Autumn in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park with Joes Camera

Visiting the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park during the green season of January to March is a special experience and people flock in their thousands to the Kalahari but it does not represent the typical Kalahari so to say. So to return in April so soon afterwards takes about a day to get used to. The lush long grasses have lost their deep green almost blue colour and have quickly over the last week of March and start of April turned into the light beige to whites with bulging plumes of seeds at the top ends leaving the top of the grasses to look like they have been covered by a cotton duvet all along the landscape. The trees stay green however. In many respects the predators camouflage, more suite the arid conditions and lion especially the mane of male lions specifically blend in beautifully with the grasses.
In the green season they stood out more drastically but the length of the grasses provided for great hiding place to ambush prey in without running long distances.
Now The green is gone, but the seeds on the grasses remain in the transitional phase from the rainy to the winter season that starts abruptly in Early May when temperatures plummet to minus’ during the evenings. Prolonged rains during the rainy season especially the late rains ensured that thousands of seed eating birds made nests in the Kgalagadi area and not migrate out towards the surrounding Namaqua area when follow up rains doesn’t occur.

The Kgalagadi or the Kalahari Gemsbok Park side of the Transfrontier area at least was visited by us during the end of April after the exceptional good rains of January February and into March but the temperatures have cooled down substantially already. Due to the prolific seeds on grasses the seed eating birds were nesting more than usual and the rodents populations exploded after a couple of dry seasons saw a drastic reduction in their numbers.
It is mysterious to say the least how these populations can explode in one good season. This caused the animals to spread out into the dunes and other areas such as the north east into Botswana. The springbok for instance do not like the long thick grass and shrubs and leave for the pans and shorter grassy areas and spread out over the kgalagadi region. They were very scares in the southern triangle over the week we patrolled the area. Gemsbok were still found in large groups in both the southern Auob and Nossob river beds and inner veld.
The rodent eaters were therefore also spread out and not so many but well conditioned like all other animals except the springbok that actually thrive in harsher conditions due to their feeding habits. All Lizards and Geckos were uncomfortable fat almost round. We saw more young Agamas than during anytime over the past three decades.
Every trip to the Kalahari normally surprises one with a good sighting of a specific or different species or unique animal behavior. This time Secretary birds were the fun animal to observe and photograph. Some actually used the side of the road to hunt and used our vehicle to chase mice from the road towards it walking along the riverbed following our vehicle. Mice would sit high on the bushes next to the road basking in the sun in the first branches right next to the road and as soon as our vehicle approaches they would be scared and run down the shrubs away from the vehicle but right towards and into the secretary bird that was walking along the road next to our vehicle. Taking advantage of the slow moving vehicle. This shows the remarkable intelligence of the secretary bird through behavior that was shaped by accepting the roads and vehicles over generations as part of their habitat and getting used to vehicles sharing their hunting space. Many other species are also showing adapted behavior by tolerating or using vehicles to hunt or by plainly getting more used to vehicles such as the leopards and jackal as well as lion compared to even three decades ago when I started visiting the kalahari. Obviously then there were much less vehicles and tourist development.

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Видео Autumn in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park with Joes Camera канала Joe's Camera