Along with climate changes, safari animals such as giraffes, elephants, rhinoceroses, and antelopes were seen to exhibit behavioral changes. These animals that are usually found in scorching heat of South African savannahs, have been found wandering in a very rare heavy snowfall on a game reserve in Sneeuberg, Western Cape, South Africa.
“We woke up to the snow, and it was a real treat to see the animals in these conditions – I am more used to seeing our elephants swim. The animals know the snow is coming and move to warm areas so we do see a behaviour change,” said Kitty Viljoen, the game reserve manager and photographer who was fortunate enough to encounter such a rare scene and capture it in photographs.
Antelope on the Harry Game reserve in Graaff-Reinet, were additionally pictured enclosed by icy vegetation.
The pictures have already been widely shared across social media, with 54-year-old Kitty commenting: “They try to find warm pockets and stay out of the wind, with smaller animals hiding under shrubs and down holes. I was lucky to spot the elephant and giraffe, as they were near the road.”
While it is not rare to see snow on Sneeuberg, which cunningly meant snow mountain, the last heavy snowfall creating thick snow deposits was eight years ago. Last January, Sahara Desert’s Algerian town of Ain Sefra had snowfall, which was only the fifth occurrence in the span of 40 years.
Some North African mountain ranges also encounter snowfall regularly, but for lower altitudes and for savannahs anywhere on African continent, heavy snowfall is very uncommon.
[via The Guardian and Express] pictures (c) The Guardian
