Bush Babies!

Surprise Visit!

Thick-Tailed Bush-baby in Marloth Park
Bush-babies are a real treat for visitors when they frequent the lodges in Marloth Park. The Lessor Bush-baby (Nagapie in Afrikaans) are common to the area and their "cute-factor" are in the extremes. They live from the gum and juice excreted by trees. They do however also love to hunt for and eat insects like moths, grasshoppers, spiders and ants. What we found them to also enjoy is yogurt. They do definitely prefer the banana flavour and it is not a strange sight for regular visitors and permanents to have them jumping onto the dinner table to get to it.

Lessor Bush-baby coming for it's daily treat.

A surprisingly new sighting for us was the Thick-tailed Bush-baby (Bosnagaap in Afrikaans) that came to say "hallo" last night. They appear to be quite common further north from Marloth Park although we've also seen them at Senyati in Botswana. Although they are much bigger, their diet are very similar to that of the Lessor BB. There is a definite lower count on the cute factor meter. This one moved so slow that one could almost mistake it for some strange exotic specimen from Madagascar! All people that I spoke to first wanted to see the photos before they believed the Thick-tailed Bush-baby to be here. They are very social animals and it is extremely unlikely that this will be a loner. We will keep a close watch to see if the rest of the family will show up.