African Spur Thigh Tortoise

Welcome to the week of the African Spur Thigh Tortoise. A tortoise is a land dwelling reptile that has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton in the form of its shell. One great way to tell you that you have a tortoise and not a turtle, though a tortoise is in the turtle family, is by looking at their feet. A turtle will have webbed flipper style feet better suited for swimming and a tortoise will have claws with morse stumpy appendages. Tortoises do not swim, my buddy Matt Schoebel told me that if you put it in the water it would sink like a rock.

Tortoises with lighter shells come from warmer climates and ones with darker shells come from cooler environments. There are about 40 different types of tortoises. The Aldabran and Galapagos Tortoises are the largest of the species and can weight up to and over 600 pounds. You can also tell the approximate age of a tortoise by counting the rings on the scutes (individual shell plates).

Timbavati Wildlife Park is home to the third largest species of tortoise, the African Spur thigh. This tortoise is a native of the Savannas and Saharan desert in Africa. They eat grasses, desert scrub and get their water from the plants that they eat, they’re really fond of the Morning Glory plant. Pretty much a really cool existence just wandering and grazing.

The spur thigh mates just after the rainy season between September and November. After about 2 months of gestation, the female lays 15 to 30 eggs and then she fills her nest in with dirt and the babies hatch in about eight months.

Tortoises are cool characters and we have no shortage of them grooving around Timbavati Wildlife park. When you’re in the park if you’re lucky enough to see one go into it’s shell, listen to see if you can hear it exhale before it does. It has to expel the air in it’s body before it does.

You can watch more on the tortoise in this week’s video.

Timbavati Wildlife Park Gift Shop

One part of Timbavati Wildlife Park that I think is worth calling some attention to is our Gift Shop. The Gift shop at Timbavati is a pretty far out place when you stop and think about it. You can get everything from Folk Art to Timbavati clothes to stuffed animals. There are pluzzles and wuzzles, pet rocks and socks, cuddly lil critters and animal clocks. They have penguins and zebras, fake tattoos, tigers that grab and owls that hooo!

Sorry, I kind of got caught up in Dr. Suess mode there. Anyways, the gift shop is filled with eye candy and the kid in me loves stopping in and gazing at the sheer amount of items we have in it. This video gives you a great look inside of our Gift Shop!

Labor Day 2016!

Greetings and Welcome to this week’s blog. Happy Labor Day to you all and we hope that on this day of celebration for the American Worker that you are planning to relax and just enjoy a Monday that isn’t really a Monday.

We usually place the spotlight on an animal every monday, but on this Labor Day, we want to spotlight our own workers! This week, we are taking time out to thank you. Our staff at Timbavati Wildlife Park for helping to make our park and our guests feel welcomed in our home.

While the rest of the country enjoys their summer holidays, you all take pride in making sure that their trips to our park are memorable and enjoyable and we just want you, our staff to know that we appreciate you. This week’s video is dedicated to you!

Capybara

Greetings and Salutations dear friends! This week we enter the world of the world’s largest rodent, the Capybara. This herbivore is a native of South America and is as comfortable in water as it is on land. First, let’s consider its size. A male adult capybara can weigh anywhere from 75 to 150 pounds and stand almost 2 feet tall on all fours. Se we’re dealing with a rodent the size of a large domestic dog.

I mentioned that the capybara is just as comfortable in the water as it is on land, the term we would use to describe this is “semi-aquatic”. With that level of comfort, you will rarely find a capybara far from a water supply. This is helpful because when threatened by a predator, a capybara can submerge itself under water for up to 5 minutes. That’s called aqua-skeedaddling :).

The capybara has webbed feet and likes aquatic plants just as much as it does terrestrial plants. Not surprisingly, this animal likes to mate in water and after a 4 to 5 month gestation period, the female will give birth to 4-5 babies. Here is this week’s video about the capybara of Timbavati Wildlife Park with more fun facts. Enjoy, and we will talk with you next week!

The Crowned Crane

Greeting and salutations friends! This week we visit the Crowned Crane. 

The Crowned Crane is the national bird of Uganda and is native to Africa south of the Sahara. It belongs to the crane family "Gruidae." They can be found near rivers, marshes and other wetland areas. These birds do not migrate but will make local and seasonal movements according to the food resources, the nest-site availability and the rains.

The crowned crane is a fairly large bird standing about 3ft tall. They can weigh up to 9 pounds.  They have a red pouch called a "gular pouch" that hangs from their throats.

These birds are omnivores and consume many types of prey including seeds, insects, grasses, fish and other invertebrate. The grey crowned crane has a long hind toe which can grasp a branch allowing them to roost in trees.

During the breeding season, the Grey Crowned Crane performs a beautiful dance, bow, run and jump while inflating the gular sacs and giving off low booming calls. These calls are given with the head lowered to shoulder level.

Below you will find a short video with a few more fun facts and footage of the Crowned Cranes! 

Greater Rhea

Greetings and salutations dear friends. This week we are taking a trip to South America to take an in depth look at the Greater Rhea. It is the largest bird in South America and the 3rd largest bird in the world. Its relatives the ostrich and emu are the only ones that are larger.

My personal experiences with the Rhea also place them as less aggressive than the other two larger birds as well. If you remember the White Emu were very unhappy with our presence in their enclosure as you can see by this video where the dominant member of the flock goes after my video camera and then a photographer.

The Greater Rhea is an omnivore that likes plants fruits and seeds but will also eat insects, lizards and small birds. Rheas commonly swallow pebbles. This assist them with breaking down their foods. Rhea can weigh up to 50 pounds and stand 3 to 5 feet tall.

This week’s vid has more fun facts about the Greater Rhea of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Talk with you next week!

As we close out our week

As we close out our week with the Red Kangaroo, Here is one more look at our high jumping friend http://qoo.ly/adxty

The Kangaroo of Timbavati Wildlife Park
Hailing from the land down under, the Kangaroo at Timbavati WIldlife Park are an interesting mob, here are more fun facts about them.