The Wilds, Part 3

Believe it or not, I still have more photos to share from my trip to the Wilds.  These were some of the last species we encountered during our stay there.

Here are some Grevy's Zebras.  They never got too close to the bus, unfortunately.

Here are some zoomed out shots, just to give you some idea of how huge this place is (almost 10,000 acres).  It's miles and miles of rolling hills, grasslands and woodlands.  I think they are working very hard there at the Wilds to keep all of the vegetation as native to the area as possible.

I think it's interesting that the giraffes are following the road in this shot

Here are the Sable antelope again.  I know I showed them before, but they are so sweet-looking here!

These are Bactrian camels.  We had seen them (and the zebras) earlier in the day, but they were hiding out under a sun shelter, far away from the bus.  We got to see them much closer in the evening.

Well, HELLOOOO!

C'mere and give me a big ol' kiss!

These are some female Bactrian deer.  Seeing them in these poses makes me wonder if these were the species of deer so many lawn ornament deer were modeled after?

And these are male Bactrian deer, showing off their manliness.  I mentioned my Sunset at the Wilds post that we witnessed a raging fight between 2 deer bucks, and these are they.

The light was fading fast, and they were far from the bus and in constant motion, and my camera just couldn't keep up with them very well.  These were the best shots I got.  I've never seen anything like this in real life, and it was unforgettable.  Even though we were quite far from the bucks, every time they butted heads were could hear their antlers clacking.

One of the males had some fencing material stuck in his rack, and at one point both males had the material tangled around their antlers and they were literally stuck together.  Our bus driver radioed to animal control because he didn't know if they could break themselves free, but eventually one male flipped the other male completely off the ground -all 4 feet in the air - dislodged himself, and emerged the victor.

Notice the deer on the right has his hind end flying up into the air.

This was the buck who lost, getting the heck out of dodge.

Still a few more posts about the Wilds are yet to come.  I'll specifically talk about the African Wild Dogs and the Rhinos.