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Seeing as though I am privileged enough to go to MZNP probably once every two months (I live an hour and a half from the park) I thought I'd start sharing my pics with you all as a sort of continuous TR (if that's ok mods?). I hope you all enjoy these little windows into my favourite small NP

July 2011
With freezing cold mornings (-3 degrees till 10:30 ) this was a very special family visit. I have posted my list of sightings on MZNP: Animals, but have copy and pasted it to here for those of you who know the park well enough to know sightings locations, etc.

- cheetah (poor sighting faaaaaaaaar away) on the Sonnenrust 4x4 loop, we also saw brown hyena and cheetah tracks along the road
- bat-eared fox on the newest 4x4 loop near link road (can't remember the name )
- black-backed jackal EVERYWHERE!!!!
- caracal along the Kranskop loop between the two picnic sites. Wonderful sighting, we heard vervet monkeys and hadedas going crazy so we stopped, listened and waited and she appeared out of the bushes and walked along the road, then in the road and then hopped up the bank on the other side. MAGIC! We then spotted another one about 20min later along the main road after the river crossing - young male.
- aardwolf, many sightings. 2 along the Rooiplaat loop, 3 on Juriesdam 4x4 loop, 1 on the Ubejane loop, 1 Link road, 2 Sonnenrust Loop
- black rhino - a mother and calf along the unejane loop (fitting, considering "ubejane" is black rhino in Xhosa)
- buffalo along link road (quite a nice herd), sonnenrust loop (breeding herd), main road (bulls), valley section of the Kranskop loop and along the Ubejane loop
- red hartebeest; kudu; grey rhebok; black wildebeest; blesbok; eland; springbok; cape mountain zebra; burchell's zebra; vervet monkey; rock dassie; ground squirrel; chacma baboon; common duiker; water mongoose; yellow mongoose; suricate; gemsbok; cape hare; and signs of aarvark, but didn't see one - next time

While all of these sightings were amazing, the real magic was in the scenic views on the crisp, frosty MZNP mornings.

Thank you KDG and thank you for taking time to share my TR
Arks, I am so excited for you, it is a truely magical place and I am sure you will have an amazing time!

Here are some pics of the predators, unfortunately I didn't get any cheetah pics this time and no great shots of the smaller predators as they are always so busy scuttling around

Aardwolf
(this pic is from a previous visit, but the rest are new )




Jackal



Caracal

@ Elsa - thank you! You will love this magical park

@ Rooies - great to have you on board!

@ KDJ - it absolutely is!!

@ carolv - thank you This is actually the first time we have seen caracal (and 2 sightings 20min apart ), but I would equate them to leopard in KNP, right place, right time and very private animals. The caracal in MZNP are slowly becoming more relaxed around people (so I hear) which should help future sightings. Also you have a much higher chance of seeing them if you are an overnight visitor as you get extra dusk and dawn time (this is when they're out and about hunting)

The ground squirrel is one of the cutest most entertaining species in MZNP and I love spending time with them!!

@ MM - thanks for popping bye! I couldn't agree more!

@ Mi-Mi - you are too clever, I have seen a total of about 18 aardwolf sightings in MZNP but that is the only one that actually stuck around for a decent photo

@ Pumbaa - I really hope you get to go to this park sometime soon! It's an absolute pleasure

Here are some more pics from this visit!

the fire in the lounge on icy-cold nights really makes a difference and adds to the ambiance of listening to the BBJ, Cape Eagle Owl and Spotted Eagle Owl calls....



I would love to know what happened to this buffalo!!!



Birds.....







Black rhino, general game and more scenary coming soon!