August was a blue moon month (when there are 2 full moons in
the same month), so the night of the 31st was beautiful. We went monitoring for the wild dogs in the
evening and even though we didn’t see the dogs it was still a gorgeous night
with a HUGE full moon – albeit red instead of blue J. On the 1st I went on a vulture
survey with the Mkuze ecologist, Tarik.
We saw about 50ish white-backed vultures when we arrived at the count
sight, but they flew off and didn’t come back to land again during the time we
needed to do the survey. It was really
windy and they all decided they had more fun soaring in the thermals then
coming down to feed on the ground. We
did get a good sighting of a black-backed jackal that gorged itself on the carcass before walking
off into the bush.
Sunday, the 2nd, was a pretty busy day. We had fun exploring the more wild side of
the park, driving through some really thick thorn bushes and some amazing fever
tree forests in search of the wild dogs.
The thorns on these bushes are longer than my index finger and about
half as thick in diameter – definitely would poke your eye out. The fever tree forests almost don’t look real. They are a bright yellow-green and are so beautiful
– I could have sat in that forest all day, it was so peaceful. The permanent monitor here, Liam, has
resigned and is leaving the organization at the end of September. His replacement, Cole, arrived that night and
spent the rest of the week with us learning the ropes. He is really nice and sociable – I think
he’ll make a good addition to the Wildlife ACT team J. We also had a great opportunity that evening
to spend the night in the hide overlooking a water-hole. White and black rhino came throughout the
night to have a mud bath. Since it was a
full moon we had good light to see them and the sounds they made were very
cool. They would do a heavy chuffing
when they got too near each other and the babies would make a whining sound
begging their mothers for milk or attention.
We also had a brief sighting of a male leopard, but he decided there
were too many rhino for him to come all the way down to drink, so he sat in the
edge of the tree line and called for a bit before heading off to hunt – wicked
cool to hear a leopard calling J.
On the 3rd we were able to find all 9 members of
the wild dog pack as they were out hunting.
We were also able to get a perfect sighting of a female suni during our
tracking and a good sighting of a tiger snake on the way back to camp. Kevin, the relief monitor (who was with me at
iMfolozi and Tembe), arrived on the afternoon of the 4th – it was
nice to catch up with him again and have him as a monitor for the rest of my stay. However, rain started on the 5th and
put a literal damper on our activities for a few days. I got a little cabin fever and went out a
couple of times, but getting pelted in the face with rain on the back of a
truck is no fun, so Viviane and I ended up staying at camp for much of the time
it rained L. I’ve been told the KwaZulu-Natal area is in a
pretty major drought, so the rain was definitely welcomed and has been the
first heavy rain I’ve seen since I’ve been in Africa. The leopard tortoises really seemed to enjoy
the rain and they were coming out of the bush and onto the road to drink in the
small puddles.
It finally cleared up a bit on the 8th and we
were able to enjoy our evening monitoring session. Yesterday we found all 9 dogs again, but one
of them, Thandifa, had a snare around her neck.
We were able to coordinate with the park biologist to attempt to dart
her and remove the snare, but the dogs decided they liked it better in the
middle of the bush and we couldn’t get to her.
I hope Kevin and Cole are able to help her out this week – I’ll stay
tuned to Facebook to see if there is an update.
In the meantime, I am on my way to the next, and final, park – Thanda. I am looking forward to meeting the monitor
there, Michelle.
Until next time, here
is a complete list of critters I’ve seen at Mkuze Game Preserve:
Animals: African wild dog, black rhinoceros,
black-backed jackal, blue wildebeest, bushpig, Cape buffalo, chacma baboon,
giraffe, grey duiker, impala, kudu, large-spotted genet, leopard, leopard
tortoise, nyala, plains zebra, red duiker, scrub hare, spotted hyena, suni,
thick-tailed bushbaby, tiger snake, vervet monkey, warthog, white rhinoceros
and white-tailed mongoose
Birds: acacia pied barbet, black-collared barbet,
bateleur, dark-capped bulbul, golden-breasted bunting, black-bellied bustard,
yellow-fronted canary, long-billed crombec, pied crow, red-eyed dove,
square-tailed drongo, tawny eagle, giant eagle-owl, southern black flycatcher,
natal francolin, Egyptian goose, spur-winged goose, crested guineafowl, African
hoopoe, crowned hornbill, southern yellow-billed hornbill, hadeda ibis, striped
kingfisher, lesser masked-weaver, red-faced mousebird, speckled mousebird,
eastern nicator, fiery-necked nightjar, black-headed oriole, red-billed
oxpecker, great white pelican, green-winged pytilla, black-chested snake-eagle,
black-bellied starling, Cape glossy starling, woolly-necked stork,
scarlet-chested sunbird, white-bellied sunbird, spotted thick-knee, Kurrichane
thrush, purple-crested turaco, Cape turtle-dove, lappet-faced vulture,
white-backed vulture, blue waxbill, spectacled weaver, emerald-spotted
wood-dove and cardinal woodpecker
I hope everyone at home is doing well and am sending you all
much love. Bad internet connection this time, so pictures will come later. Only 2 weeks left and I’ll be
home!
Stef
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