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M. Paxton... I see you have a great time at Mountain Zebra

Greetings All

The holiday season has started and the drives are going out on a regular basis, so i've seen quite a bit. The usal suspects mountain zebra, hartebeest with lots of calves, springbok, wildebeest with calves and many kudu, Eland, gemsbok, blesbok, duiker, steenbok, yellow mongoose, ground squirrel and the odd meerkat.
On one of the night drives we got to see a cheetah and three cubs but unfortunatly the guests on the vehicle went a bit crazy and they turned around and ran off.
A new one for me was bush pig.
On one of the drives i saw aardwolf, aardvark and porcupine within metres of each other, i wonder what corruption was been planned.

On the drive this morning we found a fresh cheetah kill but no cheetah. the cat or cats cought a fully grow kudu cow and had only eaten the rear end and stomach. there were many black backed jackals feasting whilst we stopped and had a look.

Off to a night drive just now, weather permitting. the skys are black over the mountains obove the camp.

Minimum of 4 guests has been changed on monday to 2 and the other activities are Morning and Night drives, the 10km hike is open again and san cave paintings tour.

Enjoy Cheers

What an impressive list of great sightings. And I'm not only talking about the cheetahs. Aardwolf, aardvark, porcupine and all the antelopes I've yet to see.
I'm with saraf

definitely must make a plan to explore this gem of a park. those earthworms are humongous, i think they must be called earth-snakes

What MZNP has to offer is amazing but patience is the key in this park because the animals are a bit more skittish and shy than in other parks. The surroundings are incredibly beautiful and we found the Ubejane Loop so productive. In Dec 2008 we saw a rhino cow and calf heart-stoppingly close , eland, gemsbok, steenbok, zebras, ostriches, monkeys, meerkatte, red Hartebeest and a mass of springbok "pronking" at dusk, against the sunset that only the Karoo can deliver! On the Rooiplaat Loop we saw blesbok, springbok, wildebeest, zebra's rolling in a pan of dust and a pair of Blue Crane parents walking in the veld with a juvenile following them! On the way down from Rooiplaat we saw a troop of baboons scattered about on the huge rocks below the road, with individuals grooming each other! This all in a short day visit. Must add that the staff have always been friendly and so welcoming over many, many years of visiting there with family who reside in Cradock.

Michael, hope you are enjoying your time there. It is a very special place!

Greetings All

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Time for an update on the some of the happenings MZNP. We have been busy with Morning Drives(04:30-06:30 best time of the day), san cave paintings and Evening Drives(18:30-20:30) oh and the 10km hikes(05:30 can take 4+ hours).

Most of the antelope were seen on the drives on a regular basis, the specials once again being the aartwolf, aartvark, porcupine, small spotted genet and bat eared fox.

Some good sightings of bat eared fox with new born pups, they're all ears. I even got a charge from one of the black rhino cows, WOW was that impresive(we were in a vehicle). As per normal no photos.

On one of the 10km trails i did we came across a kudu bull that the cheetah had caught, yes a kudu bull and it was one of two caught that week. I put the camera trap over the kill for a night and day, but only got photos of black-backed jackal. here a photo taken at 04:00 am.


This is our local traffic official.


And one of the buffalo bulls that wonder around


Cheers

Thx so much for sharing! Have been to the park and enjoyed it thouroughly. When we come back we WILL do a night drive! So many special sightings!!!

M.Paxton, how do you know it was killed by one or more cheetahs? by the spoors..or the bite marks?

thanks

Greetings All


This is a kudu cow caught by a male cheetah called White-eyes. He caught it between 7:00 and 7:45 in the morning. When we got there he was opening the kudu around the tail area. The foto is taken the next day, many jackal and few crows finished it off.


Known as a blue tulip. The park is full of amazing flowers.


Some of the smaller intresting things we see on the walks. Trapdoor spider.

The game drives have been good as normal, but have yet to a antbear/aardvark this year. I have had a couple of good caracal sightings.

The MZNP is green with all the rain we have had and all the animals are fat and healthy.

Cheers

that is a beautiful flower and the trapdoor spider - interesting things we don't see everyday.

Hi Mike, my girlfriend and I did a night drive with you the other week, when the park resembled the delta . Thanks for a great night drive (Caracal, Aardwolf x 2, Porcupine x 2 and a subliminal Aardvark .

Just beginning to get my TR together for the three parks. never did see those pesky Cheatah but got great Caracal at Addo.

thanks again and to everyone who visits MZNP, miss out on a night drive at your peril

Hi M Paxton, How lucky are you to live and work in MZNP. Will be checking in regularly for your reports.
Nver seen and aardwolf so hope to get there in the not too distant future. Regards, Delene.

Hi Mike ... I am SO PLEASED to read that you are in "my" neck of the woods now ... good old friendly Eastern Cape ...!! We shall be visiting you at MZNP soon ... and hope to meet up .... you were always out driving when we were at Mopani !!
Thanks for sights updates ... it really gets us looking forwrd to our trip !
See you sooon
Cheers !

Hullo Michael, It must have been you SO and I met in January - we were there from 3rd to 5th and chatted to somebody who said he'd just transferred from Kruger. We told you about the aardwolf we saw. (We were driving a white Volkswagen Caravel - C.A registration.)

I have just read all the post on this thread and am regretting not booking for a night drive! Will definitely do so next time. We love KZNP. At our last visit we were super-impressed with the high level of service from all the staff and the park is fabulous - never a dull moment on a game drive.

All the best for a good long stay in this lovely park.

I was there late last year, and took a night drive. My mate and I were the only ones that booked that evening, so we had to pay for four. I tell you, I would have paid for 16.


It was A W SO M E !

I never saw any aardwolf, having said that, 3 or the 4 visits to MZP previously have resulted in late afternoon aardwolf sightings....

Our guide was a young african lady, who was a student, coincidentally, it was her last day, she was amazing...full of knowledge, e3xcellent sense of humour, and teh drive was like an interactive documentary.

The highlight, beleive it or not, was not the chance to see nocturnal animals, but a group of about 50 buffalo in the dark, the spot light , alighting thier eyes....just as if you were in a Nat Geo documentary, its a life experience.
We did see about 5 Bat eared foxes, a few jackals, Kudu, duikers, porcupine and afew cheetah spoors....
But, its teh buffalo that I will cherish.

We were rewarded with a black rhino, with calf having a brose breakfast the following morning (Cannot reveal where though....too risky, and rhinos are close to my heart)...albeit 150m away.

Then, we bumped into Getwild, and chin wagged for 2 hours.

This is not only a emorable park, but highly educational too, and so strange with teh exfoliated rock formations. Its ancient.....
I urge everyone who loves being outdoors to check this place out, not only for its wildlife, but because its strange allure of surroundings too...who knows...yo umay see teh elusive and maligned brown hyeana!!!

That weekend we saw most animals on offer, with teh exception of teh brown hyeana, klipspringer, and cheetah.
For some reason, we overdosed on Blue Cranes (a dozen or so), and a martial eagle perched next to the dam near teh guesthouse, and a perigrine falcon.......