the heRd

All the animals on the labels were photographed in the amazing wildlife parks that South Africa has to offer, each one of them with its own personality and demeanor at that specific moment. This is a short description of the Arid ‘herd’:

arid_gemsbok_new

June 2014 in the Karoo was cold, and so was the poker-face stare of this Gemsbok- very alert to the photographer that had to go all in to take this amazing photograph.

Not a big fan of the ‘paparazzi’…this young bull was very imposing and had the photographer reversing quite a long way back down a dirt track as he headed towards her in October 2018 at Marakele National Park, Limpopo.

arid_elephant_new
arid_lion_new

Meet ‘Prince Charming’, one of two very handsome brothers from the Eastern Cape. They were on an early sunrise ‘catwalk’ posing for the photographers as they were enjoying the first warmth of the day

High tea in the wild for a leopard can be interpreted as ‘High Tree’. This Leopard was in a tree in the Kgalagadi in 2019- only the photographer made this four o’ clock meeting, parked under the tree branch that she was in.

arid_leopard_new
arid_meerkat_new

Having the binoculars honed-in on eagles and snakes- this meerkat was on watch in July 2019 for quite a large family that were foraging in the Kgalagadi Trans Fortier Park.

This Springbok ram was part of a family group that was crossing the road in an Eastern Cape reserve, and he stood in the middle of the road facing the photographers until the rest had crossed.

arid_springbok_new

Photographer: Cathy Withers-Clark

Ireland did not have the wildlife offerings for photography and adventure like Africa, so she moved to Cape Town 20 years ago. An amazing photographer and a master crumpet chef.

The Desert SamuRai

The Gemsbok is the ambassador for Arid & Co. and is gifted with exceptional adaptation capabilities that enable it to live in some of the most arid areas on earth.

​

It survives throughout much of the year without drinking water and eating sparse desert vegetation, usually grazing at night-time when desert plants contain more water.

It minimizes water losses through perspiration by its body temperature being able to rise as high as 45°C, a level that would be fatal for most other living creatures.

​

It has long straight and sharp horns growing up to 90cm which during the middle ages contributed to the legend of the unicorn. Predators are extremely fearful of Gemsbok and for this reason Arid & Co. regards them as ‘The Desert Samurai’.