Secretary Day in Addo


Schotia, 18th of August 2018 – We visit Addo Elephant Park with Karl from Schotia in his very luxurious white Landrover with leather seats. In the car with us, two girls, who work as temporary volunteers in an animal farm nearby. One is Swiss and a primary school teacher, the other works for the French multinational Alstom in Brasil. Yes, they look like you think they look! Two stereotypes!
I ask Karl what the most silly question is a tourist ever asked him. He thinks for a moment and says: 'What do giraffes hunt?' In the thirties, there was a war between the farmers and the elephants, who ate or destroyed the crops. At some point, there were so few elephants left, that there was need for conservation. That was when Addo was created. Today about 600 elephants live here. As we are not in a self-drive, we get professional info from Karl. Close to one of the watering holes, a thirsty male appears from the fynbos and we enjoy the show. Slowly he fills his trunk, brings it to his mouth and slurps. Elephants drink up to 200 litres a day, their trunk holds 6 to 7 litres. As most of the elephants in Addo come from the same genetic pool, some of the females have a defect and do not develop tusks. Karl stops and shows us a secretary bird. This big eagle-like bird, stomps the ground to chase the prey out of the tall grass, it looks more like a dance. I remember that as a kid I collected pictures of African animals from chocolate wrappers. In my scrapbook, the space for the secretary bird remained empty. This visit to South Africa ticks all the boxes!

Another day at the office for the secretary bird (FDC)

Replenishing time (FDC)


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