Scenes like this are today reduced to national parks and game farms in South Africa. Human development would have usurped all the land if nature did not hold curiosity value as a holiday option, or more importantly, as suddenly remembered in recent times: human survival depends on biodiversity!

All we eat is plant or animal; and if some have their way, animals will become taboo as cannibalism did a while ago (maybe). Now wait for the advent of plant rights and human numbers will dwindle as they should, if all the other living species on earth gain any say.

Buffalo herds are still large in some reserves of our northern provinces, smaller though than in “the good old days”. The hippo swimming in the foreground (forewater?) has no problem with the crocodiles hiding in the muddy drinking water, although a young buffalo might receive a life-threatening surprise while quenching its thirst.