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Yip. We were told they are common in Letaba and Skukuza, but these critters are devious! We've only heard them before, the moment you shine a light in the tree's direction they disappear. Then at Skukuza last year we heard hippo's going wild close to the camp, it was around 8 in the evening. There we met a SA tourguide who was having a break and he showed us how to find them. First dead give-away is the sound of a baby screaming, but don't shine any light into the tree yet. Stay put where you think the sound came from and wait for either bits of food falling down or twigs falling - you seldom hear them move as they're remarkably quiet movers - as they play about. Then turn on a light - Don't use a spotlight but a normal flashlight - we found 4 that evening by the river alone!

Thanks - will try your tip. We saw them at Pretoriuskop. We were camped on the fence and they obviously were nesting in a tree just outside the fence, so each evening we saw them leaping (and boy do they leap) away on their way to search for food etc. I just love them. I will have to listen very carefully as I have never heard their call in the wild, just on tape. I must admit I can get very confussed with the night sounds sometimes...but I am getting better.

I will split this off to it's own topic under Animals. so please don't post anything here till I am done.

We r fortunate enough to have many bushbabies living in our and neighbouring gardens in PTA. I video'd one the other day jumping around in the trees.

I have been told that Orpen is also a good place to c them.

DB, they sound EXACTLY like a small child screaming in frustration!

Marmotm u r right. My wife actually got up for nothing sometimes when she thought that it was our daughter crying.
I still have told her.

We heard them in Letaba and Lower Sabie last time but didn't get to see them.
I saw my first one in Kosi Bay last december, they are SO cute.

Easter weekend we saw them in trees above braais. Yes, listen for the whoosh of branches cos' they don't always call.
Also one very early morning they were in very open shrubs around the ablution block feeding on insects attracted by the lights - remarkable adaptation.

Which camp you speaking of mikev?

Thousand apologies .
Orpen camp.

I've also seen these cute little guys in the massive fig tree next to the ABSA guest house in Skukuza.

The other option is to go on a sunset drive. As they are stricly nocturnal, your best bet is to try and get out into the bush at night...

We have 2 types of Bushbaby in KNP. The Lesser Bushbaby and the Thick-Tailed Bushbaby.

The lesser Bushbaby is about 37cm long and weighs about 155 grams. The Thick-Tailed Bushbaby is about 73 cm long and and weighs about 1.2 kilograms, much bigger than the Lesser Bushbaby.

The Bushbabies call is a harsh and a repetitive wailing, just like a baby having tantrum. What I find very interesting is that a bushbabies eyes cannot move in their sockets, so the head is continually active and searching for food or prey. They also have amazing hearing, their ears have a complex series of folds and this helps them to position the source of any sound. They can hear so well that they can even hear the gliding of an Owl.

They move so quick, they can catch grasshoppers in the air with their front feet. The Lesser Bushbaby is very particular about its appearance, grooming very much before they go out the night foraging for food. Does this not remind us musketeers of something.

The lesser bushbaby's calls are normally not noticed by people although they have about 10 basic sounds which are combined to form 20+ different calls.

The thick tailed has a repertoire of about 10 basic calls with a combination of some of the calls (Alarm, contact rejection, distress, mother to infant, adult to adult, territorial etc.) Some of their calls match some of the lesser bb's but are much louder and more noticeble than the latter. The call of the 'crying baby' is the territorial call of the thick tail bush baby.

As I have said elsewhere. A lesser bushbaby was calling 2m from my bedroom in PTA the other night, sitting on the edge of the roof. The call was a very loud and shrill tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk. I have a very nice video clip of the whole event for those interested in it. Mail me to wildtuinman@yahoo.com.

I have been trying to find an audio clip of a bushbaby on the web for some time, with no luck. I wanted to see if what I heard at Skukuza one night was indeed a bushbaby. I also heard the same sound at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, during the day. Would there be bushbabies there?!?

Does anyone know of a bushbaby audio clip that is available?

Hi cougar ...

Send WTM an e-mail and he will send you a video clip ...

His e-mail : wildtuinman@yahoo.com