The Caracal (Rooikat - Caracal caracal) is the largest predator left at Tygerberg and is, in a sense, at the top of the food chain
I would love to know to what those two glowing eyes belong... Caracal have been known to kill smaller predators such as Yellow Mongoose and African Wild Cat. For some reason I don't think that those little eyes are happy to see the Caracal.
One species at Tygerberg I think that gets less trouble from Caracal is the Porcupine. As far as I know a Caracal won't try to kill a healthy adult and the young are always escorted by at least one parent.
Porcupine (Ystervark - Hystrix africaeaustralis) feeling confident on the Tygerberg hills
I don't get that many owl photographs, most likely because of the small chance of one landing in front of the camera. So I was pleasantly surprised with this Spotted Eagle-Owl at the pond, even though it landed a little to close to the camera resulting in an over exposed image.
Spotted Eagle-Owl (Gevlekte Ooruil - Bubo africanus) checking out the camera
References:
F. Palomares, T. M. Caro. (May 1999). Interspecific Killing among Mammalian Carnivores. The American Naturalist. 153 (5), 500.
I like the fact that you included the Africaans names of the animals.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I do it mostly for myself, family and friends, because that is the name we know the animals by.
ReplyDeleteI haven't started "translating" the Afrikaans names, but the Porcupine would translate to something like "iron-pig" and Caracal would be "red-cat".
Also Afrikaans has a rule: "One concept = one word". That is why many of the names are such long words. For instance a "Large Spotted Genet" is a "Rooikolmuskeljaatkat" witch translates to "Red Spot Musk Kat".
Hi Henry it's Anonymous again.
ReplyDeleteI could swear the Crouching Caracal is looking into a Hidden Camera... :-D
BTW
My new Bushnell Trophy Cam is now in the field. It's the XLT model. My site is very far away & remote, I do not expect results soon. When I have something meaningful I'll let you know.
Anonymous, looking forward to hearing what you photographed :)
ReplyDelete