Smaller Game

Not everything of interest in the bush is large in size and for those prepared to take some time to explore at different levels there remain treats ready for discovery. A list of our animal species is available here.

Smaller mammals

There is a wide range of small mammals inhabiting Limpopo-Lipadi fitting into every conceivable ecological niche. Troops of banded mongeese over 40-strong are often seen foraging through the undergrowth - one group was even seen drinking en masse at an old cattle trough, all piled up on top of each other - and smaller families of dwarf mongeese as well as individual slender mongeese are also common sights. Elephant shrews and rock hyraxes (the closest relative of elephants!) abound on Lipadi Hill and the multitude of koppies strewn across the landscape, in fact the shrews often come out to explore around your feet while enjoying sundowners on the rocks!

The reserve has a healthy bat-eared fox population, supports many porcupines (if the volume of tracks they leave is anything to go by!) - you might even be able to find yourself a shed quill or two if you look carefully, and abounds with tree squirrels. Warthogs are ubiquitous and a number of family groups vie with bushbuck for the mammals most likely to visit your unit during the day.

Bushbabies can readily be seen bouncing around the trees at night, in fact just walking outside the back of your unit with a torch can often reveal a few watching carefully from the nearby bushes. Further into the bush you may come across genets hunting amongst the leaf-litter and low branches after dark, while aardvarks, civet and honey badger provide rare treats to a lucky few!

On the primate front groups of vervet monkeys inhabit the tree-tops and are often heard crashing about on the islands opposite River Camp, movements punctuated by occasional screams as youngers get too boisterous with each other. A number of troops of chacma baboon inhabit the reserve, roaming widely - notably around Old Man's Dam, Langope Office and near Magermans waterhole.

Reptiles

Although the reserve does have its share of venomous snakes, including black mamba, Egyptian cobra, Mozambique spitting cobra, and puff adders, as well as constrictors like the rock python, there are plenty of less scary reptiles! Tiny lizards dart up and down the decking rails and in the evenings leopard geckoes often appear on the unit walls, searching out the moths that flock to the lights.

Chameleons pose a challenge for eagle-eyed spotters while both rock and water monitors are a little easier to see. In the warmer months leopard tortoises are found everywhere and present those driving the land cruisers with an additional problem: not every rock in the track is a rock! During the cold months of winter you can fall back on searching out the bleached shells of long-dead individuals revealed in the dry bush.

Insects etc!

Bugs aren't everyone's favourite thing, but they play a vital role in the ecosystem; indeed the largest contributor to African biomass is the termite - a fact you can readily believe when you see some of the enormous mounds along the river, probably hundreds if not thousands of years old. Also hugely important are the fertilisers of the bush: dung beetles. Those who are interested can readily watch these creatures rolling their prizes off into the bush for burial.

Butterflies, grasshoppers, and dragonflies provide splashes of colour throughout the bush and the caterpillars of the mopane moth (itself a whopping couple of inches long!) are a local delicacy (if you dare to try!).

Of course there are also spiders and scorpions, some of which can inflict a nasty bite, but thankfully this is very unlikely providing you take care with footwear!

On top of all of this are also the vocal members of the amphibian family - frogs are heard chorusing at River Camp at night - and the nearly 40 species of fish found in the life-giving Limpopo.