While staying in the guest lodge, we had daily game drives and walks to visit the various environments on the Conservancy, ranging from farm-like husbandry of the beautiful, hardy Nguni cattle to desolate and rocky hills, which gave stunning backdrops to collections of breeding antelope.
Rare and lovely sable antelope, females ever watchful with their young.
Sable female.
Sable calf.
Black wildebeest, palomino beserkers!
The Conservancy has a small collection of black wildebeest, a species I’d never seen before.
I’d always wondered why the examples of these antelope I’d seen previously (the blue, and white-bearded species) never did anything to deserve the Afrikaans epithet ‘wilde’. Mostly they stood, or ambled between clumps of grass, and generally hung around until they were eaten. Wherever did their name come from?
Well, 2 minutes observing black wildebeest, and the mystery is solved - this lot, barely 4 feet high, continually rush around in a group like dervishes, tossing their flaxen tails and forward-curved horns and jinking to and fro. The whole performance is designed to confuse predators and make them look a much more tricky target.
Almost exterminated in the 19th century for their hides, meat and horns, they survived in a few reserves and conservancies in South Africa, and are now being re-introduced elsewhere in the south of the continent.
This is a skittish and difficult to approach subject, hence my images are from long range and are affected by atmospheric thermals, but they were great fun to observe..
Black wildebeest bull.
Gums near the Conservancy farmhouse, presumably introduced from Australia.
Birdlife on the Conservancy is varied and entertaining, and although we were mainly concentrating on antelope, I photographed a number of species new to me.
I enjoyed watching the nimble Ant Chat, which apparently spends a lot of its life living up to its name perched on termite mounds hunting insects - this explains the scattering of white droppings decorating every one!
Termite mound with Ant-eating Chat droppings.
They enjoy a more versatile diet than just ants & termites, however, and a few minutes patience yielded some nice (although distant) images of one targeting and then launching at a fly from a bushy perch.
Ant Chat spotting flies…
Launching at the target.
Several other species of common and uncommon antelope range across the Conservancy, including some new to me. Getting close is difficult even with the 840mm-equivalent Olympus lens because of the wide open spaces and extremely rocky terrain, but that does make for clean, wild backgrounds.
Bontebok.
Gemsbok.
Gemsbok trio.
On a walk above the Conservancy lodge we enjoyed meeting the Sore-eye flower (Boophone disticha) - Helen tells us the bulb was used by the indigenous San bushman people as a source of poison for their arrows.
Not wild, but certainly primitive, beautiful and restful - Nguni cattle.
Finally, a selection of other creatures and plants…
Crowned lapwing.
Ground squirrel.
Southern masked weaver (provisional identification).
Southern black korhaan, from which the Conservancy’s logo is derived: see https://karooridgeconservancy.com/
Prickly pear in evening light.
Two lodges are available providing accommodation on the Conservancy, which can be rented by the room or in their entirety. More information is available: https://karooridgeconservancy.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/karooridgeconservancy/