Wild animals : Pictures of South Africa

Baboon

Baboons are African and Asian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae.
There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger.

Baboon

African Elephant

African elephants are the species of elephants in the genus Loxodonta, one of the two existing genera in Elephantidae.
Although it is commonly believed that the genus was named by Georges Cuvier in 1825, Cuvier spelled it Loxodonte. An anonymous author romanized the spelling to Loxodonta and the ICZN recognizes this as the proper authority.

African Elephant

Giraffe

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant.
Its scientific name, which is similar to its archaic English name of camelopard, refers to its irregular patches of color on a light background, which bear a token resemblance to a leopard's spots.

Giraffe

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse", is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae (the other is the Pygmy Hippopotamus.)
The hippopotamus is the third largest land animal (after the elephant and the white rhinoceros) and the heaviest extant artiodactyl, despite being considerably shorter than the giraffe.

Hippopotamus

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae (sometimes classified instead as the subfamily Crocodylinae).
The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e. the true crocodiles, the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae) and the gharials (family Gavialidae), as well as the Crocodylomorpha which includes prehistoric crocodile relatives and ancestors.

Crocodile

Buffalo

The African buffalo is a very robust species.
It is up to 1.7 metres high, 3.4 metres long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500–900 kg, with males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range.
Forest type buffaloes are only half that size.

Buffalo

Waterbuck

The Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Waterbuck stand 120 to 136 centimetres (47 to 54 in) at the shoulder.
Males weigh 200–300 kilograms (440–660 lb) and females 160–200 kilograms (350–440 lb).
Their coats are reddish brown in colour and become progressively darker with age; they have a white 'bib' under their throats and white on their rumps.

Waterbuck

Rock hyrax

A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea:
The Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis, the Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax Heterohyrax brucei, the Western Tree Hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, and the Southern Tree Hyrax, Dendrohyrax arboreus.
They live in Africa and the Middle East.

Rock hyrax seen Augrabies Falls

Cape Ground Squirrel

The Cape Ground Squirrel (Xerus inauris) is found in most of the drier parts of southern Africa from South Africa, through to Botswana, and into Namibia.
The name Cape Ground Squirrel is somewhat misleading as it actually has a much wider area of habitation.
This common name may have been arrived at to distinguish it from a tree squirrel (the Eastern Grey Squirrel) found around Cape Town, which was imported from Europe by Cecil John Rhodes.

Cape Ground Squirrel seen Augrabies falls

Serval

The serval, Leptailurus serval, is a medium-sized African wild cat.
Modern molecular DNA analysis indicates that servals maintain their own unique lineage descending from the same Felid ancestor as the lion, and though the serval shares common traits with the cheetah, it is the cheetah which is thought to have descended from ancient servals.
Similar DNA studies have shown the African golden cat and the caracal are closely related to the serval.

Serval seen Kruger Park

Hyena

Hyenas are the animals of the family Hyaenidae, a feliform suborder of the Carnivora.
It is the smallest biological family in the Carnivora (consisting of four species), and one of the smallest in the mammalia.
Despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components to most African and some Asian ecosystems

Hyena seen Kruger Park

Klipspringer

The Klipspringer (literally "rock jumper" in Afrikaans/Dutch), Oreotragus oreotragus, also known colloquially as a mvundla (from Xhosa "umvundla", meaning "rabbit"), is a small African antelope that lives from the Cape of Good Hope all the way up East Africa and into Ethiopia.

Klipspringer seen Augrabies Falls

Warthog

The Warthog, Wart-hog, Common Warthog, or African Lens-Pig (Phacochoerus africanus) is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P. aethiopicus, but today that scientific name is restricted to the Desert Warthog of northern Kenya, Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia.