Wildlife in a Johannesburg, South Africa Garden vs Wildlife in a Florida, USA Garden

When I came to America, and even to this day, when people learn I am originally from South Africa, I am asked if I had lions walking in my garden.  Whilst South Africa has many wildlife or game reserves (as it is known in Africa) where the "big five", lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino are free to roam and hunt, the Kruger Park being the biggest at approximately 217 miles in length and 33 miles in width, I never saw wildlife in my city garden in South Africa as I do at my city home in Florida.

It's true that whilst in Africa, I have experienced waking up to elephants pulling down trees and drinking out of the hotel pool but that was in Zimbabwe along the banks of Lake Kariba and my husband was chased by these same elephant while videoing them but no, never in South Africa in the cities outside the fenced off wildlife/game reserves.

On the other hand, at my home in Florida apart from the grey squirrels, which, of course, are abundant here, I've had raccoons, armadillos, opossums, pelicans, owls, egrets, falcons, hawks, bald eagles and once a black bear visit and take a stroll through my garden and I live in a very busy vibrant city in a county with a population of about 413,000.

Having said that, it came as no surprise while typing at my computer on Sunday, that a large turtle should come walking past the glass sliding doors of my study.  Fortunately, the batteries in my camera were charged (unlike the time the large black bear came lumbering through my garden a few years ago) and I dashed outside to take a few pictures.  We do live next to a very large lake so I can only assume he was taking a break from the water!

Update on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 10:07PM by [Pamela McMonagle]

Today I had some new visitors to my garden.  A family of five river otters or at least, that is what I believe they were after I did some research online.  Sleek and wet looking, they dashed away at the first flash of my camera.