halpaed

Author: halpaed
Date: 03/10/2008, 08:13 am
Hi,

Some of you may recall an earlier post where I asked for advice in planning a trip with a bias on the smaller cat species, namely Serval and Caracal.

Eventually we decided upon a trip which combined conservation work with a safari experience. We have been lucky enough to have been to Africa several times previously and wanted a greater insight into the animals and their lives. This trip ticked all of the boxes (the only tick list we were interested in !) and also meant my 40th birthday would be spent doing something I love.

We arranged this through 'Back on track' safaris which is a relatively new outfit and uses people with years of experience, such as Gerrie Camacho a leading conservationist; chair of the South African Leopard Forum and running the Ingwe Leopard Project that the trip supports.

This is all controlled out of the aptly named 'Paperbark Bush Retreat' run by Will and Carol Fox. An ecolodge where the power is provided by the Sun (no power cuts for us then !)

We were collected at Joburg and transferred to Paperbark 9in the heart of Leopard Country) for a restful day but over tea we were already being told of a Serval track having been seen recently.....of course we could have just settled in but the first lesson in animal tracking was soon underway.

Our Ranger Anton was extremely knowledgable (and locally known as the 'Leopard Man')and soon had us distinguishing between baboon and other spoor marks (the thumb gives it away!).

We spent 2 days tracking and having a bush senses experience to sharpen ourselves up for our trip to Sabi and Kruger. All too often we have found you only start getting tuned into the wild as the Safari comes to an end.

During this time we were well looked after and had a fabulous thatched bungalow all to ourselves and whilst all windows were screened, I had to roll up the screen that overlooked the last leopard sighting in the camp. Needless to say I hardly slept as I kept checking the window !

Before we left we suddenly heard birds chattering away in a distant tree and Anton announced 'snake', as I love snakes and at my request we went carefully to investigate and found a Boomslang climbing the branches.

A night game drive found 7 bushbabies, nightjars and a pair of porcupines.

We then met our zoologist guide Gerrie for our trip. I know the word is overused but this guy is a genuine 'legend'. Everywhere we went people knew him and his work, and at our request we were later able to see some of the media work he has done.

The mist took out our views as we drove over the Long Tom pass and onto Sabi being enthralled by tales as we went of his work and sightings of the predators of SA. He did very well to answer Ed's array of questions relating to a certain 2 cat species !

We stayed at Umkumbe Camp in Sabi, run by the charismatic Hermann. For those interested it makes Sabi more affordable. Because of the mist we arrived too late for the night drive. We observed the flood lit river bed of the Sands River and saw Buffalo and Hyena and a mongoose (unidentified)

After dinner, we were taken out on a late game drive which we really appreciated and saw a Chameleon alongside good groups of Impala and Kudu.

An early morning drive gave us a wonderful experience of being surrounded by elephants as they drank and watched a relaxed mother with her 5 day old calf being assisted by others in the group. That was magical, especially as we had the vehicle to ourselves and did not have to move on to complete any tick list.

After a hearty breakfast we did a game walk which allowed us to view Buffalo and enjoy all of the bush from Civet scat to leadwood trees and Orioles. We also found the spoor of last night's mongoose - a water mongoose - we were thrilled to identify this ourselves.

Further time was spent finding rhino and elephants, Hyena and having humurous exchanges with Hermann and Gerrie. We later had coffee at night in the bush and then went out again and stopped and just listened to the Hyenas whooping and distant lions on the hunt. That was probably one of the most memorable things I have ever done.

Sabi was great and whilst we did not see a leopard, we enjoyed our time there and also in line with the company's ethos heard much of the problems in Sabi/Kruger (the elephant cull was announced whilst we were there) including the newly arrived lion intruders that have wrecked chaos onto the existing predators in the vicinity.

We drove to Kruger, and whilst we appreciate it is not a busy time we thoroughly enjoyed the park and Gerrie advised us to keep the windows down and use our ears as well as our eyes. He constantly scanned for tracks and we picked up Hyena and a lioness that had lost contact with her pride and covered alot of ground as she called out continuously to no avail before resting up.

We also found steenbok, ground hornbills and 2 black mambas, a striped sand snake and a rock python. The game was abundant, especially the elephant and buffalo numbers.

The sheer size of Kruger is impressive and we wished we had spent more time here (another week would have been good!)

After the heat of the lowveld, we were taken to Zuleika Country House for a surreal experience. We enjoyed a four poster bed and a great meal and discussed predator studies being undertaken in SA. (I'm beginning to put a plan together by now...Gerrie was that inspiring!)

We then visited Moholoholo and the Cheetah project at Hoedsprit. On completing the tour (We confess that is the Serval in the pics), I mentioned that I thought they had a caracal. Minutes later Gerrie has a word and I am in the pen, looking at the animal that fascinates me so much. They had to physically nudge me before I came out of my trance and left her to some peace.

At Hoedsprit we had a good tour and not a little heated debate with some other visitors who declared the place a zoo and that the animals should be left to fend for themselves (White Rhino and King Cheetah). Clare could not let that go and politely pointed out that humans have caused many of their problems with the burgeoning population not being the least of them and that the project was an essential collection of gene pools.

We returned to Paperbark, bid our farewells to Gerrie (who then promised to return and do a presentation on predators for us before we left). Whilst we were away Anton had spun his magic and arranged for us to have a personal tour at Neels Bothma's reptile conservation centre.

This was fascinating, especially as snakes often get a bad name and are persecuted when in actual fact they can help with rodent control and sometimes security !!

Neels works hard to promote their conservation, safe removal and captive breeding. Clare touched a snake (Cape File) for the first time and the condition of the animals was superb.

We then had coffee and were photographed and interviewed by the local paper as to why we were visiting and our interest in the non usual species. Additionally, in the UK we have seen 2 large black cats and the region of the Lydenburg is famous for black leopards and of course our newly gained tracking skills might help us a bit more at home. We tried to get the point across that not everyone wants a big five safari only and that conserving all species is important.

I also had a great birthday, where after a champagne breakfast, we reset camera traps around the conservancy and then visited a nearby game ranch which also impressed me. Besides walking in on a White Rhino and her calf, we saw alot of game including a beautiful Nyala. We returned to another great meal in our bungalow accompanied by some lovely pinotage and went to sleep a little older but a lot wiser.

We then spent a great 2 days visiting other farms in the Conservancy and part of the Ingwe Project on the trail of leopards which were now being seen and heard all along the valley. We tracked them and made casts of spoor with Anton who runs a company specialising in this (TrueTracks)We even had spoor around one camera.

On the wednesday, Gerrie came over and gave a fsacinating presentation on predators of SA and also brought a fantastic display of skulls which helped show the different niche and behaviours of these animals.

On our last night Will arranged another excursion to look for Servals in prime wetland habitat. Civet, a genet, 2 more porcupines and an unknown distant predator on the edge of an impala herd. We really appreciated this extra effort over our expectations to tailor the trip to our wishes.

We were up early scanning for game and Will even managed to squeeze in one last game walk where we stalked in on some Zebra which was exciting (probably testing our skills).

Finally we had to leave but not before a fish eagle appeared over the lake.

We left SA having had a genuinely life changing experience and met some amazing people who have shared a true picture of African Wildlife and Conservation with us, warts and all and we are now left asking what more we can do. Undertaking some more education with a zoology/Ecology based focus seems a start.

At the end Anton appeared with all of the camera track images to download, the leopard did not appear as the card was full but we did have images of Kudu, bushpigs, a porcupine and a CARACAL, on March 2nd, 1/2 an hour after we had come down the track.

And for the record we counted it !

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/Slides...localeid=en_GB

PredatorBiologist

That counts!

Outstanding photo trap pic of the caracal. Congratulations on doing a different type of trip and gaining such an education and unique experience in the field with experts.

Setting camera traps and drinking pinotage sounds like the perfect birthday to me.

Thanks for sharing your experience, it's clear that you two have the enthusiasm and enjoy the field methods involved with carnivore studies. It was a fun read for me.

halpaed

Thanks for your comments. This trip has genuinely changed my life.

The drive back out of Blyde River Canyon, came to a spot where we saw a serval roadkill. This was the 8th in the last 2 years. Something triggered within me a desire to do what I can to help.

At present, I am thinking of undertaking some qualification to prepare me for some meaningful research in this area.

This of course is not straight forward as I have to balance an income against any course and a part time zoology course does not seem an option at the moment.

Decisions decisions !!

Patty

Really fantastic photos! Thanks for sharing these. Good luck with your endeavor!

atravelynn

From snakes galore and insects to birds that matched their surroundings and camouflaged cats to posing giraffes and numerous expressive faces, your photos have real personality.

What a cool trip you arranged? Can you tell us what kind of conservation work you did?

I've marked you down for the caracal! It's been duly noted.

Leely

I'd count it.

Great photos and what a cool trip. Thanks and happy belated birthday!

MyDogKyle

Hey, if we can all count the animals we saw but didn't quite get a picture of, then why not count the one you got a picture of but didn't quite see?? Of course he counts... he was clearly there to see you.

What a terrific trip you had, and it sounds like the perfect birthday gift for you. I really enjoyed reading about it. Your pictures are priceless! Loved all the snakes, too.

halpaed

Thankyou for the support and kind comments and indeed belated birthday wishes.

The conservation work consisted of collecting data on cat and predator movements within the area that the project supports and working with adjacent land owners to persuade them to join the Conservancy area or at least turn attitudes away from principally killing leopards and other predators that get the blame for all kinds of issues that affect their cattle.

Apart from the camera traps we collected hair sample from fences and investigated scat for prey items and monitored alternative food sources in the areas (buck etc).

Whilst there a viral infection killed a calf which was then partly eaten by dogs. Explaining this and showing that the cause of death was not from a leopard (no marks to the neck) was worthwhile.

Work is being done to better secure livestock at night (when the majority of attacks take place) and offering advice such as trialing dogs that can accompany the herds and alert the owner to predator presence.

Whilst there, we attended recent sightings and advised owners on working alongside these animals and encouraging farmers and locals alike to value the animals, which helps when the project directly supports their services.

Creating food parcels for employees helps provide an alternative protein source and eases the snaring pressure which is a huge problem here.

As part of our visit we did an interview with the local paper to also help publicise the project.

As the farms join the project there does remain the issue about roads that transect the area and roadkill. 4 leopards have been killed in the last 2 years and this is something that I would like to do more on. So I spent some time looking at the spots the bodies were recovered and in 3 of the instances , the cats were following drainage lines that appeared to be predictable enough and could perhaps be considered for road improvements etc.

Obviously it is not straight forward but Conservation through Education is key to the scheme. If you want any more information let me know

Regards

Ed

atravelynn

Some fascinating conservation work. You really had a unique and fascinating holiday.

Were the landowners receptive to your comments? I would think it would be a tough challenge for short-term visitors to be persuade local landowners to be more environmentally minded.

Oh, and happy birthday. I think I missed that before.

halpaed

I could go on and on, but the aim of the project is to give some benefit to local owners with advice etc and encourage them that they can use their farms for other uses.

To be honest we were at the visits to show that people are interested in the project and willing to support the area through employment and to use produce from these farms, so they benefit. The actual talking was done by the project guide and ranger, but it was good to see the look on their faces when they were asked about recent Serval sightings etc. You came all this way to see a Serval ???

As I mentioned on another post so apologies if you have read this before, but they are trying to open up some of these farms to visits such as one that has some black fotted cats in. The farm would then get some revenue from the visits (not sure that this would be a massive commercial venture)as interest does seem to be picking up in the other cat species

For example one farm we visited are opening up a small camp to bring in additional revenue. To be honest the whole project is about changing the view that predators are always pests and that they can be lived with and that the Leopard is worth conserving.

What I found fascinating was the work that shows how large their ranges are and that sightings of leopards in one district may actually be one leopard on the move because He is marking the perimeter of his territory.

I am staggered that these animals are not listed by CITIES

Thanks for your wishes and interest in the trip. We are now planning a revisit if we can later this year....