More Animals at the Ranch and Elsewhere

In a previous post I told you about the elephants at Ranch Nazinga  There were lots of other animals there and here are a few pictures of them.  While we were out riding around we stopped by one of the dams and saw this crocodile lounging on a sand bar. 

Crocodile at Ranch Nazinga

We did not get up close and personal with this guy like we did with the sacred crocodiles of Sabou, which we visited later in our trip.

Dawn's family and one of the sacred crocodiles of Sabou

From the observatory by the lake we saw a troop of baboons that came down to get a drink and play in the water.

Baboons

More baboons

 We also saw these wild boars (AKA wort hogs).

Wort Hogs

There were a number of different kinds of antelope.  I only have good pictures of two kinds

Bush buck

Bush buck baby

Water buck

Water buck

There were also monkeys. There were some that hung out in the trees.

Monkey in tree

Monkey jumping

There were others that came right up to the dining room windows, looking for a hand out, I suppose.

Monkey at the dining room

Not all the animals were big.  Here is a kind of lizard I had never seen before, with a blue tail.

Blue tailed lizard

Our final big animal adventure was in the southwest, near Banfora, where we saw hippopotami. At first they just looked like rocks sticking out of the water.

Rocks?

 Then we could see their eyes, noses, and ears.

Eyes, ears and nose.

 Finally one yawned and it was easy to see that it really was a hippo!

 What can make a hippopotamus yawn?

We went out to see them in these little flat bottomed boats.  There were five people in this boat. We had eight people in our boat, including the man who did the paddling.  I guess we must have been sitting pretty low in the water.

Hippo boat

As  you can see below, I am well looked after by folks here.  I call it playing the white hair card. It is one of the fringe benefits of having lived a long time! 

A little help for an old lady

Last, but not least, Camels! 

Five wise men?

Not wild animals, but they seem to belong with this blog. Reminding me to say a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!