These next few pictures were taken on my Birthday Dec. 19 in Addo Elephant National Park and a nearby private game reserve called Scotia.

These first two pictures are of two adolescent male African Bush Elephants (Loxodonta africana)  sparring in Addo.  Near by were also some of the rest of their herd including two adult females and a juvenile.  An interesting note regarding these female elephants is that they do not have tusks.  In fact nearly all of the female elephants in the Addo elephant park have evolved without tusks in response to poaching pressure and inbreeding in the small population.
	These two pictures are of more elephants in the Addo park at two other watering holes.  In the park there is a total elephant population of about 300 individuals.  On this day our guide estimated that we saw about 120 of them.
	At the first watering hole was a family of Cape Warthogs (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) including one female and her four pups; they're about 2 weeks old.
	Elsewhere in the park we found a small herd of Red Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus caama).  This included two females and one infant only a few days old according to our guide.  In seven years of driving this was the closest that the driver had ever gotten to a female nursing her young in the park.

Later on we left Addo Elephant Park and went to Scotia Game Reserve located within a few kilometers of Addo.  This is a private game reserve, meaning they aren't affiliated with the government of South Africa, but they operate the park as an eco-tourism destination.  This means that the animals in the reserve are in a very unnatural setting, but many of them are threatened or vulnerable so the captive breeding programs facilitated by the game reserves help to maintain some part of the wider population.

	These are called either Gnus or Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus).  We were told by our guide that Gnus have a special blood chemistry that is toxic to fleas and ticks.  As a result if you have a large enough population of them in a given area then fleas become almost non-existent.  However there was only this one small herd in the reserve.
	This is the only Southern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) in the game reserve and he's a lonely male.  The staff at the reserve have named him Jim-Bob.  The distinctive feature for a White Rhino is the square lips.  The Black Rhino's lips are more triangular.
		There was a small herd, seven individuals, of Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in the reserve as well. Of course there were more warthogs in the reserve.  At right are a male and a female.  The Male pictured is very old; we were told that the age of a warthog can be determined by the size of the "warts" just below the eyes; the larger they are the older the individual.
	The images to either side are Impala (Aepyceros melampus).  These are a fairly common African antelope and our guide called them "the McDonalds of the savannah."  Meaning that they are a typical prey species for lions, lepords, cheetas, etc.
At right are the Blesbok (Damaliscus albifrons). According to our guide and Wikipedia they are the worlds only naturally purple animal.  They are very rare in the wild and typically only survive in protected herds like this one.
Below are a some Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis).  These antelope are one of the national symbols of South Africa and are the mascot of the National Rugby Team.  They have an interesting escape tactic which is to jump up in the air, as high as 10 feet, as they are running away from predators.	Next we have the Gemsbok (Oryx gazella), which is closely related to three other species in the Oryx genus which are formally called Oryx.  These antelope typically live in the desert regions of southern and eastern Africa.  Like Camels they can live without water for days at a time, our guide said something like two weeks.	Below is the one picture that we got of the Hippopotomus (Hippopotamus amphibius) in the reserve.  You can just see his eyes, ears, and nose above the water under the tree.  In the acatia tree above him are weaver bird nests.  Weavers typically nest above water to help protect against predators.
		What African photo safari would be complete without pictures of Zebra (Equus quagga burchelli)?  These are a particular supspecies called the Burchell's Zebra.  One of the distinguishing characteristics of this Zebra is that the black stripes meet under it's belly.  The Mountain Zebra's stripes don't.
Of course the highlight of this trip was to see the lion pride.  There were a total of five Lions (Panthera leo) including this male, a female, and their three cubs, two females and a male.  The cubs were about 6 months old when we were there.  These lions are free ranging, they have about 40 acres to themselves and a small Impala herd that they hunt.  The guide told us that after the cubs are grown they will transfer the female to a different pride and find another female for this male to mate with in order to help prevent inbreeding.

These next several pictures are of various plants that we saw in the Eastern Cape in Addo Village and Grahamstown.  Most of them are native to South Africa, but a few are aliens.  There is a concerted effort on the part of the South African government to remove as many of the alien species as they can from the country.  Most of them were brought in as decoratives, but have since escaped and many of them are aggressively out-competing the native plants.  South Africa is actually one of the seven plant kingdoms in the world and the fields and plans contain many thousands of bush, grass, and flower species, many found no where else on Earth.  Collectively these plans and the area where they are found is called "fynbos" which is Afrikaans for fine bushes.  As it turns out many of the decorative plants we are familiar with in California are transplants from South Africa.  Not being a botanist I don't have any idea what any of these plants are, but if anyone is willing to let me know I'll include references.

Continued on Page 2