Lesser Known Wildlife

21 May 2018

Chobe National Park, Countrywide Tour Packages, Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, Kruger National Park, Lake St Lucia, Wildlife, Zululand

No Comments

@southern

The lesser-Known Wildlife of South Africa

With the cheetah, which is one of the lesser-known wildlife of South Africa, we move away from the Big Five. Other quintessentially African large animals of the wild are hippo, giraffe, kudu,

Cheetahs saw on tour in the Kruger Park

wildebeest (the famous gnu) and zebra, all frequently seen in conservation areas.

Heightened awareness, however, has created an increased appreciation of lesser-known animals. A sighting of the rare tsessebe may cause as much excitement as the sight of a lion pride. And while one can hardly miss an elephant, spotting the shy little forest-dwelling suni takes sharp eyes.

On the tiny scale, one could tackle the challenge of ticking off each of the seven South African species of elephant shrews, a task that would take one all over the country and, probably, a very long time to accomplish.

With well over 200 species, a short survey of South Africa’s indigenous mammals is a contradiction in terms. A few examples may indicate the range.

Primates

In terms of sighting appeal, primates rate highly. In South Africa, they include the nocturnal bushbabies, vervet and samango monkeys, and chacma baboons which, encouraged by irresponsible feeding and under pressure through the loss of habitat, have become unpopular as raiders of homes on the Cape Peninsula.

Dassies (hyraxes, residents of rocky habitats) and meerkats (suricates, familiar from their alert upright stance) have tremendous charm. However, the dassie can be an agricultural problem. The secretive nocturnal aardvark (which eats ants and is the only member of the order Tubulidentata) and the aardwolf (which eats termites and is related to the hyaena) are two more immensely appealing creatures, and both are found over virtually the whole of the country.

The Cape clawless otter is widely distributed. They swim in both fresh and seawater for those who like their terrestrial mammals damp. The spotted-necked otter has a more limited territory. Both are rare, however, and difficult to spot.

Carnivores

The Cape hunting dog or wild dog is one mammal whose charm is, in a sense newly acquired. It is one of the most endangered mammals on the continent. Once erroneously reviled as indiscriminate killers. However, as a result of environmental education, we appreciate them for both their ecological value and the remarkably caring family behaviour in the pack, wild dogs require vast territories. A single pack needs on average several hundred square kilometres. One finds them in small numbers in KNP and environs, northern KZN (including the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park), the Kalahari, and the Madikwe reserve in North West.

More common canine carnivores are the hyaena, jackal and bat-eared fox. Aside from those already mentioned, felines include the caracal with its characteristic tufted ears, the African wild cat and the rare black-footed cat, and other flesh eaters include civet, genet and several kinds of mongoose.

Various antelope represents the plant-eaters well from the little duiker to the large kudu and superbly handsome sable antelope found only in the most northerly regions.

South Africa is well endowed with mammals who take to the air namely the bat species.