Social-distancing guidelines, telecommuting mandates, and sweeping shutdowns around the world have left many of us confined to our homes these days—and craving a connection to nature. Although we may not be able to jet off to South Africa in search of the Big Five, plenty of organizations are relying on live webcams to keep their guests and the public at large connected to the animal kingdom. Around 150 pachyderms, including several “big tuskers,” make their home in South Africa’s sprawling Tembe Elephant Park, which is situated near the country’s border with Mozambique. Around the clock, a webcam captures the gentle giants, as well as nyala, kudu, impala, warthogs, leopards, and other animals, as they drink from and bathe in the Mahlesela Pan waterhole. Keep your volume up for a constantly changing, only-in-Africa symphony of snorts, grunts, growls, splashes, and chirps. Explore.org and the Congo’s Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education (GRACE) Center in September 2019 launched this livestream that allows viewers to watch the center’s resident eastern lowland gorillas—a critically endangered species—play, eat, sleep, and explore on a lush hillside corridor that connects their nighttime quarters with their open forest habitat.
SOURCE: CN TRAVELER