Lesson 2 - Look for Unusual Behaviour

When a safari guide is driving in the African bush, he or she needs to use all their senses, understand the wildlife and look for anything that doesn't look quite right.

Here is a lesson about looking for unusual behaviour.

I was recently driving a group of regular South African clients around the Timbavati when we came across the fresh track of a rather large snake in the road. We stopped and looked at it, had a discussion about the direction in which it was going and had the usual debate about what snake it could possibly be. After a cursory and cautious check of the bush on either side of the road I started the Landrover to continue with the game drive. A hundred metres further on I noticed a group of redbilled woodhoopoes flitting about in the flimsy branches of a magic gwarri bush. Redbilled woodhoopoes usually do NOT “flit about” in flimsy bushes and I stopped the Landrover to have a good look with the binoculars. Sure enough there, spread out across the branches of the bush, just below the chattering woodhoopoes, was a large black mamba in clear view. I got everyone to watch with their binoculars and we were able to watch for a good 15 minutes or so as the birds repeatedly mobbed the snake before it slowly slid down from the tree and disappeared from view.

Two lessons to be learnt from this:

1. Be aware of unusual behaviour of animals that you see
2. Stop at a distance from the animal of interest so that you are able to watch its behaviour without disturbing it.

Thank you to Lex Hes from our 28 Day Widlife course for this lesson. You can see more information about this course by clicking here, or click on the menu.