Guests love lions.

They love to look at them, photograph them, and tell everyone how close they got to them.

Guests love lions.  Except possibly the guests from this weekend.  New to game reserves, the couple were happy to have ranger Frances take them reasonably close to a male who was relaxing.  However the male woke up and joined by his brothers came nearer to the game drive vehicle and settled down to call out to the females.

Rangers call it "vocalising".  The guests called it "shattering".  Nothing can really prepare you for the visceral experience of your first lion roar, especially one at close range.  The vehicle vibrates with the powerful resonance and your chest cavity quite simply shakes.

In ranger raptures, Frances turned round from the driver's seat to her guests to enthuse about the quality of the sighting, only to find one quite overcome by the experience.  It was enough, more than enough.

On the guests' request Frances avoided the lions for their remaining drives.

Of course other guests were disappointed they only got to see our boys sleeping, which lions do most of the time (18 to 20 hours a day!!).

Supper Snacks

On the sundowner drive yesterday we caught up with our three “big boys”, the male lions.  I had four guests in the car, and as the first fellow ambled along the clicking of camera shutters increased markedly.  Lion #1 was followed by # 2 and a little later by #3, and they were quite content to settle in the grass.  Showing off for the cameras they rolled around, yawned and stretched and #3 even came closer to the vehicle, about 5 metres away, flopping down and acting pretty much like any cat.

While we were concentrating on #3, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, and we all got to see #1 jump up and pounce on something.  #2 joined in what must have been an unsuccessful hunt, but #1 was quicker and we heard great squealing.  I managed to get the vehicle closer and we saw #1 had caught a small warthog and was settling down to eat, with the most graphic crunching and munching sounds.  #2 was keen to get a share, but was more distracted by the closeness of the game drive vehicle and the whirr of camera shutters.  #1 took this moment to move his kill a little further away, chewing and chomping even more furiously. #2 quickly followed to grab what he could.  Poor #3 was left right out of the action.

When dinner was done the boys settled their stomachs with more stretching and rolling, (and posing for cameras), and then it was time to for us to move on.

Male lions generally mark the lions’ territory, and they range over a few kilometers moving far away from the female hunts.  So the boys have to fend for themselves, and sort out their own supper snacks.  Nature is quite OK with this, one of the other spectators to this hunt was a male Nyala who kept an eye on much of the proceedings from a safe distance, until caution got the better of him and he slunk away into the bush.

As for Duze and guests, it was time to head to a different spot for our own sundowners and marvel at the big cats’ display (and bemoan the camera batteries which were now flat!).

A Rhino Update

After all the great rains, everything is a lot greener, which means a lot of food around and therefore all the game has started giving birth.

This is young mother with her calf, only a few days old and still wobbly on its feet.  It is nice to see how well she is taking care of it.  Rhinos have an amazing maternal bond with their offspring. They are very protective, which makes it very difficult for predators to catch any of the calves.  This mother will protect her calf until it is about 2-3 years old, then it will have to fend for itself, for the mother would more than likely have another calf on the way, and it would be difficult for her to protect them both. It is possible that this calf might join another female who is calf less or another group of sub -adult rhinos, due to safety in numbers.  When rhino calves are about 6.5-7 years old they are sexually mature, and the males especially  will then try and find a mate of  their own with which they can bread.  Rhinos are not monogamous , as their gestation periods are very long, and it takes them a while to reach sexual maturity,  so this means that one female can only give birth to one calf about ever 2-3 years, so a male rhino will have to impregnate as many females he can so the rhino population can grow.

Rhino’s can Reach a dashing age or 30 years, and then they will still be able to give birth to 1 calf every two years, but rhino like any other animal also has one major enemy, man, unfortunately that is one to many.

Monday Madness at a waterhole!!

A waterhole in the African Wilderness on a warm afternoon can be a huge magnet for the game, attracting a wide variety of animals desperately searching for water.  Keeping this in mind, one warm November afternoon we decided to do a short game drive focusing mainly on waterholes.  Our section in the reserve holds 10 waterholes with a regular supply of water.  We started with the biggest of all surrounded by fever trees giving way to the open savannah.  Except for the resident hippos there was no activity in the vicinity, at least the hippos were very active and kept us entertained.  Now was the time to judge our patience.  The wait began!  Slowly as the temperature soared, animals like warthog, wildebeest and impalas started appearing in ones and twos.  And within a few minutes something triggered the change and then appeared 5 white rhinos followed by buffaloes in small groups.  What seemed like a quite waterhole now was the circle of animal mayhem.  With the temperature rising so rose the tension.  Big buffalo bulls and rhinos started pushing each other for the best wallowing spots.  Disturbed by all of this, the hippos decided to prove their point and chased the buffaloes away for a while.  It was surely a delight to watch and something that our young guests will not forget for years to come.  At one time we had the following animals at the waterhole.

5 White Rhinos                    Hippos

90-100 Buffalo                    Crocodiles

Wildebeest                          Impala

Waterbuck                          Variety of water birds

Warthogs

2 Stunning Discoveries by Institute of Biomimicry

The Institute of Bio mimicry looks for answers to our day to day problems in the natural world and intends to turn them into easy solutions.

1) Ever wondered why zebras have black and white stripes?

The zebra's stripes have more than one function. One function that can be mimicked is their cooling mechanism. The black stripes absorb the sun's rays and a fatty layer under the stripe prevents the heat from affecting the zebra. The white stripes reflect the sunlight. As a result the air above the black stripes becomes warmer than above the white stripes and this difference in the temperature creates an air flow across the sweat glands located in the white stripes. This helps to cool the zebra as it stands.
                  
  

2) Self healing of rhino's horns                                      

Rhinos dig with their horns and use them as swords to spar with. If they get a crack in the horn, its a problem. Surprisingly in their study, they found that they don't seem to get cracks in the horn, and if they do then the cracks seem to heal up. When there is a crack, the material around the crack disassembles, pours in the crack and then reassembles. They have no idea how this happens, because there are no living cells in the horn. Its made entirely of dead keratin! Bio mimics are looking at it as a model for self-healing structures.

The BIG 5... We have them!

On the 1st of July 2011, Zululand Rhino Reserve officially became a Big 5 reserve with the introduction of 3 male lions. An historical day for conservation, returning lions to an area that they previously inhabited. 

The 3 young males have been in a boma at Phinda Game Reserve for the last couple of weeks, until finally the go-ahead was given and they could be bought over to their new home. A few days before they were bought over to us, they were fitted with telemetry collars so that we can keep track of their movements and whereabouts. Once the lions have settled in, and we have an idea of their range, the collars will be removed. 

Lion sedated and about to be fitted with the telemetry collar

Right now the lions are in a boma here with us, and they will spend a few more weeks in the boma so that they can acclimatise and monitored for any disease that they may have contracted. If they do need any medical assistance, it is much easier for them to be treated in a boma than if they were out roaming around. 

If all goes to plan, the females which are from a completely different reserve, and therefore completely new bloodlines, will be joining the males in the boma soon so that they can form bonds and create a cohesive pride. 

Young male fast asleep under sedation

Exciting times here at Rhino River Lodge, and the competition is fierce between all the rangers at the different lodges situated inside the Zululand Rhino Reserve as to who will spot the lions out on game drive first! 
 

Crocodile Catching!

Well this last Saturday we all donned our Steve Irwin khaki's, and got in touch with our inner "Crocodile Hunter" for a very exciting morning out in the field.

It all started with our reserve staff reporting a sighting of a lone Crocodile out in the forest where they had been working. This in not unusual as crocodiles can walk a fair amount of kilometres in order to find new and reliable water sources. This guy was on the banks of a very dried up river bed, and luckily for us, we had a new dam that was looking for a resident croc.
Naturally, we let nature take it's course on most occasions although because the crocodile numbers are quite low in this reserve we decided to help this lonely guy out a bit. Crocodiles were never reintroduced and so whatever number crocodiles we have residing on the property has been of their own accord and their own movement in to and out of the property.

The dam that was to become the crocs new home had dried up over the winter months, and so we took the opportunity to dig it slightly deeper and make it more "user friendly" for our animals. We do pump water from a borehole into this dam when the water levels start looking too low to ensure that our animals are gauranteed of a reliable water source when things get too dry. 

After packing a blanket, some ropes, a towel and a very large stick off we went to catch the croc.
We came upon him in very thick vegetation and luckily for us, his body tempreture was quite low making him very lazy and easy to work with.

The crocodile wrapped up and ready for relocation.

We made sure that his eyes were safely blind-folded to protect them during the move, and his jaws were tied shut to make sure that he couldn't injure himself, or anyone else for that matter.

For a crocodile just under 2 metres in length, it took 4 adults to carry it back to the waiting Cruiser for the last stretch of the capture. Once on the vehicle, Anand and myself secured him by sitting on his back whilst we travelled but ensured that our full body weight was not on him. Just enough pressure to convince him that a deathroll would not be a good idea!


After an uneventful trip to the dam, we took our new friend down to the waters edge to show him his new home. The poor croc was very reluctant to enter the water and so we left him on the edge to warm up and regain some of his energy.

Duze inspecting the Croc, under close watch from Dale!

We are so glad to say that Croc is very happy in his new home and after us avoiding the dam for some 3 days to give him some time to settle in, he has been spotted swimming around quite happily.

On the banks of his new home, catching some sun.