They move with a slow deliberate gait, but strike quickly if they see suitable prey. This brown bird, with dark bill and feet, is easily recognized by its odd hammer-shaped head. Many legends surround these birds and it is considered unlucky to kill one. In the same marshy habitat you may be lucky enough to see a monitor lizard . These huge reptiles, often 2 m in length are very cryptic against the background grasses and reeds, as their yellow and green markings blend in well with their surroundings.
Monitor lizards feed on eggs and fledglings of ground nesting birds, frogs, fish and carrion.
A small carnivore likely to be seen in this area is the black-backed jackal. Apart from feeding on the kills of larger predators and gazelle fawns, jackals eat a variety of small creatures including scarab grubs which they extract from the enclosing ball of dung. Jackals have a very interesting social system as they are one of the few mammalian species in which the male and female mate for life. Four species of mongooses have been recorded in the Park. The marsh mongoose is very rare and the three most likely to be seen are the dwarf, banded and slender or black-tipped.