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Hi!

We will be in the Addo during one day at the beginning of April on 4x2 SUV. Can you recomend scenic route to see animals?

Yury

HI Yury, Addo has good roads which can be travelled in a sedan car so you can go anywhere in Addo and be sure to see plenty elephants, buffalo and other animals. Lions if you are lucky. I'm not sure of the mountainous area - never been there. Ronnie L goes there quite often so he will brief you on that. I hope that you will have a very enjoyable day in Addo and go back some time soon for more. There is a lovely hide overlooking the dam (same one on webcam) which is situated at the main camp. Enjoy!

Welcome Micetta,
How nice of you to share some of your pics. I am so pleased that you had a great time at Addo. I was out there today and also saw a herd of about 70 ellies at Hapoor Dam. What a great sight. I will be posting some pics soon and hope to see some more of yours.
All the best

Hi Yury,
Welcome and I hope you have a great visit to Addo and I am sure that you will have fantastic sightings.
The roads in the Main Camp and Southern Section of Addo are very good and one can use the smallest sedan car with ease.
There is a daily sightings board at the entrance to the shop at the Main Gate that indicates where the animals can be seen. A sightings board is in the process of being put up at the Matyholweni Gate in the Southern Section. It is always a good idea to have a look at these boards to see where the animals are as they do move around in the Park.
The newly opened Southern Section has been giving good daily sightings of the following:-
Buffalo
Eland
Red Hartebeest
Kudu
Zebra
Ostrich
Lion have also been seen regularly
Any of the waterholes in Addo are always a good place to find the elephants on a hot day where you will be able to watch them at close quarters as they are drinking and cooling themselves off with mud baths.
I am sure your visit to Addo Park will be a memorable one and an experience of a lifetime

Addo Lions

I spent the day out at Addo yesterday and what a great day I had. I departed early from home and was the first in at the Matyholweni Gate at 7 am. when it opened. It was a cool day with a light drizzle in the morning.
While I was driving along slowly on the Mbotyl loop I stopped to take a closer look at something that I saw in the grass and could not make out what it was. As I stopped my car the male lion lifted his head. I am sure if I had not stopped he would not have lifted his head and I would not of seen him. I stayed there for some time watching him as he rolled from one side to the other and even lying on his back when it drizzled a bit harder for a short while. It seemed as if he enjoyed his early morning "shower" He eventually got up and moved off. What a great sighting and here are a few of the pics I took.

Not clear in my pics because of the weather conditions one can see the Indian Ocean in the distance and the beginning of the large sand dune formation starting at the Sundays River mouth. Is it not great that one can capture a photo of a lion where they once roamed freely and have now been successfully reintroduced with the Indian Ocean in the background. This gives me goosebumps. Congratulations to ALL involved.

What a sighting on a rainy day - thanks for sharing, Ronnie

Yes, RonnieL thanks for sharing with us whenever you go to Addo. I so enjoy your posts and pics. Now counting the days when we will get there (Sun 13th March) for 3 days and then for 2 days on 23/24th March on our way home. Definitely not long enough but will have to do for now.

Ronnie, I don't know how I missed this thread , just read it all and must say wow! Thanks so much for sharing these experiences with us.

How wonderful for you, Ronnie!!!

Thanks for that beaut.

Hi Ronnie!

We'll be visiting Addo in March - and this thread of yours is serving as a wonderful appetizer! Thanks for sharing all your experiences and photos with us!

Hi to Toko, DeleneD, Katja, LS, Bushbuddies and all the other people who have read and taken an interest in Addo Experiences.

Thank you for all your comments and I am pleased that you are enjoying and finding the info usefull

Elephants at Hapoor Dam

After having the good sightings of the Lion I made my way to Hapoor Dam.
On my arrival I found about 70 ellies at the dam. It was a cool day so there was only one ellie having a mud bath. Some were drinking while the majority were standing around. This was an ideal opportunity to observe their behavior and interaction with one another. There were some small huddles of female ellies protecting their young while the young males were "wrestling" with each other. There was also this young ellie that still had some Soccer World Cup 2010 fever left in him as he was running and kicking and flicking the dried ellie dung with his trunk. Here are some pics and I will be posting more.

Large herd of Ellies at Hapoor Dam




Ellies at waterhole




A group of females with young




Two young ellie males

Lovely ellie pics Ronnie It must have been great to watch them, especially the soccer ellie

As per the suggestion from Jungle Junkie (thank you very much!), I am re-posting this in the hope of a comment from someone in the know.

We were very shocked today in Matyholweni. We came across 5 silver backed jackals and realised very quickly that there was war! Three of them attacked the other pair and the female of this pair ran off some distance and then screamed continuously. The 3 literally slaughtered the other little male (he was very close to death when we left). One held him by the throat and the other two were ripping at his hind legs and shaking him constantly. Twice he managed to escape and twice they grabbed him again. We were shocked at how viciously they continued to attack him. Every time the poor female got closer, one of the three would rush off to chase her. I know it's nature, but it wasn't pleasant to watch. It must have taken at least twenty to twenty five minutes for him to lie still, JUST breathing and all of them were covered in blood. I would like to know if this was a territory thing, or is there some other reason why this would occur with jackals? Any ideas?

I do have video footage of it, but taken with a digital camera, so there are plenty of shakes in between. And no, I hadn't had too many amstels!

Hi, Welcome and thanks for sharing you experience here.

The animals you are referring to here as "silver backed jackals" are also know as the Cape Fox (Vulpes chama).
The behavior you described here does appear to be some sort of "territory or dominance battle" but very rarely as vicious as you witnessed.
A book by Richard Estes called "The behavior guide to African Mammals" is a very good book and on page 390 he describes fighting. If you do not have access to the book you can Google cape fox behavior.
I hope that this will answer you questions. If there is anyone that would like to comment on this please do so.