More critters from Ruaha

In reviewing my pictures in preparation for this blog, I found a number of cool shots of neat animals.

This Southern Ground Hornbill is a really big bird. It’s the largest species of hornbill in the world. They stand 3 - 4 feet tall and weigh over 10 pounds! It looks like something out of Jurassic Park.

Next is one of my favorites, and it’s high on the cute scale - a Bat-eared Fox.

A yellow baboon (in the Serengeti we saw the larger olive baboons) -

A Rock Hyrax in a bush (not to be mistaken for a bush hyrax - that’s a real thing; they’re more yellow) -

Rock Hyrax sex:

{I didn’t intend to capture that. I was just shooting pictures of the cute little animals, when they started up.}

This is a Serval. It’s a very shy member of the cat family, and we felt very lucky to have seen one.

Again with the Saddle-billed Stork?

We didn’t get to see many Cape Buffalo in the Serengeti, and they were always a long ways off. This day we watched a large herd at the river as we had breakfast.

As we kept following the river, we came into a clearing where a couple of young impala were jousting.

“I challenge you!”

Further down the road, we found this pretty fellow:

…who wasn’t bothered by us pulling up right next to him as paparazzi.

THIS was a super cool bird - a Wattled Lapwing:

Since I repeated on the saddle-billed stork, I have to give equal time to the African Fish Eagle:

A watering hole tableau -

Getting near the end of the day -

A Kudu family gathering in the “golden hour” -

Only one more blog after this one, to finish up Africa.