Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Our last full day at Kruger National Park was filled with incredible animal sightings. I took over 500 images that day. (Don’t worry; I won’t share them all with you.) I am splitting What I will share into two posts. One of our stops that day was the reservoir at Transport Dam, southwest of our guest house at Skukuza Rest Camp. There was so much activity at the dam that we stayed for quite a while to capture the activity.

The animals came, drank some water, and left throughout our stay. As we arrived, everything seemed relatively quiet. A gray heron was unconcerned about us parking relatively close to the rock upon which he perched. He posed for many photos as he hopped or flew up or down from the rock and went about his business of gathering lunch.

Nearby, a spotted hyena looked for a potential lunch. The hyena wandered around the reservoir and encircled the watering hole. It would have been fine if the opportunity to steal a meal occurred.

Overhead, a fish eagle looked for potential prey. Maybe just looking for a place to land, the eagle flew low and put out the landing gear near our safari van.

The eagle used the rock as a base, hopping or flying between several rocks on that side of the dam. As the bird hunted, it launched more sorties in search of prey.

I noticed something gray swimming in the water. I first thought it might be a Nile crocodile, but I discovered two hippos swimming when I focused the zoom lens on the area. The peaceful calm of the reservoir was shattered when, from across the dam, a large splash attracted our attention.

I collected several images with my D500 at its 10-shot-per-second capture rate. What looked like a single crocodile splashing around from the camera’s preview window was actually two crocodiles fighting over a wildebeest carcass. Now, I’m not wise enough to tell a wildebeest carcass from an antelope, but Dries came to my rescue in identifying what the fight was over.

The fight went on with several attempts to steal the remains. When the waters calmed, the carcass remained in the possession of the croc we first saw. I have posted several more images of the fight on Flickr. The link to the album is at the end of this post.

Near the heron’s rock, a crocodile enjoyed a snack—an unlucky impala. At one point, I photographed the crocodile with a smile on his face, blood on his lower jaw, and what appears in the photo to be a wagging tail.

It was time for us to leave Transport Dam for more adventures and our best leopard encounter of the trip. I’ll save that story for next week and leave you with another shot of that lone hyena still searching for a steal-a-meal. There are many bird photos and more of the crocodile fight on my Flickr album here. Also, next week, we will have lunch at the Wildest Golf Course in the World. See you next Friday.

John Steiner