An unpredictable day in Africa

One afternoon drive, we already had a great beginning with seeing
two male Leopards having a territorial dispute. The older male Leopard ended up
getting pushed out of his territory and the younger male won territory that he
could finally call his own! A little while later we had found a pride of Lions,
one male and two females lounging around like lions do!!! Finally we decided
that this was too much action for one day and a drink was needed. We stopped at
a waterhole, with the sun setting just behind it.

We had just served everyone with drinks and chatting about the day’s
events, and all of a sudden my tracker Tully asked us to keep quiet! It was as
if someone had switched the radio off, we were deadly silent! Not far from us
we heard these strange snorting noises and Tully explained that this was very
unhappy Impala’s. So we very quickly packed up to go find out what was
upsetting these Impala’s so much. Drove one block switched off the engine and
listened, drove to the direction of the snorting and switched the engine off
and listened. We found the Impala’s all facing the same direction and as we
looked beyond them we saw this little white body lying on the ground. As we
drove closer i could not believe my eyes, we had just witnessed Africa’s
largest snake- the African Rock Python kill a young Impala.

Males can get up to 4.5metres and females 5metres and easily weigh
55kgs, that’s a lot of snake for some people to handle. Their diet is varied but
they can consume small antelope, monkeys, fish, monitor lizards and even small
crocodiles have been recorded. Today this Python had killed a young impala, and
it was through the mothers distress calls that we had gotten this phenomenal
sighting. African Rock Pythons seek prey with their heat sensors, ambush and
then use strength rather than venom. As the animal exhales the snake constricts
and with every breath until the prey is exhausted of oxygen. Once the prey
stops breathing the Python then releases his grip and goes towards the head and
starts to consume his hard earned prey. At this time the snake is at its most vulnerable
to predators, so he swallows the prey surprisingly fast. Once the Python has
devoured his prey he goes into hiding like a cavity of a tree or maybe an old
Aardvark hole, so that the digestive juices can take over!

It just goes to show that the bush is extremely unpredictable, you
never know what’s around the next corner and if you us all your senses you just
might just get so much more…

Morah-Leigh Cooper-Ranger, Kapama Karula