Meeting Harry Hornbill (Kruger National Park 2)Blogs All Kinds Of Blogs

Amidst the wild savagery that one finds in the Kruger National Park, there is also some other stuff – like humour.

Take Harry Hornbill for example…

Yellow-billed hornbill sitting in a tree... but face it, who'd be in a tree...

Hornbills come in a variety of shapes and sizes (there are about nine species) – from the rather dippy looking Ground Hornbill (who happens to be in decline and needs protection)...

What lovely eyelashes you have, my dear...

And such undainty toesies...

to the Grey Hornbill...

Style on a branch...

and the very comic Yellow-billed Hornbill.

Ya lookin' at me...?

I’m told by a zoologist friend the Yellow-billed Hornbills make great pets and it’s not hard to see why. They are incredibly brazen and seem to know no fear.

You stop at a picnic site and the first thing that hops over to you is Harry, the Yellow-billed Hornbill. He looks up at you, a quizzical expression on his face, and says, “Come on then, duckie, how about a nice crust of bread?” Should a crust of bread, your polony, your toasted sarmie, your apple or your banana not be forthcoming, Harry will simply help himself.

Witness the following scene that played out at a picnic spot called Tshokwane (on the savannah highway between the north and south of the Park) on the banks of the N’waswitsonto River…