A rare kill

It was late in the morning at Kirkman’s Kamp. After a couple of nights with rain this morning the sun showed its power and heated up the area quickly and intense. We came across three white rhino snoozing inside a mud wallow on the side of the road. They were happily cooling of in the water, after the morning sun had warmed them up. The next minute two saddle-billed storks appeared in the wallow. A male and a female. The sexes can be distinguished by the female having a yellow eye and the male a black one. The male also has a yellow drop underneath his beak and is slightly bigger. Both started wading through the water looking for some food. The storks regularly feed on snails, snakes, fish, frogs and other invertebrate that are found in the wallows. The excitement was incredible having a close up of this rare bird and even being able to get some great pictures. The habitat of the saddle-billed stork is in danger and so the numbers decrease yearly. The last census in 1993 only counted 25-30 pairs in the Kruger National Park. There are an estimated 100 individuals in the whole of South Africa. The rhinos weren’t really impressed by the rare visitor and kept on sobbing and sleeping. Suddenly the female stork pulled a big cat fish out of the small bit of water left in the mud wallow. Immediately she turned around to get out of the males’ reach who was trying to steal the prey of her. She got away quickly and stopped just on the edge of the water, trying to stab her catch. It took her about 10 minutes – the male coming dangerously close – until she had killed the fish by stabbing it over and over again. Now even the rhinos lifted up their heads to find out what all this commotion was about. The stork eventually washed the fish at another pool of water close by and swallowed it in one go. Its partner strolled back into the water – disappointed there wasn’t enough food for both of them. The herbivorous rhinos eventually got up to start their “hunting” in a nearby open area as the saddle-billed storks flew of with full bellies. Thanks a lot to Charlotte Pfeiffer for the stunning pictures.

Posted: Kirkman's Kamp by Stephanie Mast, Date: 22 February 2010

 
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