Conservation Updates

The flash of light temporarily blinded the killer showing him poised with weapon raised, ready to strike. As darkness flooded back, so his jet black menacing form disappeared, and had it not been for the captured digital image we might never have known of his presence.

The rosy dawn had barely touched the hilltops when first we heard the unmistakable call of a black backed jackal, Eeeyaaa ya ya ya, surely one of the most evocative sounds of the African veld. That night, sitting around the camp-fire, we heard it again. Throughout South African country areas (except in forests and swamps) one is likely to hear their weird, wild cry.

It was on 14 December 1775 that a 25 year-old Swedish physician and naturalist Anders Sparrman, camped beside a small vlei* about 20 km north-west of Kariega Game Reserve. On that day at the University of Uppsala a doctorate was conferred in...

We were sceptical when first we heard the news: a schoolboy playing near the top of the ridge claimed that he had seen a leopard in the forest fringe, less than two kilometres from an urban area. The other great cat and ‘problem’ animal, the Cape...

Many years ago, shortly before Christmas, a friend and I were travelling through the arid Karoo. The car developed engine trouble and we stopped at the next small town to have it repaired. Spare parts were ordered from Cape Town and we eventually...

A little insight on the habits of the 'assasin bug'

It seemed for a day or two as if we, well rhinos actually, could breathe easily again. At Kariega Thandi was on the mend after her horrific injuries, and there seemed to be a lull in poaching activity. Then at the end of September came the news that in game reserves in South Africa 19 rhinos had been slaughtered in a week, bringing the total for the year to 430. Today as I write – 18 October 2012 – that total has risen to over 463, another 33 rhinos in little more than a fortnight.

The Vervet monkey in SA, and thoughts on the ever-advancing issue of human-wildlife integration. 

Mention the word “snake” at any social gathering in South Africa and you will have a topic of conversation to which all the men and a goodly proportion of the women will be able to make a contribution. It would seem from what one hears that South...

Two items on the same page in a recent newspaper caught my eye. The first dealt with rhino poaching. In this a conservationist bemoaned the fact that a great deal of the money given by well-meaning members of the public to combat the poaching of...