Look to the right and you see a herd of elephants. Look in the water and you see a pod of hippopotamus. Look to the left and you see impala, crocodiles, warthogs, kudu, zebra, buffalo, and a troop of baboons. In the warm glow of the afternoon sun, there is a variety of life at the waterhole, where the animals converge for their sundowners after a hot and thirsty day.
We are in Hwange National Park, the largest natural reserve in Zimbabwe and home to more than 100 mammal species and 400 bird species – an animal lover’s paradise. In the evenings, we visit various waterholes to sit quietly and watch what comes by until darkness falls and we can see no more. We then head back to camp for our own sundowners.
At the waterhole, skittish impala bravely drink within a few metres from crocodiles that could easily bring them down in one splashy attack.
Hippos crowd around each other grumpily, sometimes lashing out at a neighbor with loud grunts or erupting in angry open-mouthed, teeth-baring arguments.
Black-winged stilt and three-banded plover wade in the mud and a tawny eagle soars overhead.
Elephants pad silently down to the water, dip their trunks and drink deeply. Some also choose to take a refreshing mud bath, while others opt for a dust bath. We enjoy spending time with these mighty animals, watching their behavior and their interactions with each other.
Elephants need to drink 100-160 litres of water daily to help digest the coarse and fibrous food they eat. They are quite particular about the water they drink. If it is too muddy, they will dig a hole beside the muddy water to access clean water.
A much smaller animal, the rock hyrax, can be find among the rocks in the vicinity of the waterhole. Hyraxes live in harems with one male ruling over up to 17 females. The males tolerate no competition whatsoever and even kick out their own male offspring when they are about a year old. Within the harem the animals have close body contact to maintain body heat during the cold nights and to share body odour. Perhaps that is what the little guy is doing with the much larger one in this video:
