Mkuze Game Reserve Favorites

Favorite thing: The watchdogs of the veld, the CHACMA BABOON along with the Vervet Monkey, have good eyesight and exeptional senses of smell and hearing. Both can be cunning, resourceful and dangerous. Primates are sociable by nature and are usually seen in groups numbering some thirty animals.

Fondest memory: We enjoyed the antics of the Baboons as they swung from the tree tops and ventured on to the road right in front of us. But don't try to approach them, as they are very nasty critters.

Favorite thing: With only the males carrying the lyre-shaped horns of approximately 50 cm, IMPALA (Aepyceros melampus) are elegant animals. Very sociable, they can be seen in herds of 300 or more. Impala was abundant at Mkuzi.

Favorite thing: There are two types of Wildebeest, the more common BLUE WILDEBEEST (Connochaetes taurinus) and the smaller Black. The Blue prefers the open plains and is very sociable, often joining herds of Zebra or Impala. The Black (Connochaetes gnou) is a highveld antelope and is a scarcer breed.
The Blue variety has high shoulders and a pronounced sloping back.

Favorite thing: Long legs and a very long neck, make the GIRAFFE one of Southern Africa's most unusual mammals. But these oddities enable the Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) to feed on leaves and seed-pods at a height where grass-eating animals cannot reach. Although the Giraffe has a height of 5.5 metres, it has the same number of vertebrae in its neck as a tiny sparrow. Calves when born, after a gestation period of 15 months are already 2 metres tall.
Giraffe are very sociable and are often seen in the company of Zebra and Antelope and are present in most large game reserves.

Fondest memory: Strangest of all the animals in shape and size, they are also the most docile of creatures. We were amazed at how close we could get to them. But, oh yes, they were watching. Apart from the ability to gallop at 50 km/h, they have no means of defense - though a kick from their long back legs would certainly deter any predator. They are at their most vulnerable when drinking at a water-hole in open country where their camouflage does not blend in with the open surroundings.

Favorite thing: The accompanying map show the areas we visited during our four days/three nights adventure to Hluhluwe Game Reserve, Mkuzi Game Reserve and St. Lucia Estuary. Our Tree House in Bonamanzi was well situated and within short driving distances to all three areas.

Favorite thing: Depending on the surface water in the reserve, but normally during the drier winter months, large concentrations of game may be seen at the WATERHOLES. Visitors are usually offered excellent views of most of the reserve's larger animals. At the time we were there, the waterhole was mostly a mudhole and we only got to see one lone animal trying to get a drink from it.

Fondest memory: Waterholes are the favourite hunting ground of Lions, so grazing animals are very wary as they approach and while they stoop to drink.

Favorite thing: The best way to watch a waterhole is from a HIDE and Game Reserves, especially Mkuzi provide the best GAME VIEWING HIDES for this purpose.
Four game viewing hides have been constructed next to the Kubube, Kumasinga, Kwamalibala and Kumahlala pans.
Visitors park their cars and enter the hides on foot.

Favorite thing: Named after the grotesque growths on its flattened face, the WARTHOG (phacochoerus aethiopicus) is perhaps the ugliest of all creatures. The upper and lower tusks rub against each other so that the lower ones are kept razor sharp. Tusks enable Warthogs to dig for bulbs and roots, while kneeling on their fore-legs.
Warthogs usually run in family groups of seven and are often seen with their tufted tails raised stiffly upright as they trot through the veld. The upright tail assists in keeping the family together when going through tall grass, as they can then see the tail of the one ahead. When threatened they run for their burrows.