South Africa – Ngala Lodge – Giraffes
On the western edge of the Kruger National Park lies the Ngala Lodge. Here we go on game drives in an open Land Rover. It is an incomparable experience to track giraffes, antelopes and plains zebras in the wild.
We have seen tracks of giraffes that we follow. After a short time we see them appear above dense bushes like skyscrapers in the wilderness. Giraffes can be found in most of South Africa’s national parks. It is always nice to see when the huge animals wander through the bush in their swaying and slow-motion walk. Giraffes are the largest land animals on earth.
Bulls reach a height of almost 6 meters when fully grown with a shoulder height of over 3 meters. The animals are strikingly patterned. They are construction workers. They are busy looking for food all day long. On their migration from tree to tree, they tear off small twigs and leaves. They like the foliage of the thorny acacia trees best. To drink, the giraffes spread their front legs very far apart. Only in this position do they often become prey to lions. Otherwise, they defend themselves very well against these attackers by powerful blows with their long legs.
On the way we see numerous antelopes. They belong to the huge group of horned bearers (Bovidae). They wear their horns for life and never throw them off. In most species, only the males wear the foreheads. In a few species, however, both sexes have horns. Antelopes are extremely numerous in all game reserves. There are about 120,000 impalas alone, the most common antelope species. This protects them relatively well from persecution by predators.
During the further stalking through dense undergrowth, a smaller elephant suddenly and unexpectedly crosses our path. We stop and let him go his way. Slowly we retreat with all caution. Somewhere in the dense undergrowth is certainly not far away his family, with whom we don’t want to have a fight. The rather striking striped pattern of the plains zebra is drawn differently for each animal.
In this way, the members of a clan can recognize each other by their stripes. Viewed from a short distance, the patterns are very striking. At greater distances, however, the stripes become ideal camouflage protection. In this way, the zebras are protected from predators. Zebras are a favorite delicacy, especially for lions.
