Wrapping Up Suikerbosrand



Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve in Gauteng province of South Africa

I really have to go back and do some more camera trapping at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. I managed to camera trap (and see) an amazing amount of animals during a very short period and I'm sure there is much more to capture...

Some lizard checking us out, One of many spies for the Secret Police...

As usual the Secret Police was in attendance. The officer threw the book at me at some of my more intrusive camera trap location. Luckily there wasn't any police brutality. I'm sure all members of the force were glad that my camera trapping trip was short lived.

Helmeted Guineafowl (Tarentaal - Numida meleagris) patrolling the neighborhood

No camera trapping trip is complete with out some members of the traffic department also patrolling the paths and trails. They love to sound the siren when a camera trapper is spotted.

Swainson's Spurfowl (Bosveldfisant - Pternistis swainsonii) making sure the trigger speed does not exceed the permitted limit

One of the more elusive characters wasn't technically trapped by yours truly. (I guess the local officers-of-the-law had me on their radar.) A few months before I made the trip I asked my father-in-law to try one of my cameras at the reserve to see what we might find. It's hard to distinguish between Scrub Hare and Cape Hare, but I'll guess this is a Scrub Hare.

Possibly a Scrub Hare (Kolhaas - Lepus saxatilis) sneaking past the camera

I'm a little disappointed that none of the cameras I placed out managed to photograph any of these guys. Maybe next time :)

And since the images in this post are getting worse and worse I might as well add some photographs of animals we saw, but didn't manage to camera trap. First up were some Kudu.

A female Kudu (Koedoe - Tragelaphus strepsiceros) at maximum zoom

I was very surprised and happy when I spotted some sun worshippers.

Were we watching the Suricate/Meerkat (Stokstertmeerkat - Suricata suricatta) or were they watching us...?

Suikerbosrand is also home to a wonderful diorama of a Cheetah hunting some Grey Rhebok. As a matter of fact the reserve used to have a few Cheetah (during the 70s or was it the 80s), but I think they were removed because the reserve is to small to maintain a viable population of Cheetah and prey. It's a pity. Maybe they'll reintroduce some Cheetah if they actively manage the population.

Diorama at Suikerbosrand

That's it from Suikerbosrand.
Next up: Woody Cape.