Category: Wildlife

Colony

The beautiful Boulders Beach is one of Cape Town’s most visited beaches and the only place in the world where you get close to African Penguins. In 1982 a couple of these little crowd-pleasers settled on the soft white sand between the large granite boulders that protect the beach from wind and large, stormy waves, and currently the population is estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 birds. Sadly the African Penguin has been classified as an endangered species, due to things like over-fishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and irresponsible tourism activities, and the Boulders Beach colony has also felt the effect, with numbers dwindling over the last couple of years.

Colony

Picture of the day, Travel, Wildlife

Snacking

Because of their very long necks, giraffes are able to feed on the foliage of trees that is not accessible to other herbivores. The long prehensile tongue is used to pull pods and leaves into the mouth which are then stripped from the stems with the spatulate incisor teeth. Adult males generally reach a height of about 5 meters and females about 4,5 meters. Big males can weigh a massive 1 200 kilograms while females usually weigh some 800 to 900 kilograms. Their skin color is tan with light brown patches on females and dark brown patches on males. Both males and females have short horns covered in skin.

Snacking

Picture of the day, Wildlife

Siesta

Sable are characterized by glossy black coats with white under parts and white facial markings. Cows and young are dark brown in color. Both sexes have stiff black manes along the dorsal aspects of their necks. The shoulder height of bulls is 1.4 m, which weigh up to 270 Kg. Cows are slightly smaller. Both sexes have long horns, which are ridged, and which curve backwards. Tips of horns are smooth and sharp pointed. The scimitar-shaped horns of mature bulls can be up to 1.2 m in length. Horns on females are shorter and slimmer. Ears are brick red at the back and shorter than that of the roan antelope. The horn of young become visible at the age of two months.

Siesta

Picture of the day, Wildlife