. A zebra’s digestive system contains 37 different types of bacteria adding up to thousands in total. These bacteria digest what the zebra has eaten…Read More »
Lappet-faced vultures
During game drives it is not uncommon to see vultures resting in the trees but on this particular day it had been fairly cool and a bit gusty earlier on so there was not much birdlife to see until we…Read More »
How the leopard got…
There is a wonderful story about why a leopard has spots or, more precisely, rosettes. It goes like this… “There was once an Ethiopian man who hunted with his pet leopard. The man and the leopard soon realized that they…Read More »
