Even though martial eagles are the largest of the eagles in Africa, it doesn’t make catching one of Africa’s largest lizards any easier.
43-year old, safari and photographic guide, Rodney Nombekana is well known for his safari tours and wildlife knowledge when it comes to the Kruger National Park, and shares his passion with his guests on every trip.
On one of his safaris, he captured this incredible sighting of Africa’s largest eagle taking down and feasting on a monitor lizard. LatestSightings.com caught up with Rodney as he shared the events of that day with us:
“I was on a safari drive and went up to Ngotso, near Satara camp, to look for the Ngotso lion pride and the resident leopards there. We found one of the Ngotso male lions but he was alone, so we sat there watching for a while. Trevor, one of my friends who was also on the same sighting, spotted a Martial eagle that had just caught a monitor lizard!”
“It was incredible, I’ve never seen anything like this before! Two great sightings in one place, but all the cameras were pointing at the eagle, and no longer toward the lion. After watching the struggle for about an hour, I still needed to serve my guests breakfast, so I took them to their favorite spot, Timbavati Picnic Spot.”
“We came back from breakfast and noticed that the eagle was still busy trying to take out the lizard! In total, it took about 5 hours for the lizard to finally give up and so the eagle finally succeeded with the catch, which was definitely something to witness. We then left while the eagle fed on the well-deserved meal.”
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“The bush is full of surprises, you never know when you will find a unique sighting and just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new comes along to surprise you once more, so be present and enjoy while nature takes its course!”
