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Tuningi Ranger’s Journal July/August 2018

Welcome back to our monthly wildlife report….

This month has seen the true colors of winter kicking in to full swing, as the bush thins out and waterholes become the place to be during our safaris out here in Madikwe.

Lets start with a group of Askari’s that even with a mild temperature in the air, could not resist the temptation of that “Feel good all over “ feeling and had a mud bath just meters from the vehicle, provided a spectacle for our guests which they will never forget, after having to wipe some mud off of them as the elephants went wet and wild in the waterhole.

Another good spot to visit this time of the year is the “Mineral hotspots” which are certain areas in the park which all ungulates are drawn to, to ingest the soil which gives them minerals such as calcium, magnesium and sodium which they don’t get out of the vegetation that they eat in the winter months. It is also a social get together usually later in the mornings, when they know that the predators are sleeping.

The bigger herds of buffalo are also forced from their habits of living in the thickets to come out to the waterholes more regularly, and will get your creative juices flowing while trying to at least capture some form of emotion from these gnarly beasts.

The cheetahs in the park are still doing well, and the 3 females which were recently released, are also doing well, and are still proving that they are doing well in a wild environment which they are not accustomed to from where they came from. The boys as always have given us some awesome sightings this month, and have been more active in marking their territories and making sure that every prominent tree that they bypass gets a fresh dose of cheetah “business card”.

On one occasion we had an unbelievable sighting, after we found the 2 south boys shortly after killing an impala ram. They were peacefully eating for around 30 mins before they started staring to the bushes beyond, and then continued eating frantically. This could only mean one thing.. a threat was on the way… And sure as it was, a brown hyena pitched up on the scene, and what happened next was something that us rangers live for on a daily basis out here, to be able to capture the interaction between different predators on camera.

The brown came in with a confident gait, and went straight in for the carcass, and on arrival, the hissing cheetahs could only but take a not so confident swipe at the marauding thief. The cheetahs gave up the carcass to the stronger bodied enemy, but tried once or twice more, but to no avail as the brown clearly thought this would be his early Christmas gift from the cheetahs ….. thank you very much !!

The apex predators in the park have been doing not so well, as we discovered that the Bolakega female from the north pride had an injury to her underbelly, which we think could have been caused by a horn of one of the prey animals she could have hunted, which had caused a gash between her teats. This was obviously not good for her, as she had some difficulty feeding her cubs, and she was not enjoying the discomfort. She has however made a good recovery from the injury, and seems as if it is healing nicely. The cubs have also given us some amazing sightings this month, especially around carcasses, as the cubs are exercising those muscles, to be able to kill like their mom one day.

The south pride have been split up somewhat, due to the pressure from the 2 males from the east wanting to enter and disrupt the 2 remaining Chimbro males cushy lives. However they were surprised when one evening the Chimbro males had enough of the tormenting brutes from the east, and chased them back to the deepest part of their territory and since then it has been quiet on that front.

One icy morning after a hectic cold front came over, leaving frost for the first time this year in the low-lying areas, we had an unforgettable experience, as we were just minding our own business, tracking lions as per usual, when we started hearing the distress calls of impala in the distance. On investigating the scene I managed to spot a leopard among the long grass, and with that a commotion to the left of us. On approaching the strange noises we found that the south pride had in their claws an impala which I think must have just been stolen from the leopard minutes before our arrival. I will let the video do the last of the explaining… (not for sensitive viewers)

The wild dogs have been very scarce this month, and we have had no sightings of them being due to the fact they have a den site deep in the mountains in the east of the park, and their modus operandi is the following….. They are coming down very early in the morning to hunt, they kill, they return to the den, so if you are not there to catch them coming or going back to the den, your chances are slim. But we are looking forward to the day when they bring the puppies out for their first run. And on this glorious morning they showed us that they have 2 pups. Apparently, there were reports of 9 pups at one time, but something must have happened, and now the result is only 2 left for this years litter.

The leopard sightings have been getting better and better every month, as Munye and Tsala, and Tshimegha have been appearing often. There are also more and more reports of relaxed leopards coming from all over the park, and is proving that we are doing something right in here to habituate these normally shy creatures.

So… I think this months’ newsletter should get you wondering if you should get your bags packed for TUNINGI SAFARI LODGE AGAIN…… So get busy and book soon….

Wishing you all the best from Gavin and the T-Team.

 

Tuningi Ranger’s Journal June 2018

After being absent for a month, we are back.  We did some renovations at the lodge, some more obvious than others, with the decks refurbished and the kitchen overhauled we are now in full swing.  Everything to make your next stay even more enjoyable.

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With the lodge being closed for some time we had less time for game drives but in the shorter time we had some of our best sightings.

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The lion pride from the south of the reserve was very illusive and we only saw them a couple of times.  The main reason being that two males are pushing into their territory from the east, so the females are moving around to keep the youngsters safe.  

Some sad news though, the Bafefo male lion was found dead in the northern territory.  He sustained injuries from fighting with the lions from the north.

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The two Chimbro brothers are still in control of the south west of the park. 

Most of our lion sightings happened in the north of the reserve with the female and her four, four month old cubs.

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We followed her the one morning just as she picked up the cubs returning from a hunt.  We knew she has been successful with the blood all over her.  She needed to motivate the cubs every now and then to keep moving. 

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It was more than 6 kilometres before they reached the carcass.  The female moved more than 18 kilometres from where she left the cubs to go and hunt, fetch the cubs and back to the zebra kill.

Cats were plentiful this month.

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It was the first time in many months since I saw a Caracal.  This was a super relaxed female that was hunting around our vehicles. We stayed with her for more than an hour. 

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She stalked and killed two mice in that time and missed a bird with incredible jumping manoeuvres.

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The male cheetahs have made their appearance a few times.  As always with a full moon, they surprised us with the unbelievable distances they can cover.  We would see them in the south and the next morning the same two males would be found in the north.

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We love our leopard sightings, however we struggle for quite some time to relocate our favourite leopard. Somehow he ended up in the north west of the park. 

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We were worried that he was gone for good from our side, however, a week later he was back in the south where I had one of my best sightings of him.

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Winter sun rises and sun sets never disappoint us or our guest. With the vibrant colours and beautiful silhouette it was difficult not to be mezmerized by the beauty of Africa.

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We really had spectacular views from dawn till dusk. The waterholes are holding their water incredibly well and with the warm afternoon sun these spots are produced very spacial sightings.

Come for a visit, a return or a double return and experience all of this and more with us!!!

Kind regards

Cornelius and the T-Team

Tuningi Ranger’s Journal April 2018

This past month had a few firsts for me.  What made it even more special was to share these amazing sighings with our wonderful guests.

I’ll just start with the best. 

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Leopard sightings was pretty incredible.  Not only the quality of sightings but also the different leopards we saw.

So lets start with Tsala’s cub!  We got to see the two of them together quite a few times.  All their sightings were incredible.

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After a quite a search and help from fellow colleagues in the park we saw the pair in a Marula tree with an Impala kill. 

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This young boy is so big already, from a distance I could not tell which leopard was the baby.  They were both happily resting on the big open branches when we arrived.

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After stretching and yawning Tsala moved to the kill and fed for a bit.  When she finished it was the young boy’s turn. We spent quite some quality time with them and the next day they were gone. 

More leopard news.  Munye, the male from the south was seen mating, twice actually.  The female that he was after for quite some time time has finally given in.

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They were mating only about a month ago and I got see this for the first time in my career at the end of April.  As secretive and elusive as leopards are, to see a mating pare in the wild was the absolute highlight of the month.

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With all the rain we had the beginning of the month, everything is still green and lush which made the spotting of game slightly difficult.  This also made photography a little tricky.

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The waterholes all filled with the late rain ensured animals had no need to move far to get to water.  With all the water around, the main lodge waterhole were fairly quiet.

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We struggled with the cheetahs due to the long lashing grass, however as Lady Luck would have it, they appeared as I was waiting for guest at the main admin building of the park.

Tarmac was not the best backdrop for the photo but I had time on my hands waiting for guests.  Time well spent.

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The lion pride of the south in Madikwe kept us entertained.  Two male lions are pushing into their territory from the east and this is creating a higher stress level in the pride, so they are moving more west to keep the youngsters safe. 

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The two Chimbro males kept the territory safe from the north.

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The skies, sunsets and sunrises did impress a lot.  Sometimes we were lucky to have a beautiful subject to photograph with the setting sun.

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We hope to have good news in the next few months, maybe some more baby leopards.

Warm bush regards

Cornelius and the T-Team

March 2018 Newsletter

Hi to all our Tuningi Fans once again !!

We hope you have all had a splendid Easter period, and are all well rested for the next onslaught of what we call work…

So, this month has been rather wet… Yes we have had the best rainfall figures in March for many years, which has resulted in the bush looking mighty healthy, and is the best I have seen it in the last 5 years. Now we are not sure if the rainfall pattern has moved on a couple months, but we will take the much-needed life giving resource.

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Lets kick off with the best news that happened this month, which was that Munye, our resident male leopard managed to drop jaws and widen eyes, as we found him for a period of 4 days mating with a new female in the south western corner!!

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To put it into perspective, most guides in Madikwe have never seen such a sighting, including Jacques, and the expression on his face was priceless, not to mention that the guests were knocked out of the park to having been privy to this once in a lifetime spectacle.

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So we are now going to focus on figuring out where exactly this new females territory is, and try to keep a close eye on her movements, as she will give birth to some cubs in around 110 days from now.

The larger paciderms such as the elephants and rhinos have been loving the lush green conditions with abundant food everywhere, and they have been really enjoying the grass plains of which is making up about 80% of their diets right now. They are fattening up nicely, and I am sure that they will get through this winter with a few pounds around the waistline to spare.

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The Mica pride is, as always doing very well with the cubs growing so fast now, as their caring mothers and aunts have been providing food for them on a regular basis. The cubs have a level of energy that at times never seems to want to end, as they pounce and stalk on each other in a bid to hone their hunting skills and develop those muscles in a couple of years for when they will also be partaking in the providing role for the next batch of lion cubs.

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The 3 Males looking after the pride have got what seems to be a winning recipe in keeping the pride safe from intruders, in that the Bafefo male always stays with the pride, while the 2 Chimbro boys are hanging out on the ridge to the north keeping the threat of the 2 males from the north well clear of their precious cargo in the core of the territory to the south.

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The Chimbro boys can be away from the pride for weeks at a time, and during that time they need to eat, so they have been very efficient this month on their own by making a few nice kills, and prove the theory that male lions don’t hunt, completely bogus.

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With the amount of dampness around, the morning game drives have been absolutely stunning with the large amounts of dew forming in the mornings, which has created very beautiful scenes as the sun rises, capturing the light in all the water droplets in the grass and spider webs teleporting you to a fairy land in a split second.

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The update on the cheetahs, is that they all doing very well, and the 3 females which were released last year have proven that they will survive, and are doing very well. 2 of them are moving and hunting together, while the third one has gone solo, which is the norm among female cheetahs, and even she is doing very well. They have encountered the males on a few occasions, but nobody has seen them mating yet, so we are still holding our breathes for this to happen, and would be the best news for Madikwe ever !!

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Tsala, and her cub are also doing very well, all be it a bit elusive at times as we struggle to find the leopards in the tall grass and dense bush at times.

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The wild dogs have been gearing up for the mating season, as the alpha male and female will pair off this season. However we have not seen them much this month as they are spending 98% of their time in the far north-eastern section of the reserve, and even making regular excursions into the private land on the eastern side of the Marico river. They will be looking for a den site soon, as the gestation period is only around 70 days. We will be following them closely over the next few weeks, to see where they will be denning this year, and we are hoping with bated breath, that they come back to the south.

So, until next month we hope to see you soon back at Tuningi….

Regards,

Gavin and the T-Team !!

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February 2018 Newsletter

Big news around the lodge… Our local Klipspringer pair had their very first baby. We are not sure how old the young one is but must be between 3-4 months as they are kept hidden for the first 2-3 months. We will only know in a couple of months if it is a boy or a girl.

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We have had an interesting month with regards to weather.
In the past years we experienced some of the highest temperatures in February, however this year the temperatures was rather pleasant. We had decent rain and with that, more than a week of cool and cloudy weather but it did deliver spectacular sunsets.

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The cool weather ensured that the moisture from the rain did not evaporate too quickly and all the vegetation greened up really fast.

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We had to postpone some of the game drives due to the weather but we got to see incredible game. The rain did not stop us nor the guests from having fun around the lodge. On the cool rainy days, fires kept everyone warm and comfortable.

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One very misty morning on game drive we found our local pride of lions. Thankfully they were on the road as the visibility was extremely limited. It has been a while since we saw the pride on a decent kill, but they are looking good.

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The two older Mica females are spending more and more time away from the pride, for reasons were are not sure of.  These two ladies even tried their luck on a herd of wildebeest, which was entertaining to watch…

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We have been very fortunate with leopard sightings this past month, even more so than cheetahs.

We got to see Tsala and her young boy a couple of times. He is getting quite comfortable with the vehicles but only when mom is around, so we give him his space and hopefully he grows up to be a relaxed leopard like Munye.

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Speaking of Munye. He really spoiled us with sightings. One of the best was when Jacques noticed a very nervous herd of impalas. He drove towards them on the next road and less than two meters from his door, this relaxed cat stood up out of the long grass. We only later realised he actually had a kill.

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He is a cat that does not like trees very much so when he dragged his prize up the biggest tree in the area we had a very special sighting.

More on the cats…  The Cheetah females are doing well as far as we know, we often get information of them on a kill.  They unfortunately spend all their time far in the east.

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The males spent less time on our side, most likely because of the females.  But recently we had an amazing sighting of two of the males in the south west of Madikwe.

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With the water around there was other unusual things around. A terrapin walking from one puddle to the next.

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In the rain, if we were caught out on drive, which was quite often was surprisingly pleasant…

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Now with more sunshine, lets hope we can keep up delivering on great sightings like these.

Kind regard

Cornelius and the T-Team

January Newsletter 2018

Happy New year to all our fans, and we sincerely hope you have a very prosperous year so that you can get your butts back to Tuningi for more safari fun times !!

Ok, so… this month we did not have too many busy days at the lodge, as everyone returned from the crazy festive season, but there were a few nice things that happened… lets have a look…..

Tsala and her handsome son made a couple of appearances, and it seems as if he is really responding well to the habituation process with the safari vehicles, and is taking the highlight of your safari to an all new level !!He is growing nicely, and was even seen on a young impala kill, which could have been his own, and that would prove that his mother and his massive instinct is driving him to become a real player here in the savannas of Madikwe.

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The local lion pride, The Mica Pride…. Well… they are just going from strength to strength, and the cubs are growing fast. The 2 Chimbro males have been spending a huge amount of time here around the lodge, protecting the land from raid by the males from the north, which has resulted in some seriously loud screaming matches which reverberate deep within your body as you just sit down to a glass of wine at dinner time !!

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The other interesting sighting we had this month, was the unfortunate death of a male giraffe which we think got struck by lightning not far from the lodge.

He did however give us some awesome sightings of lions and hyenas that came in to feed on the bounty.

But I want to concentrate on the scavengers, and the role that they play once the bigger predators have left the carcass….

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What Are Vultures?

A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges for its food, meaning that it searches the ground for animal carcasses to eat. Typically, these carcasses are what is left uneaten from other predators. This bird species is divided into two distinct groups: New World vultures and Old World vultures. New World vultures are native throughout North and South America while Old World vultures can be found in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Despite their differences in origin, most vultures share a similar appearance. Vulture heads are typically bald or covered in much shorter feathers than those found on the body. Additionally, vultures have a large, hooked beak, which makes tearing and eating flesh easier.

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Cultural Significance of Vultures

In many cultures around the world, particularly in Western societies, vultures are viewed with disdain. Commonly, people tend to look down on these birds as dirty, ugly, and unhygienic, failing to recognize their importance. People of other cultures, however, hold the vulture in high regard. This is true with the inhabitants of the Tibetan plateau, where vultures are part of traditional funerary customs. In this culture, people are not buried after death as a means of controlling preventable infectious diseases. Instead, the dead are laid to rest in the sky. Monks prepare the bodies of the deceased and set them on platforms to draw the attention of nearby vultures. The vultures discover these human bodies, ingesting them and carrying them off into the sky. Many people view this as one final good deed as the deceased is able to offer something to another living creature before going off to rest in the sky. This practice is not unique to Tibet, however. Historical evidence suggests it has been practiced by cultures around the world for over 11,000 years.

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Role of Vultures in the Ecosystem

Vultures are often overlooked as lowly scavengers. However, they are a key component to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Because of their role as nature’s garbage disposers, vultures are able to keep the environment clean and free of contagious diseases. These birds have an extremely corrosive stomach acid that allows them to consume rotting animal corpses. These scavenged leftovers are often infected with anthrax, botulinum toxins, rabies, and hog cholera that would otherwise kill other scavengers. By ridding the ground of dead animals, vultures prevent diseases from spreading to humans and animals.

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Vultures and Poaching

Because vultures are attracted to carrion (dead animals), they have played an indirect role in helping authorities identify illegal poaching activity. This is particularly true of elephant and rhinoceros poachers, who leave the animals’ bodies after removing their tusks and horns. Vultures are attracted to the remains and fly in circles around the ground where it has been left behind. Authorities are able to track recent instances of illegal hunting by following these scavenger birds and taking note of where they are circling.

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Poisoning Vultures

Because vultures attract attention to illegal poaching activities, they have become the number one enemy of poachers. A common practice of many poachers is to poison the carcasses left behind after removing tusks and horns from elephants and rhinos. The poachers do this to kill off the vultures so that they can continue their illegal work undetected. One example of this occurred in Namibia in July of 2013, when over 500 scavenger birds (including vultures) were poisoned from a single elephant carcass. It is important to remember that in addition to these direct deaths, many others were killed indirectly. This is because many of these birds quite likely left behind offspring which were relying on their parents to bring food back to the nest. Experts claim that this poisoning case is one of the worst in the history of Southern Africa.

Vultures are also indirectly poisoned by local farmers and hunters. In African countries, for example, farmers often leave poisoned meat or carcasses on their farmlands. They do this to distract predatory animals, like lions and cheetahs, from killing villagers and their livestock, like cows and goats. Unfortunately, vultures are also attracted to this poisoned carrion and many have died as a result of ingesting the poison. Something similar happens in the United States, where many hunters use lead ammunition to kill target specie, like coyotes. Once shot, the animals typically run off into the wilderness and die. Vultures then find these animals and set about consuming them. These birds end up eating some of the lead ammunition as well and are slowly poisoned. California condors are most likely to suffer this unfortunate fate.

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Effect of Smaller Vulture Populations

As a result of direct and indirect killing, many vulture species are now endangered. Of the 23 vulture species (16 Old World and 7 New World) 16 are considered vulnerable, threatened, or endangered. The population of several of these species has declined by over 90% in some areas of the world. When vultures are unable to clean up the carrion in an area, other scavenger animals increase in population. The scavengers that tend to move in where vulture populations are low include: feral dogs, rats, and blowfly larvae. While these animals do help to remove carcasses from the landscape, they are also more likely to spread disease to human populations and other animals as well. In India, for example, the feral dog population increased significantly after vultures consumed cow carcasses poisoned with diclofenac, a painkiller. These feral dogs carried rabies and went on to infect other dogs and local people. Between 1993 and 2006, the government of India spent an additional $34 billion to fight the spread of rabies. India continues to have the highest rate of rabies in the world.

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What Can Be Done to Save Vultures?

In order to save the vulture species from extinction and protect the complex ecosystems from becoming overrun with carrion and disease, the current number of vulture deaths must be reduced. Around the world, but mainly focused in Asia and Africa, nonprofit organizations are working with local governments to implement conservation plans. These plans typically include public educational campaigns in order to target local populations, farmers and poachers. Because vultures are also used for traditional medicine in some places, these organizations and governments are working to create regulations that control the killing and selling of vultures. Additionally, many organizations are dedicated to increasing research of vultures and their roles in the ecosystem.

It is important to remember that even though the vulture species lacks the cute cuddly appearance of some endangered species, it is still a critical piece to a much larger, complex ecosystem. The world needs vultures to help control the spread of disease.

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We also had some awesome sightings of the male cheetahs taking down a zebra, which was quite I big one I might add, and the news of the females is that they are doing extremely well, and have seemed to have split into 2 and 1, and they have already had some interaction with the males, resulting in one of the females getting slightly injured, which we fixed up. They have been making some kills, and we hope that they are learning how to deal with the bigger predators like hyenas and lions, as this would be their biggest victory for survival here in Madikwe.

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With all the rain we have had this month, the bush is really starting to turn green, and the animals are loving it !!Not as much as the amphibians though, and I just want to share some info on the FOAM NEST FROG, which I am sure you have all seen at some point….

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Sometimes animals do the strangest things. Like building a nest out of foam. It just seems like a strange choice of places to lay your eggs, but hey, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Anyway, today’s animal, the grey foam-nest frog, chooses this method to reproduce. I guess that makes sense, given the frog’s name.

Foam-nest frogs are found in Africa, pretty much everywhere south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They live in tropical and subtropical forests in the north, and in drier savanna in the south. Dry areas are not the best habitats for frogs, who lose moisture through their skins, but the foam-nest frog has some key adaptations to deal with this.

One of the ways the frog conserves moisture is by tucking its legs under itself, keeping its surface area low. It also has impermeable skin, unlike most amphibians, which lose water freely though their skin. This allows the foam-nest frog to produce uric acid as excrement instead of urine, which saves a ton of water. Finally, the frog is able to secrete a waterproof cocoon in the dry season to further minimize the amount of water lost.

When these frogs mate, however, all attempts at conserving moisture are thrown out the window. Defenestrated, even. The female secretes some nasty fluid from her cloaca, on a branch or structure overhanging some water. Males then join the female, and whip up the secretion into a foam. Many males can join the party, and sometimes multiple females will also show up. The females have to return to the water multiple times during this process to get enough liquid to build a suitable nest.

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Once the nest is prepared, which can take up to seven hours, the female lays her eggs in the foam. Anywhere from 500 to 1300 eggs can be laid in a single nest. The eggs hatch in the nest and in three to five days the tadpoles drop out of the nest and into the pond.

Why these frogs choose to build nests out of foam I do not know, but my guess is that the frogs want to keep the eggs moist, but out of pond where predators might have their way with them. That may not be why, but at least the foam nest thing makes these frogs super cool!

Ok… well.. that’s it ….

See you all soon ….

Regards,

Gavin and the T-Team

December 2017 Newsletter

For the last time this year I will update you on the movements and adventures of the animals in Madikwe.

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We got some rain over the past month that made a massive difference in the bush and with the greenery came plenty baby animals.

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The Redhartebeest and Gemsbok were some of the first to have their young.  We then started to see a few impala babies too.  But with more rain, within a week or so most impalas gave birth and the herds almost doubled in size.  The Wildebeest are in smaller herds but most of them had little one as well.

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This photo was taken seconds after the little wildebeest was born, still wet and struggling on its feet.

Other very good news, is the 3 female Cheetahs that were released into the park.  They have been in the Wild now for about 2 weeks and are doing very well.  None of the females are unrelated, so that will help with the genetics once they start to mate.

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The one female has split away from the other two and is living a solitary life as female cheetahs do but she is doing very well and making kills.  The other two are still together but will eventually split.  They too are healthy and are hunting very well.  As far as we know there has not been any interaction with any of the males.  Updates will follow!! Fingers crossed!!

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The male cheetahs, both coalitions, are still all over the park.  With the recent full moon, they surprised us again with their incredible movements.  All we can hope for is for them to find the females and treat them well.

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Tsala our favourite Leopardess have shown us her cub a few times.  It takes effort, time and a little luck to find a leopard in Madikwe.  We saw their tracks a few times, but sometimes in areas we cannot follow through.  The times we could, we did.  One thing better than seeing a leopard, is seeing a mother and a cub.  The cub is about 8-10 months old, it is the first time she raised a cub to this age.  We really hope this young male can keep himself out of trouble when she leaves him to hunt, which she does very well. All our encounters with the two, she and the young one looked full bellied and in great condition.

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The lion pride in the south of the park had been quite entertaining but also annoyed us.  They would for some reason we do not know, split up and walk all over the place, which makes finding them more difficult.  But then the times we do get to see them, they are quite active.  The Bafefo male is taking good care of the females and the cubs, while the Chimbro brothers protect their territory.

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These were just some of the sightings we have had.  This month was packed with excitement and great sightings.

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The young male leopard was seen a few times. Here we saw him at night on the move. He still moves on the south boundary of the park and hope nothing too exciting attracts his attention on the other side as he can easily jump over the fence.

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Just before the rain waterholes had been the place to be.  Later in the morning and early on the afternoon game drives when the temperatures were hot, the animals were seeking comfort at the water.

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Thank you to everyone that joined us this year and we hope to see you back at Tuningi again.

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Regards

Cornelius and the T-Team

Tuningi Ranger’s Journal November 2017

A Warm Madikwe hallo to everyone,

We had amazing guests this month, with amazing sights and great weather. Its been very hot, and getting warmer, but we had a little rain to help the vegetation along and help the animals with a bit of water. It has gotten very dry with the heat over the past month, so the waterholes have been very active with wild life.

Elephants have been a daily occurrence at our waterhole. Swimming, drinking and giving the guest a lot of mid day  entertainment.

muddy eles 1

muddy eles 6

muddy eles 4

muddy eles 10

muddy eles 8

The male Cheetahs have been around, marking as they go and then jumping on top of a termite mound to rest with a nice view of the plains. Always eager to strike a nice pose.

The three females are still in the boma and we will keep you updated with their status every month.

Phinda cheetah on termite mound 3

Phinda cheetah on termite mound 2

Phinda cheetah on termite mound 1

Lions, Lions, Lions. Everybody loves these massive cats and deservedly so. The cubs are doing very well and the older ones are almost ready to start hunting with mom. The younger ones are still super playful. The pride is all over the place at the moment but we still get good sightings off all off them.

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Cubs on mound 4

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We have been blessed with great Leopard sightings this month. Tsala’s cub has been spotted a few times and he looks healthy and strong. We are cautiously optimistic about his future since he would be the first cub she raises to adulthood. We have seen her a few times, chilling in a tree and once even hunting and killing an Impala. Munye has also been out and about and seems to be settling in the south.

Tsalas cub on kampa 2

Tsalas cub on kampa 1

Tsala on sesobe 3

Tsala kills impala 3

Tsala kills impala 5

munye rests 1

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Happy holidays to everyone. Be safe where ever you travels take you. And remember, we are always awaiting you return.

Kind Regards

Jacques and the T-Team

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