Striped field mouse - the Prey

This is one of the many striped field mice that hang around Jack's picnic place at the Addo Elephant National Park, waiting patiently for someone to "accidentally" drop a treat. I can spend hours enjoying the little animals as much as I enjoy the big ones.

Of course being near the bottom of the food chain many fall prey to the local predators, like the Jackal Buzzard in the previous post.

My new favourite rodent

Many people who travel tyo game parks have one goal in mind and that is to see the big animals, preferably the big five. Suzie and I on the other hand take pleasure in all the animals, big and small. On a recent trip to the Mountain Zebra National Park we came across a few colonies of ground squirrels, which came out to forage in the late afternoon, which kept us occupied for ages.

They were very entertaining to watch, as they scuttled about looking for whatever it is they eat, stopping to look around and flapping their bushy tails up and down.

At the first sign of danger there would be a mad dash, as they beat a hasty retreat to their burrows, but they were soon on the go again.