Wonder Trove: Kruger National Park (South Africa)

Ever since I got my digital camera in 2006, it’s been a dream of mine to go on an extended safari and take photos of some of my favourite animals and birds on the African bush. Well, some dreams do come true. I have just returned from three weeks camping in the Kruger and it was absolutely unforgettable – an experience I will savour for a long time.

Leopard

Lion

Cheetah

Wild dog

Hyena

Elephant

Rhino

Hippo

Zebra

Giraffe

Buffalo

Impala

Kudu

Nyala

Waterbuck

Bushbuck

Wildebeest

Duiker

Baboon

Vervet Monkey

Warthog

Squirrel

Dwarf Mongoose

Dung Beetle

Crocodile

Lizard

Babies of the Kruger

Being Spring, many of the animals had babies. Gorgeous, they were. Watching the tenderness and devotion that many of the parents showed to their youngsters, be they hyenas, zebras or monkeys, was uplifting and profound. In one of the wildlife documentaries I saw in camp one night, a mother baboon in a tree lost hold of her baby during the panic of a leopard attack, and it fell to its death. For three full days, she carried her baby's crumpled body everywhere you went, continuing to cradle it and groom it, before eventually letting go. Parental love is clearly the domain of not not just us humans.