Armed with a set of tusks, the warthog isn’t altogether powerless. But is it fearsome enough to send animals more than twice its size packing? In this exclusive extract from the book Photo Tales, Louis and Ina Taljaard share their surprising images.
There are some wildlife encounters no-one would believe if there weren’t pictures to prove it. These are the pictures collected in Photo Tales, a book of the most thrilling and amusing wildlife shots as well as the stories behind the images.
One such mind-boggling story is of a grumpy warthog that was feeling overly possessive of a Kruger waterhole. To the extent that he was determined to chase off all comers, no matter their size. Louis and Ina Taljaard captured the showdown, shared here with permission from Photo Tales (HPH Publishing).
Louis tells their story:
It was during a trip to the Kruger National Park when we visited a waterhole located between Sirheni and Punda Maria. As a result of the severe drought in the region the dam had turned into a mud bath.
A large variety of animals frequented this spot seeking to quench their thirst. Some ventured into the dam while others tried to extract a bit of water from the surface of the mud around the edges of the pool.
We spotted a warthog that behaved as if the pool belonged to him. He was chasing all and sundry away from the water. He didn’t care who he faced up to. Size simply didn’t matter to him.
We kept him in our sights and before long we saw him squaring up to a buffalo bull. The two were eye-balling each other for quite some time, each with a yellow-billed oxpecker perched on its back as a second for the duel to follow.
The warthog moved forward in a flash, gave his opponent a whack against its horn that sounded like a pistol shot from where we sat, and then took off as fast as it could. The buffalo was so surprised that it hardly moved before the attacker took flight.
In light of the warthog’s determination and fearlessness, my wife named him the Jack Russell of the Kruger.