This week’s #SofaSafari opened with a remarkable view of a bull elephant who had dropped by to welcome viewers tuning in from around the world. The Ulusaba rangers begun with a ‘Guess the animal track’ game, and with the elephant safely out of sight, Ryan jumped out of the vehicle to talk through the animal tracks and left viewers guessing who they belonged to until the end of the game drive.
After losing sight of Tlangisa at the end of last week’s episode, Brad and Trevor (with Stu filming) tracked her down high up in a tree. A couple of branches down, Tlangisa’s cub had made herself right at home and was tucking in to the last of her lunch. Of course, a leopard’s lunch wouldn’t be complete without a hyena waiting patiently below, but the cub carried on as normal and with a full belly, climbed up the tree to see ‘mum’. Did you know that a leopard’s long tail helps them with balance? No wonder they make it look so easy!
Leaving the leopards to soak up the last of the sun, we headed back to Brandon & Ryan (with Tom behind the camera) who had caught up with the bull elephant from earlier who was following an elephant herd, munching their way through the bush. Can you believe that adult elephants spend around 20 hours eating a day and only 40 minutes sleeping? Brandon & Ryan pointed out a baby elephant that was as young as one years old (judging from its’ missing tusks) and explained that whilst their eating habits are similar to adult elephants, they tend to doze off for double the amount of time.
Ryan finished the episode by revealing which tracks belonged to which animal…and most of our safari fans correctly guessed a zebra, spotted hyena and African civot.
You can watch episode 8 on YouTube here.
Spotted on Sofa Safari #8
• Bull elephant
• Tlangisa, the female leopard
• Tlangisa’s cub
• Hyena
• A herd of elephants