Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal
Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:40 am
Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal
The Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park is the only park under formal conservation in KwaZulu Natal where the Big Five occur. Established in 1895, this is the oldest game park in South Africa along with nearby St Lucia Reserve. Set in the heart of Zululand this is the oldest game reserve in Africa, where Zulu kings such as Dingiswayo and Shaka hunted and put in place the first conservation laws. Today, Africa's 'Big Five' (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros) stalk the flourishing savannah. Game viewing is the principal attraction in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve. Viewing hides overlook pans and waterholes enabling one to observe the wildlife at close range.
As the home of Operation Rhino in the 1950s and 60s, the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park became world renowned for its white rhino conservation. Other areas of focus for which Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve is famous include wilderness trails which originated in Umfolozi in the 1950s and its renowned Game Capture unit upgraded into the Centenary Capture Centre, a bench mark for animal capture and sustainable utilization throughout Africa. The Park covers some 96 000 hectares and contains an immense diversity of fauna and flora.
Hluhluwe Umfolozi Reserve is characterized by hilly topography and the northern section of the game reserve is noted for its wide variety of both birdlife and wildlife. Apart from game viewing drives there are self guided auto trails which provide information on both the management and natural history of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve. Guided walks can be especially rewarding in the early morning and late afternoon. There is a 40 seater boat on Hluhluwe dam which takes visitors on guided trips twice a day. The trips are conducted by an experienced community guide and visitors can see an excellent range of birds and animals within the park while the Zulu culture is covered in the community areas outside.
Kudu doe welcoming us
And my banker buddies from the US joined the welcoming committee
The zonal Senior VP of the US bank
The entrance:
You have to visit a game reserve in Africa if you go there, more or less compulsory. The one we decided to visit was this one, it is the only one in the province that has the big five and was more or less the birthplace or the rebirth of the white rhino. At one time there were only 20 left in all of RSA, and all of these were in this reserve. While relocating them mortality rates were very high, something to do with stress and its impacts on the animals bones, it was then discovered that alpha alpha gave them the nutrition they needed to survive. Post this relocations became very successful and there are estimated to be some 18,000 now in RSA, a majority on game farms and reserves. A very interesting animal that has septic spaces where it relieves itself thereby supporting a unique micro ecosystem of plants and insects including the very amusing dung beetle that buries its eggs and then roles the ball of dung to spread his genes. You could smell rhino everywhere but could not see one. My Dad told me that after the war in 1962 when he was in Tezpore there was a Rhino that decided it liked being a traffic policeman and it stood in the center of town for 3 days before it returned to the jungle.
You can see the impression of the rhino hoof next to the dung beetle:
We saw four of the big five not including lion, my wife took a lot of pictures of 3 of those 4, the leopard we saw was huge as it crossed the road while we were engrossed in taking pictures of a francolin busy digging up the rhino’s markings. My wife saw him and went “cheetah, ohhooo cheetah, no leopard, leopard” Clayton looks up “god, that’s a huge leopard, don’t move, everyone be quite” he then backed the truck back and forth while we kept looking in the brush but we never saw him again. Sighting was at 50 yards. Clayton had the camera and was taking pictures of the francolin so my wife could never get a shot.
The francolin that took away my leopard:
Further down the same road was a hyena lying in a pool of water, he ignored us at 15 yards, Clayton whistled and he reluctantly looked up, I swear his expression said “damn tourists, this used to be a nice neighborhood before”
One cool hyena
Clayton speculated that the leopard had made a kill and the hyena was waiting for the leopard to leave. In the 60’s Claytons’ dad spent 18 months as a game warden on this reserve and never once saw a leopard. Clayton had visited it several times and had not seen one. They are nearly nocturnal but we were very lucky, we saw one in broad day light.
But I am getting ahead of myself, we saw three of the big five in the first five minutes that we entered. In the distance was a rhino and its calf next to a giraffe, then we saw a male close to the others,
my elder son then saw a tusker that just had his tusks and trunk visible, the Ziess scopes were great.
We then saw a herd of buffalo, some very good males in that herd. Clayton told us how ranchers were not willing to have the buffaloes relocate to game farms because they all carried foot and mouth disease that could spread to other bovines. The DeBeers family (those of the diamond fame) had research done that showed that new born calves do not till they suckle from their mothers, so these calves were removed and fed by stepmom, Miz Cow and that’s the source of the game farms buffaloes, “They are somewhat domesticated but can still be dangerous when injured” is how Clayton described it.
Then for a good hour and several miles as we transverse the hills we saw nothing, so off to lunch we went. Beautiful view and even better the special of the day was “chicken curry, rice and papudums” a beer and life was good.
We then drove down, turned this bend and nearly rear ended this big tusker
.
I think he was watching porn or something, if you look closely it will give every male reader an inferiority complex. He wasn’t too bothered as he meandered along till he came closer to a much younger male who immediately was subservient to the boss.
From that point on we saw 10 odd rhinos; baboons, got caught up in a traffic jam of zebras and had warthogs entertain us near the men’s rooms.
You want to go to the men's room, you man enough to walk through us?
The Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park is the only park under formal conservation in KwaZulu Natal where the Big Five occur. Established in 1895, this is the oldest game park in South Africa along with nearby St Lucia Reserve. Set in the heart of Zululand this is the oldest game reserve in Africa, where Zulu kings such as Dingiswayo and Shaka hunted and put in place the first conservation laws. Today, Africa's 'Big Five' (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros) stalk the flourishing savannah. Game viewing is the principal attraction in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve. Viewing hides overlook pans and waterholes enabling one to observe the wildlife at close range.
As the home of Operation Rhino in the 1950s and 60s, the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park became world renowned for its white rhino conservation. Other areas of focus for which Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve is famous include wilderness trails which originated in Umfolozi in the 1950s and its renowned Game Capture unit upgraded into the Centenary Capture Centre, a bench mark for animal capture and sustainable utilization throughout Africa. The Park covers some 96 000 hectares and contains an immense diversity of fauna and flora.
Hluhluwe Umfolozi Reserve is characterized by hilly topography and the northern section of the game reserve is noted for its wide variety of both birdlife and wildlife. Apart from game viewing drives there are self guided auto trails which provide information on both the management and natural history of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve. Guided walks can be especially rewarding in the early morning and late afternoon. There is a 40 seater boat on Hluhluwe dam which takes visitors on guided trips twice a day. The trips are conducted by an experienced community guide and visitors can see an excellent range of birds and animals within the park while the Zulu culture is covered in the community areas outside.
Kudu doe welcoming us
And my banker buddies from the US joined the welcoming committee
The zonal Senior VP of the US bank
The entrance:
You have to visit a game reserve in Africa if you go there, more or less compulsory. The one we decided to visit was this one, it is the only one in the province that has the big five and was more or less the birthplace or the rebirth of the white rhino. At one time there were only 20 left in all of RSA, and all of these were in this reserve. While relocating them mortality rates were very high, something to do with stress and its impacts on the animals bones, it was then discovered that alpha alpha gave them the nutrition they needed to survive. Post this relocations became very successful and there are estimated to be some 18,000 now in RSA, a majority on game farms and reserves. A very interesting animal that has septic spaces where it relieves itself thereby supporting a unique micro ecosystem of plants and insects including the very amusing dung beetle that buries its eggs and then roles the ball of dung to spread his genes. You could smell rhino everywhere but could not see one. My Dad told me that after the war in 1962 when he was in Tezpore there was a Rhino that decided it liked being a traffic policeman and it stood in the center of town for 3 days before it returned to the jungle.
You can see the impression of the rhino hoof next to the dung beetle:
We saw four of the big five not including lion, my wife took a lot of pictures of 3 of those 4, the leopard we saw was huge as it crossed the road while we were engrossed in taking pictures of a francolin busy digging up the rhino’s markings. My wife saw him and went “cheetah, ohhooo cheetah, no leopard, leopard” Clayton looks up “god, that’s a huge leopard, don’t move, everyone be quite” he then backed the truck back and forth while we kept looking in the brush but we never saw him again. Sighting was at 50 yards. Clayton had the camera and was taking pictures of the francolin so my wife could never get a shot.
The francolin that took away my leopard:
Further down the same road was a hyena lying in a pool of water, he ignored us at 15 yards, Clayton whistled and he reluctantly looked up, I swear his expression said “damn tourists, this used to be a nice neighborhood before”
One cool hyena
Clayton speculated that the leopard had made a kill and the hyena was waiting for the leopard to leave. In the 60’s Claytons’ dad spent 18 months as a game warden on this reserve and never once saw a leopard. Clayton had visited it several times and had not seen one. They are nearly nocturnal but we were very lucky, we saw one in broad day light.
But I am getting ahead of myself, we saw three of the big five in the first five minutes that we entered. In the distance was a rhino and its calf next to a giraffe, then we saw a male close to the others,
my elder son then saw a tusker that just had his tusks and trunk visible, the Ziess scopes were great.
We then saw a herd of buffalo, some very good males in that herd. Clayton told us how ranchers were not willing to have the buffaloes relocate to game farms because they all carried foot and mouth disease that could spread to other bovines. The DeBeers family (those of the diamond fame) had research done that showed that new born calves do not till they suckle from their mothers, so these calves were removed and fed by stepmom, Miz Cow and that’s the source of the game farms buffaloes, “They are somewhat domesticated but can still be dangerous when injured” is how Clayton described it.
Then for a good hour and several miles as we transverse the hills we saw nothing, so off to lunch we went. Beautiful view and even better the special of the day was “chicken curry, rice and papudums” a beer and life was good.
We then drove down, turned this bend and nearly rear ended this big tusker
.
I think he was watching porn or something, if you look closely it will give every male reader an inferiority complex. He wasn’t too bothered as he meandered along till he came closer to a much younger male who immediately was subservient to the boss.
From that point on we saw 10 odd rhinos; baboons, got caught up in a traffic jam of zebras and had warthogs entertain us near the men’s rooms.
You want to go to the men's room, you man enough to walk through us?