This is one of the rarest animals to see in Africa, a highly endangered species: the Southern Ground Hornbill. Only about 1500 still live in the wild. We saw this couple yesterday, while heading from the staff village to the Vuyani Safari Lodge, when Craig suddenly spotted them walking down the main path. We got very close to them, watched them for about 10 minutes, and then they flew off, and I managed, by some sort of a miracle, to catch one of them in full flight, with my (admittedly awsome) Lumia 920 phone. Fantastic shot, I was very pleased.

They used to have two chicks with them, one sub-adult, and one young chick,. The sub-adult seems to have moved on, and regarding the young chick, we are not sure. Maybe something tragic happened … ? But maybe this is a new couple .. .that would be tremendous news indeed!

Our reserve is perfect for them breeding, as we have a lot of large trees, which are perfect for them, while we don’t have too many elephants (which disturb their breeding through destroying the natural habitat of these birds by destroying trees).

Here my two shots that I managed. Nice!