Kariega Game Reserve Conservation Volunteers honoured National Arbor Week this week by planting the 'miracle tree of the century' - Spekboom - and working on eradicating some alien invasive tree species.

Elephants, as megaherbivores, are known to have extensive impacts on vegetation, especially in enclosed areas. This raises the issue that elephants in enclosed areas may become limited by resource availability.

On Wednesday, the Kariega Volunteers teamed up with Rooting-for-Rhino and the Kingsley Holgate Foundation to bring the Children's Rhino Art Project to Farmerfield School. The Children's Rhino Art Project is a drive to raise awareness of rhino poaching amoung the youth, aiming to reach 200 000 children before World Rhino Day on the 22 September 2013.

My Rhino is an anti-poaching awareness and fundraising initiative that sells beautifully crafted ceramic rhino's with a portion of the proceeds going to the Kariega Foundation Save the Rhino fund. To date, My Rhino has raised R35 000 for the Foundation, and they were also recently part of the St Stithians Girls Prep 'My Rhino Project" which raised over R11 000 for the Kariega Foundation.

We are sharing the "Birds in Reserves" project booklet to further assist the volunteers (and all readers) to gain insights into our many species of indigenous birds. 

Thanks for sharing these with us on Facebook, Marion and Nico Flemming. Marion recently sent us these great pics of her time at Kariega, and she will be entered into the Kariega Facebook Photo Competition, standing a chance to win a 2 night stay for 2 at River Lodge.

Giraffe research in the Eastern Cape including Kariega Game Reserve. The Kariega Conservation Volunteers assist the wildlife management team on the reserve with numerous conservation and research projects.

Kariega is home to approximately 280 species of birds. We were particularly excited to see a new resident this week

Aad and Yvonne van Tol visited Kariega Game Reserve to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They sent us some super pictures of their safari experience and described it as "a weekend in paradise". Thanks for sharing Aad and Yvonne, and we were glad to have had you on the reserve for this special celebration.