Inside the herd

Discovering zoom.it has let me share a few cool pano shots with you but it might just help me to put you in my shoes for one of the coolest experiences I've had. We turned a corner in Kruger and there were a load of cape buffalo. I mean a load. Hundreds. Upon hundreds. Suddenly they were crossing the road all around us and we were literally inside the herd. Use the zoom options and drag these around for a play inside the herd.









It wasn't just buffalo though. The herd carried with it a host of companions and caused a mighty disturbance. I became aware of something predatory scurry around the edges of the herd. It was too small to be a lion and it took me an age to get the rest of the group on it. I was rather hoping it was a very, very optimistic leopard. But this was a smaller carnivore, woken from its slumbers and driven from its hiding place by the herd. A civet.



He had no predatory ambitions whatsoever, the stalking behaviour was merely him trying to keep his head down and avoid the ire of the buffalo. Our guide told us she'd never seen one in daytime before. Soon our civet first was joined by another first. The guide picked up an odd bird call in amongst the herd. Like an oxpecker but different. It turned out to be a yellow-billed oxpecker, a first for this part of Kruger I believe (though reasonably common not too far away).....



...so all in all it was rather nice to be inside the herd.