South Africa! Our guide asked us what our favorite animal were a few days into the safari. We all had different answers and none of us said elephants or rhinos. We were being the weird crowd going “The dung beetles!” or “The kingfisher!” and I went “The Gnu!” And I still like the odd Gnu or … I think it’s wildebeest in English? It’s amazing! The gnus were all over the place wherever we went. So incredibly odd in shape, but also so clearly beautifully fitting perfectly with the environment. But coming home I must say he was right, the guide. It’s the rhinos that left me wanting more and going dreamy eyed thinking back. Such huge gentle creatures! Odd in shape too but somehow they managed to appear cute, even elegant at the same time, and each of them clearly had their own personality. The last animals we saw on the safari were a rhino and her calf as they grazed peacefully right next to our car just after sunset, so close that we could hear the peaceful “munch munch” sounds of their chewing. The rhino is definitely my favorite animal.
The kind of rhino I drew is extinct, as they all quite likely soon will be. The woolly rhino belonged in the ice age and the cold period right after. We only have evidence of them in the cave paintings and in the Siberian permafrost. So naturally it was a bit hard finding a reference photo for this drawing. So this is one of my photos of the white rhinos from our safari disguised as a woolly rhino, added a few details from my imagination.
Larger resolution
We also encountered a few common butterflies like the orange tip, European peacock, the common brimstone and the speckled wood. The last one I photographed.
We met a pair of great spotted woodpeckers and the sparrowhawk as it flew over the forest.
And last but not least we encountered the cutest little black squirrel. It is an invasive color variation of our native red squirrel, but still it was cute.
