If you’re planning a safari holiday in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, you’ll find yourself and your fellow travellers getting into numerous debates about all the magnificent animals you encounter.

Not all of us can be as knowledgeable as David Attenborough, but if you want to wise up on a few facts to impress your fellow holidaymakers on a South Africa Safari, here are a few tips to keep you ahead of the pack!

ZEBRA

Why do Zebras have stripes?

A herd of zebra is a stunning sight for anyone taking a holiday in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, but many are left wondering why on earth these creatures have such a bizarre look. There are three main theories:

1) Identity:

Zebras’ stripes are like fingerprints with each zebra having a different set of stripes. As a newborn, the young zebra stays close to its mother and learns her stripes. The foal is then able to find its’ mother just by sight.

2) Camouflage:

Stripes help the zebra hide in grass from predators as well as making it more difficult for a lion to pick out any single zebra from a herd for attack. The stripes may also be confusing the visual system of the blood-sucking tsetse fly.

3) Thermoregulation:

The stripes help the zebra to have a more controlled body temperature, as they correspond with fat patterns beneath the skin, serving as a thermoregulatory mechanism.

ELEPHANT

How do elephants get so big?

On a South Africa safari, the elephants you are likely to encounter wondering along and munching on bushes are African elephants, which are distinguishable from their Asian cousins by their much larger ears. The average large Elephant bull reaches a weight of 5.5 tons and some males can be as heavy as 6.5 tons, while females average about 3.5 to 4 tons.

A large elephant bull will eat as much as 200 kg of grasses, leaves, bamboo, twigs, bark, roots, fruits, seeds and flowers a day, although only 40% of that is digested as they have a very weak digestive system. To get through all that food, Elephants eat for an average of 18 hours a day.

GIRAFFE

What is the collective noun for giraffes, and why?

You’re quite likely to spot a giraffe on a safari holiday in South Africa. The tallest of all land-living animal species, there are over 9,000 giraffes in Kruger National Park, and, if you’re lucky, one of these quiet and inquisitive creatures might stop to take a look, very politely, into your car window!

The collective noun for Giraffes is a ‘journey’. The reason for this name is that they tend to move around - if a Giraffe feeds on the same Acacia tree for too long, the tree starts to defend itself by increasing the levels of tannin in the leaves. The increase of tannin makes the leaves taste very bitter and dry, forcing the Giraffe to move on.

LION

Do lions eat people?

Lions wouldn’t usually choose to hunt for people. In Africa their preferred menu generally consists of large mammals including wildebeest, impalas, zebras, buffalo and warthogs.

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