{"id":9216,"date":"2018-02-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/creepy-crawlers-in-the-kruger-national-park\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T10:57:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T08:57:02","slug":"creepy-crawlers-in-the-kruger-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/blog\/2018\/02\/28\/creepy-crawlers-in-the-kruger-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Creepy Crawlers in the Kruger National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most guests embarking on a Kruger Park safari<\/a> do so knowing that they will be seeing a whole lot of animals. What they don\u2019t usually consider is the insects they will also be encountering.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Generally unseen unless you are actually looking for them, many creepy crawlers are hiding in plain sight in the Kruger National park.\u00a0 Reptiles, insects and spiders play a major part in the eco-systems of Kruger. They live amongst the rocks, in the trees, they are even often spotted in the rondavels of the camps.<\/p>\n

But not all of the creepy yet fascinating creatures in the park are insects. If you are a little squeamish about reptiles and amphibians, we\u2019re going to give you a heads up. The park is filled with them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Take a look up in the trees and you are sure to find yourself looking at one of the many Blue-Headed Agama’s living in the park. These lizards are plentiful in the trees of the Kruger National Park and are easily recognisable by their blue heads.\u00a0 In the same category but found on the ground is \u201cPeters\u2019 Ground Agama\u201d which has a mottled skin which provides them with good camouflage for the rocks that they live on.\u00a0 Both these lizards feed mostly on ants and termites and grow up to 12cm.<\/p>\n

Found in most accommodation in the Kruger National Park is the \u201cCommon Tropical House Gecko\u201d. Easily recognisable, it is normally quite pale in colour as they are nocturnal creatures. They will come out at night when the lights are on and all the moths and mosquitos are out.\u00a0 These unusual lizards are not often seen in the day but be sure to look around your accommodation at night. You will see them hard at work removing all the bugs that fly in at night.\u00a0 They are known to make a clicking sound, so don\u2019t be alarmed if you hear a clicking in your room at night!<\/p>\n

A multitude of \u201cSkinks\u201d (Lizards) can be found in and around the rocks of the Kruger National Park.\u00a0 The \u201cRainbow Rock Skink\u201d male has a red tail and pale blue spots on his back, while the female has an electric blue striped tail.\u00a0 They feed mostly on ants and termites.<\/h3>\n

Roughly 50 various species of bats can be found in the Kruger National Park<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Letaba is the most “bat rich” camp in the Kruger, but they are found in most accommodation facilities in the park.\u00a0 When walking into your bungalow, be sure to look up and most times you will find these little creatures \u201changing out\u201d in the day, neatly attached to the thatch.\u00a0 Eating up to 2000 insects at night, these little creatures have a lifespan of 2-20 years.\u00a0 Bats are actually very clean and preen themselves much like a cat does.\u00a0 It is also a myth that they will fly into your hair or suck your blood.\u00a0 Most bats will avoid all contact with humans and eat \u201cpest\u201d insects, so they are really a good creature to have around.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By far, for most people, the creepiest crawler is the spider!\u00a0 The Golden Orb Web Spider (pictured above) so named because of the golden colour of its web, can be seen all over the bush in the Kruger National Park.\u00a0 Its frightful colour and size make it frighteningly recognisable, but the truth is that it is completely non-aggressive and will only bite if severely provoked and even then its venom is quite harmless.\u00a0 Kruger is home to no less than seven species of \u201cBaboon Spider\u201d, but for most of us, one species will look no different from the other.\u00a0 Although their hairy features and large size make them formidable to most humans, Baboon Spiders are not aggressive and will only deliver a very painful, but non-deadly bite when severely provoked.<\/p>\n

\n

To book your Kruger Park safari get in touch with Kurt Safari.<\/h3>\n

We are the leading Kruger Park safari company operating out of Hazyview.<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most guests embarking on a Kruger Park safari do so knowing that they will be seeing a whole lot of animals. What they don\u2019t usually consider is the insects they will also be encountering. Generally unseen unless you are actually looking for them, many creepy crawlers are hiding in plain sight in the Kruger National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-the-kruger-national-park"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}