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Tired of lions? Try a frogging safari
They are voracious predators that make scores of kills each night, many are brilliantly coloured and few creatures can match them for raw agility and prowess.
They are voracious predators that make scores of kills each night, many are brilliantly coloured and few creatures can match them for raw agility and prowess.
Yet not many visitors to South Africa's game reserves give much notice to the lowly frog, with lions, elephants and other big critters topping their list of "must see" animals.
Alwyn Wentzel hopes to change this as he pioneers a novel and mud-splattered concept in ecotourism -- frog safaris. "Frogging is physical, it's challenging. Unlike game viewing or birding you have to get in there and get dirty," Wentzel said as he sloshed through the muck in search of quarry, a headlamp lighting his way through the inky darkness.
The goal is simple and the same as bird watching: spot and identify as many frog species as you can in the run of a night.
The difference with bird watching is that you try and catch the animals in your hand to get a proper look at them before releasing them -- which is no easy task and involves lots of sliding in the mud and splashing through water.
And doing it at night in the Amazulu Game Reserve in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province has an added element of danger: this is "Big 5" country, home to lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant, not to mention crocodiles.
This means frogging is done with a .375 rifle close at hand, with big spotlights shone over potential spots from the vehicle to see if any dangerous creatures are lurking in the vicinity.
"We're not going to be doing much frogging here which is unfortunate as it's an ideal spot," said Wentzel, pointing to a pair of young male lions sprawled on the muddy bank of a dam.
Undeterred, the search continued elsewhere, briefly interrupted by a large bull elephant blocking the road.
"Look out for crocodiles. If you see what looks like a tiny red light moving through the water let me know," said Wentzel as he ploughed into the reeds in the shallow part of a dam in search of painted reed frogs.
Tumbling through the foliage eventually brought succes.
"This is a beautiful painted reed frog," Wentzel said, holding the tiny black and yellow specimen up to the light before allowing it to escape from the palm of his hand.
"You can hear them all around us, they're everywhere, there are hundreds. But just finding one of them is the hard job," he said.
Wentzel can identify several species by the calls they make, which often blend together in a dizzying nocturnal chorus.
