Hyenas, Cape Buffalo and aardvark

October 31 - After the normal feeding of the animals was finished, we took out a tank of water for the hyenas. It takes sometimes half an hour or more driving out to these enclosures, and standing in the back of the pickup truck gives a bird’s eye view of the animals. In a typical drive to do these tasks, we always see zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, a giraffe, kudu, water buck and impalas. The terrain and landscape is constantly changing – vast expanse of grasslands, flat hard red soil almost like a desert, dense thickets, hills and mountains in the distance. I can’t help but marvel at it all every day. We drove into the hyena enclosure and one of them watched us from afar.

When we returned to the office, Emmie, Andre’s sister who is here for a few days, and I went out to fill in the aardvark holes in the roads. After a short while, Andre radioed and told us where the Cape buffalo was, because he knew I hadn’t seen it yet. So we drove in the general direction, and Bruce was peacefully grazing along with a domestic cow and her calf who keep him company. They are always together but they are planning to get a few more buffalos for him.

Then we saw the male eland, which I think, is the largest of the African antelope family. He was rubbing his horns on a small tree and it was amazing to watch him.

Tonga's visitors from France

In the afternoon, Louise took some visitors as well as two young guys from France on a game drive. These guys, Julian and Matthew, both work at zoos in France; Matthew works at the zoo where Tonga, the rescued hippo had been moved to for three months awaiting all the permits to be approved before being flown here. So he had actually been taking care of him during this time. They had been travelling through other part of South Africa, and this was their last stop. They were interested to see Tonga’s enclosure where he was kept for a few weeks to adjust to the other animals that he would be living with, and to hear about the first time he got into the water. Then to see him in his natural surroundings and sitting in the water hole was so thrilling for them. Tonga didn’t come out of the water, but they were just as glad to see that he didn’t because he is adjusting to the wild. We stopped by Tonga’s dam on the way back, and then again the next day while we were on a bush walk. Julian and Matthew were so glad to meet everyone who is taking care of him and were in awe of SanWild and its animals. They had just come from Kruger National Park, which is very touristy, and the animals come up to the numerous cars, where here they run off like in a wild environment.

Poachers and elephants

Albert, one of the rangers took myself, Julienne and Matthew on a bush walk at 6:00 am. He showed us how the snares work, and all the tell tale signs that indicate there were poachers in the area and how recently the snares were put up. The good thing is that since the elephants have been here, the poachers are terrified of them, so they don’t have to patrol at night anymore, especially during the full moon when poachers are most active. They also think that the elephants can be anywhere so they don’t want to take the chance of running into them. He showed us all the tracks of animals and could tell how recent they were. Once we start looking at them often, we can tell the difference between an impala and kudu, wildebeest and zebras. He even pointed out porcupine tracks, and also we saw the track of the aardvark’s tail in the pile of dirt next to the hole. Since the rangers patrol the area on bicycles every day (checking the fences, the animals, and anything unusual) often riding 40 kilometres daily, they are constantly relying on the tracks, particularly the rhino and elephant tracks, so they don’t run into them unexpectedly. On the way back we stopped once more by Tonga’s dam so Matthew could see him one more time before he left.

New found freedom

Bliksem, the young black rhino, appears to like his new found freedom, however he was a bit cranky as he charged Andre’s truck. We had been out on the bush walk so Louise radioed Albert to make sure we weren’t walking around the area where Bliksem was.

After the morning feedings were done, we went to feed the lions and wild dogs. They patiently wait as the meat is cut into smaller chunks so each lion has a piece. To be behind a wire fence, standing six feet away from them is amazing. Each lion grabs his chunk and runs off to savor it. The wild dogs, however, are given a hind quarter and they all grab it and drag it back into the bush and share it. On our way back, there was a male eland standing next to a fence in the road, and when we went by, he moved off a few feet and continued grazing and looked at us. Elands have interesting markings on their face and you don’t realize how large they are until you are right next to them.

In the evening, a gorgeous mopani moth came into my chalet, and fortunately I was able to release it outside unharmed. This was about 5 inches across and has the huge round circles on its wings like the eyes of an owl. It stayed on my window ledge for quite some time so I could admire it.

Back To Barbara's Diary