FEATURED BLOG ARTICLES - Wild Dog Guest Lodge

BIRD LIFE

2021-07-29T00:00:00+02:00

AUG / SEP

2020-09-01T00:00:00+02:00

The Kruger National Park has opened its gate again after a worldwide COVID pandemic, it has been a long awaiting searching the spirit of the Kruger again! We planned a full day out rising early morning with our day trip that starts from the Orpen gate. Let the day’s adventure begin.

The sky changing its beautiful colors, seeing an amazing sun rise with a magnifying view of the Kruger.

The Greater Kruger Nature Park a country known as one of the best safari destinations due to its abundance of wildlife but there are so much more to discover.

Within a short time frame we spotted large herds of Impala’s, a game of Zebra’s playing around, Waterbucks resting in the winter sun, Hyena passing the road with a steadily gallop and quickly disappearing amongst the long grasses, observing the Hornbill, Kingfisher and plenty more and a Crocodile, these reptiles are masters at hiding even in shallow water, however they can often be seen basking in the sun on the river side.

The routes were quite adventures with many animals crossing the paths. It did not take us long to find a group of elephants close to the waters. The Kruger is famous for its large amounts of Elephants, and the river front is where they like to be, they can happily feed on grasses. It's also a perfect sparring game for young elephants who play-fight against each other. Two little once were really having a go at it.

Another animal that appreciate the same habitat is the Buffalo which tend to congregate in large numbers. Standing steadfast on one of our routes forming a roadblock, we managed to pass through peacefully.

A little later our day got even better when we came upon two female lions who finished their kill a while earlier as wet blood was still visible on their fur and our photographs are proof of our unique experience.

What an amazing day. The sun is slowly setting, and it was time to head back and call it a day.

JUNE / JULY

2020-07-03T00:00:00+02:00

As we all know our industry has taken a big knock and the aftermath is likely to be felt for a while.

Missing the great outdoors – with lockdown still undergoing we are urging to go visit the Kruger, but we are blessed by having amazing animals roaming around in the estate making their presents every day, also being able to go on self drives in the estate soothed the soul a bit. Running a guest lodge with wildlife surrounding you is a dream of ours and it’s something we love to do and take great pride in doing, but it’s hard knowing and accepting your dream has been put on hold.

The lockdown is allowing us to do some alterations we do not usually get time for, and to complete our new décor style we are bring to our guests – amazing changes! We cannot wait to welcome our guests back!

I particularly got font of the nyala’s with their frequent visits to the lodge, they started feeling like part of the family. Winter is here and we have had some quite cold days early in the start of winter already, but this didn’t keep the nyala’s away from their frequent visits, quite a few nyala's were around the lodge and it is so amazing seeing them up-close.

They display the most beautifully and perfectly stripe pattern. Females and young males have ten or more white vertical stripes on their sides.

With spring and autumn being the mating season the nyala is considered the most sexually dimorphic antelope. Nyala bull’s pull up their hair on their backs and lifting their tails displaying the white part showing how big they are, that you call philo erection, doing a slow methodical walk trying to intimidate the other male – trying to make their body appear bigger and larger this dance can take place a few minutes or for quite a long time as they are trying to compete over females or when males come together, they also do this dance. After a gestational period of seven months, a single calf is born.

MAY

2020-05-05T00:00:00+02:00

What a wonderful start we had to a new beginning of Wild Dog Inn. Not only have we been blessed with exceptional sightings but it has also been an exciting opening for us, the current Covid-19 situation has put our excitement a bit on hold as we know that nobody really wants to cancel their travel plans.

With many trees surrounding us we don’t often see the Giraffes as they like their open fields, but we were so blessed by receiving a visit from 6 same sort of journey of giraffes coming for a drink at our waterhole, admiring these beautiful animals with their patterns that looks like bricks and mortar, it would have been lovely to see them more often as they are such peaceful animals. It is amazing watching them strips the leaves of the trees and it amazes me that giraffes with such ease eat from heavily thorn trees.

A leopard won’t be an immediate threat to a giraffe, they won’t be happy with its presents but it’s really not a concern for a giraffe lions on the other hand would be a different story. I got some beautiful photo’s with Oxpeckers hanging out on their backs looking for insects.

The ossicones on the head are quite bold and there is an extra third little hump between them, that is how we know it is a male apart from the normal organs. Their long tongue is very strong and dark and has lots of melanin ‘dark pigmentation’ meaning he has a nice leathery tong as melanin strengthens the tong.

Giraffes got really thick saliva also with anti-bacterial properties it is in a form of a compound called lysozyme and they also have intense tissue factors which clots quickly when they get little cuts the thickness of the saliva allows them to swallow and the saliva is so thick it can coat any thorn that do go down it’s throat and it won’t hurt them.

Ever wondered why giraffes’ knees bend backwards, it’s just the knee joint allowing the giraffe to move in such a specific way. With the giraffe being such very heavy animal, they need to make sure they walk in such a way that they stay balanced or they would tumble over. A male can weigh anything between 1000 to 1400kg so therefore their front leg joints bend forward and back legs joint bend backwards, giraffes walk very similar than a camel with moving both front and back legs at the same time instead of opposites, this is a very specialized method for keeping an animal upright when moving.

APRIL

2020-04-12T00:00:00+02:00

March has been extremely busy at Wild Dog Inn. We now find ourselves in April which will be largely dedicated to further uplifting and altering our bushveld paradise to ultimately provide the best bushveld experience to guests and achieve the dynamic end results.

On the 4th of March preceding our first guests, we had to work around the clock to get everything ready and swiftly attend to the adjustments.

Both cottages were transformed with our own style and unique touch. Freshening and uplifting the set-up with new linen, lamp fixtures, décor and furniture. It was time for a new look, but we kept to a simple African style. Some more alterations are in process as I write this article and we are very excited to meet new people and welcome more guests.

With the lockdown period bringing us all to a hold, we spent most of our time on the patio overlooking the beautiful bushveld and waterhole searching for inspiring camera shots to share with you.

We captured some beautiful wildlife shots of various animals and in particular, the warthogs who have been frequent visitors. Warthogs are day animals and spend most of their time looking for food. They are normally found in family groups. Females have a practice of abandoning their young. Before giving birth to a new litter, the female will chase away the young she has been raising and goes into isolation. Litter sizes are usually confined to four young because females only have four teats. These abandoned juveniles may join up with another solitary female for a short time before they go out on their own. The female suckles the new litter, and each piglet has its own teat.

Mothers like to hang-out, you will regularly see females together in one grouping of warthogs. With their bottoms in the air pads on their wrists formed in the fetus so that is how important it is to have these pads in order for a warthog to bend down on its wrists joints. Warthogs are really bizarre looking especially when you see their skull it is completely elongated at the front and it's a very large head. Warthogs are small animals their skulls are very heavy - total length is 400mm and it has two sets of tusks not just one, they have tusks on their upper and lower jaw and teeth as well that is allot of weight warthogs carry on their head. And when the sun starts to set you will find that the warthogs quickly disappear insight, they know they are a delicacy for many predators they cannot risk roaming around at night time.

With temperatures that dropped from 37° to 20° and some soft rain that started to fall it was precious to see a group huddle together and take a nap. We got a glimpse of a very old adult boar with massive tusks who visited two consecutive days. He was very alert and aggressive, but we managed to get some amazing shots of him before he disappeared into the bushes.

The Warthog is one of the most loved creatures, immortalised in Hollywood movies such as The Lion King - and also one of the best loved prey of the African savannah.
Warthogs can survive for months without water therefore it’s a pleasure seeing they come for their daily drink at our waterhole.

While appreciating another sublime bush sunset, we spotted an African Barred Owlet. There is a pair that visits our garden water feature regularly as it attempts it’s daily bathes which is in their nature. It has taken a few attempts to get this rare bird focussed in the lens as it reacts easily to any sudden movements and flees.

These birds are active mostly at night. Sometimes mobbed intensely by small birds. Roots among foliage of trees, sometimes near a nest, or in hole, and has been spotted staying together with a squirrel. In this case we spotted this particular Barred Owlet interacting in a playful manner with two squirrels 🐿 in the tree.

They have two call types; the first an advertising call which can be heard for long periods, even during daytime. The second call associated with social interaction.

Looking forward to share more wildlife sightings!

Best Wishes to all! 🦉

MARCH

2020-02-12T00:00:00+02:00

Henro & Vicky as the new Owners of Wild Dog Inn wants to welcome you to our bush paradise!

As This is our first newsletter of the season and so much has happened, we don’t know where to start! We’ve been busy, enjoying our new setup of Wild Dog Inn and seeing wonderful sights all around us.

March brought some unique sightings to us which we would love to share with you.

Every month gifts us plentiful sightings, and March has been no exception to this rule. With incredible wildlife moments that have left us all in awe on the corner of paradise that we call home.

We are looking forward to meeting our guests and giving them a wonderful relaxing stay with us.

Raising early to go out for a morning walk in the Wild Life Estate we came across the less celebrated, but most astounding animal the Zebra. This is really one of my most favorite animals, I could sit for hours watching these amazingly beautiful creatures just roaming around. Always grazing in the open grass fields I manage to take some brilliant pictures. Their stripes are like fingerprints. It almost felt like I could touch them through my camera lens. At 41° heat they all just bundle together under the trees looking for some shade. With their long paused moments we spend a good amount of time with them and I manage to get some shots.

Zebras are the smallest kind of horse, no two are exactly the same but they can identify each other by their stripes. Dazzle camouflage - those stripes are a form of camouflage overwhelming the predator’s visual system and making it hard to track the zebra’s movement. Think about the experience of watching a herd of zebras all dashing in different directions, and imagine trying to pick out one of them to bring down.