After Sand River you will soon leave the cover of the forest and find yourself in light bush country where you may see a ground hornbill, which is a large turkey-like bird. Although these big birds spend much of their time on the ground feeding on insects and reptiles, they will fly slowly and heavily to perch in a tree, at which time their white primary feathers are conspicuous. At a distance the call of the ground hornbill sounds very like human voices in conversation and a Maasai folk story translates the sound as a man speaking to a woman saying"I want more cows" to which she replies, "You'll die before you get them."

Two other species of hornbill are common in this area. Von der Decken's hornbill, with its black and white plumage, is often seen perched on a tree or in undulating flight. Superficially similar to Von der Decken's is the grey hornbill, although the bill is duller and the plumage more drab. Both species live almost entirely on fruit and berries but they may eat an occasional grasshopper.

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If you see lines of reddish-colored ants crossing the road they are probably safari ants. These are extremely fierce creatures with sharp pincers and several hundred of them can easily and quickly devour a small animal. They are particularly active during the rains and at this time elephants are said to avoid the ground water forest to avoid getting ants up their trunks.