Mkomazi National Park - Safari warmup

Mkomazi National Park is very close to Same, and I have never been there, so we took the opportunity to visit yesterday while in Same.  It was a great visit, and animals were plentiful! The park has bushland, grasslands, and hillsides so a few different ecosystems to explore. The animals in this park are less used to humans and jeeps so we needed to keep more of a distance than we will in the other parks, but it was interesting to see them carry on about their days, all in harmony with other animals.  It was so cool to see giraffes, zebras, and elephants all drinking from the same watering hole.

 Some highlights - 

I have never considered myself a bird watcher, but we saw so many cool birds and the binoculars were pulled out multiple times.  There was a flock of Northern Carmine Bee Eaters (yes they have long beaks so they can eat bees, and they scrape the bees stinger off on a tree before they eat it!) that traveled with just just like when dolphins swim along your boat in the ocean! 

We went to the Black Rhino Sanctuary, a 13km part of the park where they protect and breed black rhinos.  They need to be protected because their habitat is threatened and elephants tend to eat all the food. It is a fairly new operation, but they have had 2 births per year for the past couple years. I think they currently have about 6 rhinos. We actually saw Kisama, a 5 year old rhino girl right after she had been mating with the 19 year old boy (May December romance!). We actually drove into the bush to see the Rhinos because it was hot and they were lazy, but so cool to see them up close. Fun fact about rhinos - the female rhinos all poop in the same pile - nature’s public bathroom!

We saw 2 boy giraffes fighting by hitting themselves with their heads and necks. It was an older male and a younger male, who was probably challenging the older one.  At one point the older male pulled out his manhood and tried to show the young one who’s boss.  We think the fight went to the older male, who rejoined the ladies by the watering hole. 

We saw a couple different families of elephants.  They became perfectly still when they were downwind from us because they could smell us.  They have great hearing and smelling, but not vision. Elephants are usually solitary or in smaller groups during the dry season, and then form families and larger clans during the wet season when water is plentiful and there is less competition for it. Elephants poop every 90 minutes! 

A really cool thing we saw multiple times - mutualism and symbiotic relationships - like ostriches with a bunch of birds on their backs eating the insects. The birds provide protection because the ostrich knows there isn’t danger nearby if they stay, and the birds get to eat bugs!Ostriches lay 20 eggs at a time and it is actually the males that take care of the chicks when they hatch. 

We didn’t see any hyenas but we did see their poop, which is white from the bones they eat! We did visit the wild dog sanctuary.  Wild dogs are endangered because they are not territorial and they go wandering into neighborhoods and are subsequently killed or poisoned.  And they are like rats where they bring back food for their families and if it has poison in it the whole family dies. Also the alpha female in a pack is the only one who reproduces until she says she is done, so that is another challenge to their population.  Side note elephant families are also led by the alpha female. Wild dogs are all different pattens but all have the same white tail.