African Dream: Week 8

Two of the volunteers (Regena and Michael) left on Monday, so it’s just Doc, Duncan and myself at camp this week. I feel most at home at this park. The sand forest reminds me a lot of Florida, there aren’t very many tourists and there are no paved roads. It’s a much more “in the bush” kind of a feel and I wish I had been here for more than just these 2 weeks. Definitely a place I could see myself returning to again.

I can definitely tell that spring is starting here. The weather is getting warmer in the mornings and down-right hot in the afternoons. The humidity has gone up a bit, rain clouds form (but no rain yet) and the plants are starting to get fresh green leaves.

As far as the critters go, this week started off beautifully. On Monday afternoon we went out with Leonard to check on the elephants and we were able to see both Isilo (biggest tusker) and Mkadebona (2^nd biggest tusker) at the same watering hole with a lot of other huge bull elephants. It was really cool to watch the elephants demonstrate who was the most dominant and how they arranged themselves around the waterhole accordingly. Just prior to that we spotted 2 beautiful male lions sleeping in the shade next to the road. Also on Monday night we went on an evening drive and saw a young male lion resting in the shade. We sat and watched him for a bit hoping to see other lions he usually hangs out with. Much to our surprise, one of the lionesses (Dee) decided to show up – with her 3 cubs! She slowly approached the male lion and we thought they may all lie down next to each other, but no – the lioness quickly showed the male who was dominant and she picked a fight with him, chased him away and took his resting spot. It was SO cool! While we were watching them, a suni also decided to poke his head out of the bush – he quickly ran away once he got wind of the lions J. Tuesday morning we were at another watering hole tracking lions with telemetry when 2 other lionesses (Kampa and her daughter) showed up to have a drink and then walked off into the bush. We saw Dee and the cubs again on Thursday morning – she didn’t seem very happy that we stopped to watch her, so we left quickly before she got too mad. We also had a very brief sighting of Mufasa, the dominant male lion in the park, on Thursday morning. He is HUGE! I wish we had another better sighting of him, but that didn’t happen. We were also not able to be a part of a call-up this week. Circumstances just didn’t work out, so I hope they are able to complete it next week instead. Finally, on Sunday evening, we were able to spot 3 of the wild dogs as they were returning to the den from a hunting excursion.

Socially we had a bit of fun this week as well. One of the Wildlife ACT staff, Christy, came to visit us and get some photos/videos so she can update their website and social media. It was cool to talk to her and see how the organization promotes itself. Leonard also had some friends show up and we, of course, had to have a braie J. Then on Sunday, we all went to the beach in the afternoon to have a bit of fun in the sun and pizza. It was nice to get the monitors away from camp and have a little chillax time. Tomorrow morning I’m being picked up at the park gate and taken to my next site – Mkuze. I’ve heard good things from Doc and Kevin about this camp and am looking forward to meeting Liam, the monitor, as well as seeing the resident cheetahs – Tim and Tom.

A complete list of critters I’ve seen at Tembe:

Animals: African elephant, African wild dog, banded mongoose, blue wildebeest, bushbuck, Cape buffalo, common reedbuck, giraffe, grey duiker, impala, kudu, large-spotted genet, lion, nyala, plains zebra, red duiker, samango monkey, slender mongoose, suni, tree squirrel, vervet monkey, warthog, waterbuck, white rhinoceros

Birds: bateleur, chinspot batis, dark-capped bulbul, golden-breasted bunting, black-bellied bustard, yellow-fronted canary, Burchell’s coucal, pied crow, red-eyed dove, martial eagle, cattle egret, African fish-eagle, fiscal flycatcher, southern black flycatcher, Natal francolin, Egyptian goose, crested guineafowl, African harrier-hawk, white-crested helmet-shrike, black-headed heron, grey heron, crowned hornbill, hadeda ibis, brown-hooded kingfisher, black-shouldered kite, yellow-billed kite, Afrian wattled lapwing, crowned lapwing, red-faced mousebird, fiery-necked nighjar, pearl-spotted owlet, red-billed oxpecker, black-backed puffback, white-starred robin, red-capped robin-chat, lilac-breasted roller, white-browed scrub robin, black-chested snake-eagle, African stonechat, woolly-necked stork, scarlet-chested sunbird, black-crowned tchagra, purple-crested turaco, Cape turtle-dove, African pied wagtail, blue waxbill, village weaver and emerald-spotted wood-dove

Love to you all and talk to you again next week!

Stef

Tembe Elephant Park - a lovely scene :-).