Tuesday/ creatures of the night 🌒

My uncle sent me these images of nocturnal animals.
They were captured by a LtlAcorn® camera trap he had set up in 2009 at the Shalimpo camp in Botswana.

Shalimpo is located at the very east-most point in Botswana (at the right edge in the picture), in the wildlife preserve called the Tuli Block, at the confluence of the Shasi and Limpopo rivers.
Bush pig (Potamochoerus larvatus), perhaps not quite as well-known as the other wild African hog, the warthog.
Rusty-spotted genet (Genetta maculata). Genets are viverrids (a family of small to medium-sized cat-like mammals). They are omnivorous: catching small prey, but also subsisting on fruit and insects.
The unmistakable form of a Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Hyenas were made even more infamous (unfortunately) by Disney’s The Lion King (1994). There are four species, and this one is also known as the laughing hyena. Hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems.
Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) showing its black-and-white quills. These are amongst the largest living rodents in the world. The capybara and some beavers might weigh a little more.
Leopard (Panthera pardus). ‘The Leopard Hunts in Darkness’ (1984) is a novel by Wilbur Smith set in the early days of Zimbabwe’s independence and is the fourth in Wilbur Smith’s series about the Ballantyne family of Rhodesia. When it was released it was banned by the Zimbabwe government.

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