Allie Menzel is a student at Towson University and an ISA Photo Blogger. She is currently studying abroad with ISA in Cape Town, South Africa.
1. On our safari at Aquila Private Resort, we were able to see lions in their natural habitat. They were definitely my favorite of all of the animals we saw. It was interesting to see how the alpha male asserted his dominance by making the other males move whenever he was lying down.
2. In my opinion, the zebras are definitely one of the most beautiful animals here in Africa. A fun fact we learned on our safari is that just like human fingerprints, zebras stripe patterns are each unique to the individual!
3. At Boulder’s Beach in Simon’s Town, visitors can pay a small fee and hang out on the beach with penguins for a day. Considering penguins are my absolute favorite animal, I had an amazing time getting up close and personal with these fun-loving, wobbly creatures!
4. Over Easter break, my roommate and I went to a bird park where we were able to see hundreds of different birds and even feed and hold a few. The parrots were my favorite to take pictures of because of their vibrant colors.
5. As a Fruit Loop cereal lover myself, I was excited to see “Toucan Sam” in person while at the Umgeni bird park in Durban! An interesting fact we learned about toucans is that they use their bills for air conditioning since they don’t have the ability to sweat. This comes in handy for toucans since they typically live in warm climates!
6. I could have sat and watched the elephants on our safari interact all day! These two elephants fed each other and wrapped their tusks as if they were kissing! Sadly, though, elephants here in Africa are an endangered species and are expected to be extinct within the next 12 years because of the poaching problem.
7. Rhinos and zebras are actually the closest living relatives, according to our tour guide, Abriel, so it was ironic that they happened to all be hanging out together on our game drive! These massive creatures didn’t seem too thrilled to have all of us watching them! There were several instances when they almost charged us.
8. During our game drive, we came across some water buffalo. Our tour guide explained how water buffalo are the most dangerous animal, and seconds later the water buffalo pictured started charging the safari group in the truck next to us. Needless to say, my friends in the other group were at first petrified, but later excited to share how they were charged by the most dangerous animal!
9.The dassie is an animal found on top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Surprisingly, dassies are most closely related to elephants! This comes as a surprise to most people considering they have absolutely no resemblance visually!
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