Pilanesberg National Park (act IV)

Now let's start with the serious stuff ...

Rhinoceros
Surprisingly, we saw a lot of Rhinos ! They can be dangerous if they charge, but it is unlikely to happen - as always, one just has to be careful and respectful of the animals. It is a huge animal, maybe like the Hippos (which can also be dangerous !). But the difference is that we saw these ones from quite close, and they were moving.
The first we saw from the car when we were driving in the Park. It came close and crossed the path in front of us.

Can you see it coming ?

Rhino, with a bird

An adult and a small Rhino

Here there are 3 Rhinos

Then later in the evening, from the game viewing vehicle of the hotel, we saw two of them playing close to the road. It is very interesting to see how they move and interact with each other. Though it may seem "violent" on the pictures, everything was quite slow.

Lions
I realize that we were probably extremely lucky with all the animals we saw. All the animals until now we could see "by ourselves", from the car. But when it comes to the Cats, the predators, it is very difficult to see them. Of course, if you see a group of 30 cars and game viewing vehicles stopped near a group of Gnus, it probably means there are Lions around. But the good thing of going with professional rangers is that they communicate, and if one spots a Lion somewhere, he can tell the others. That's how we could see one Lion with a kill (probably a Gnu) :

Can you see the Lion ?

... and later, a group of 3 females. They had walked 5 km towards a group of Gnus, and were now resting in the shade, probably the attack. This can of course take time and we unfortunately could not stay. It was particularly interesting the way the ranger spotted them. He knew they were somewhere in that area, but the park is so large ! Then he told us to look at the group of Gnus - they were all looking in the same direction, which means the Lions are in that direction. Indeed they always keep their eyes on the predator, to try to anticipate its movements. The other hint of the presence of a Lion was that a bird was giving signals. And in 5 minutes we spotted the Lions moving slowly towards the Gnus. But it is funny the Gnus don't simply run away: this is probably because if they go, it will trigger the attack. So they stay, still eating grass, maybe hoping that something more tasty will pass by (there was indeed a group of Springboks just next, but I guess the Lions know they are more difficult to catch and provide less meat).

Two Lions - maybe a third one to the left

To be continued ...