uMkhuze dag 2: Giraffe’s can’t jump fences

Dinsdag 23-10-2018

uMkhuze dag 2:     Giraffe’s can’t jump fences

Dieren vandaag gezien / Animals spotted:

·         African wild dog

·         Lion

·         Baboon

·         Giraffe

·         Impala

·         Vervet monkey

·         Baboon

·         Spotted thick-knee

·         Eastern stripped skink

·         Rainbow skink

This morning we left at 4.15 am. It was my turn to scan. First we drove to a big tower with a viewing deck on top. From here is where Teegan did the first scanning. She

Our first target was to see if MCM22 was still in the park. By using triangulation we knew he was still in the park but close to the fence. We sat at the gate to make sure this cheetah wasn’t leaving the park again. While we were waiting some man came to fix the fence. We still had to wait till one of the rangers came. When he came Teegan left to go with him to see were this cheetah is. She parked the car on the side of the road. We stayed away for at least 1,5 hours. While we were waiting the sun started to warm up the earth including us in the car. It got quite warm but still doable. While sitting here some skinks were sunbathing. They look funny when they chase each other.

After she came back she told us they scared the cheetah away from the fence but not very far. We took the ranger with us and dropped him of at his place. Then target number 2. The group of 3 male African wild dogs. We found them resting under a bush. We waited for a while but they weren’t moving. So we left and drove back to camp. Here we arrived at 11 am. A very long morning session. During the brake I sat in the outdoor aria, the others went to bed. It is a nice place but I didn’t see much wild life while I was waiting.

The afternoon session turned out to be different as well. We went looking for a MCM23. A cheetah that has lived in a boma for most of his life. His mum died when he was 6 months old and he was released when he was just over 1,5 years. He sometimes has problems with hunting so sometimes he is fed. Not a thing they want to do but to keep him alive they do. It doesn’t happen often but can happen. He also has a behavioural problem. He had to sides to him. If he is hungry he sometimes charges the car. This is probably because he associates the car with food. If he does this, we just have to stay still and keep calm. When isn’t hungry he will be calm and relaxed.

The first activity was to take out a camera trap. This one was covered in ants. These ants bite and I was not planning on being bitten so I let the boys handle this. It took a while before the pole, camera and everything else was ant free. Every thing was loaded on the car and off we were.

During this drive we passed the shooting range, hunting aria and the fence line. We drove along the fence line when I saw something weird in the distance. It was a giraffe that got tangled up in in the fence with its hind legs. Sadly it had already died. But the fence got mangled up, the top part was down and the bottom part was up. Teegan got in touch with Edgar who told her to get the giraffe out of the fence and without cutting the fence. If it didn’t work she could cut of the giraffes legs. ☹. I decided to help her. The others didn’t want to. We got true the fence onto the Phinda privet game reserve. This was tricky because it was an electric fence, I didn’t like the thought of getting shocked. Then we had to get the giraffe out. It had been dead for a bit because it’s body was in rigour, so moving the legs was an incredible hard task. Pascal came and brought up some tools and helped us as well. We had to cut 3 parts of the fence and the legs were free but still on the fence. At least we didn’t have to cut it’s legs of. We tried to move the giraffe but it was just too heavy. A car drove our way. It were the rangers from the P… reserve. The started with a joke that we were trespassing. In the end they did get the giraffe from the fence by dragging it behind their car after a photo session with the giraffe. This was extremely weird. When they were finished and we straitened the fence a bit we went on with our search for MCM23. We drove back along the fence. There were so many low branches that we sometimes had sit on the floor making sure not to get hit by them. The sunset was wonderful. We drove for a long time till we passed him (signal) but we hadn’t seen him. We took a gps-point and drove back. This time we took a different route (out of the reserve) and the road was not as bumpy. When we got back in our own reserve I was so tiered that I dozed off. When I woke up we were braking. There were lions with cubs on the road. I didn’t get to see the cubs properly but the male I did. The moved of the road into the bush and they were lost from our sight. We continued to drove back to the camp

Here we arrived at 9 pm. Wow it had been a long day. Just a quick sandwich and of to bed.