Crazy Cats

The last day of 2010!!! Can you believe it!! Time has gone by so quickly!!!

I have been quiet with my updates because we have been so hectically busy!! To add to that our internet is down at our house and the electricity cuts out at any sign of lightning so internet in the office is also scarce! I must say that even though the thunderstorms mean no electricity and hot water, they are still amazingly beautiful!!

So… what can I tell you….

Our 3 new cheetahs are doing well! I have finally named them after observing their behavior! The dominant sister, the darkest of the three is Askari. This is an Arabic and Swahili word meaning "soldier / fighter." She is the “leader of the pack” and enjoys hissing at us to protect her sisters.

Askari

The inquisitive sister, who is lighter in colour than the other two with a pretty, round face and tear drop markings on her face is Bukeka meaning 'beautiful' in Zulu.

Bukeka

The third sister is very calm and lurks in the shadows of her sisters. I have named her Thulile which mean "is quiet" in Zulu. She is not as dark as Askari and not as light as Bukeka and is therefore referred to as the “middle sister”.

Thulile

Every 4 days we have to feed them either a warthog or an impala. I have been practicing my shooting but have not tried it out on an animal yet…. Soon though, I feel like I am ready to do it! Armand has been shooting now that Wimpie is away. We shoot something, track it down(they normally do a little run after being shot – especially the warthogs – though little things) and then load it on the back of the bakkie and take it to the cheetah boma. We then drag it in and and wait about 2m away from the carcass. We need to be there so that the cheetahs have to come and get the carcass from us – a little bit of a challenge for them.

They use the same strategy each time. First Bukeka comes in. She is so inquisitive! She comes to check what we have and hisses and slaps her feet on the ground to try chase us away. She then goes back to her sisters. Chirping to them to communicate (cheetahs make a bird like chirping noise). Then all three come in together – power in numbers! They come in fast, hissing and slapping, they try to circle us. Bukeka grabs the carcass and pulls it away and then Thulile helps her carry it away. Askari stays behind and watches us. She is always quite, low in the grass and very aggressive. She creeps in close, about a meter away from our feet and gives 2 quick slaps on the ground at a time. She does a circle around herself and then faces us with another 2 slaps on the ground. She goes on like this a few times allowing her sisters to drag the carcass away. When she is satisfied that they are far enough, she leaves us but always keeps an eye on us.

Always exciting and such an adrenaline rush!! :)

 Wimpie and I removing old carcasses from the boma

One of our cheetahs on the reserve – Puka – was injured badly while hunting. She ran into a low lying branch at quite a speed and ripped her stomach open. I called the vet out. He darted her and gave her about 80 – 100 stitches!!! He did three layers of stitching, one on the lining of the abdomen, one through the muscles and another on the skin. I have been tracking her 3 times a day and giving her anti – biotics twice a day. We cut a piece of meat out of the leg of an impala that we shot to disguise the pills. So far its working! She is looking good and happy and she even hunted this morning!! Animals are strong! When I gave her, her pills last night she came up to me and rubbed me like a domestic cat would do! She has never done this before! It was almost as if to say  “thank you!” :) This is why I love what I do!!!!! :)

Puka's operation

Still sleepy

Waking up!

Anti Poaching

Two nights ago I was hosting at the lodge, after everyone had finished dinner at 9:30pm, I was busy locking up the office and I heard a gunshot! I went to Daniel one of our waiters and the first thing he said was “did you hear the gun shot??” So then I realized it was not just my imagination! I quickly dropped Daniel off at the staff quarters and went to our house to tell Wimpie. We grabbed the shot gun and spot light and made our way out to where I heard the shot. On our way we phoned ProTrack Anti-poaching head office to let them know. They said that they would leave Bela Bela straight away and meet us and help us do fence checks. We drove around the whole perimeter of the reserve but didn’t find any cuts in the fence or unfamiliar tracks. Eventually at 2am we called our search off, we were quite sure at this stage that no one had come onto the reserve. Quite a scary situation though… so real!

What was cool though was that during our drive around the reserve fence line we saw an Aardvark (my first time, awesome!), 3 Hippos including a baby, a baby impala and its mom, the giraffes and a small spotted genet amongst all the other usual antelope. It’s like a different world at night, everything seems so alive! Beautiful! :)

The next day we found all our Rhinos, none had been injured thank God! We are still not sure what the gunshot was all about, our neighbours are all fine too… strange!!!

2 of our 6 rhinos

Tonight our 3 new cheetahs are arriving! :) They will get here at about 7:30 tonight all the way from the Eastern Cape. We don’t know too much about these girls. They are sisters, about 14 months old so they are almost fully grown but still have the fluffy grey fur on their necks. We think they have been in a boma for a couple of months and have not had too much human contact. If this is the case we will try keep it that way and not have too much physical contact with them. This will be better for them in the long run and it will make the re-wilding more successful. So watch this space or Facebook for photos to come! :)

Otherwise all is well. Wimpie is leaving on the 19^th of Dec so time is precious – I need to learn as much as possible while he is still here. We are employing another ranger temporarily to fill the gap for Dec and then look for a permanent reserve manager/Head ranger to take Wimpies place. So hopefully after the interviews on Friday we will have found someone for the mean time.

Our owner is coming from the 21^st Dec for Christmas… should be interesting to meet him and see what he is all about! :)

Shooting skills

"Hunters" - our staff house

I started work again on Monday the 15^th, overcast weather greeted me. It was good to get back! Friendly greetings all round and then back to work. It took me a while to get into the swing of things again. You have to change your whole way of living here. It seemed rather tough after being at home for 10 days!  

We went shooting the other day. Firstly clay pigeon shooting with the 12 gauge Shotgun. I really liked this gun, it’s got a kick but not as bad as the 375 Rifle. The 6 of us took turns, myself, Wimpie (Head of Reserve and Ranger), Solly (Horse guy and Ranger), Mariette(Reception and Accounts), Kagiso (Reserve worker) and Kgomotso (Housekeeping and my gym buddy). I managed to shoot 3 out of 6 clays in the air and 3 out of 3 on the ground. Not bad… well so I thought! :)

We then jumped onto the bakkie and drove down to natural dam to shoot the 375 Rifle and the Smith & Wesson ladysmith revolver at still targets. The Rifle kicked like crazy as expected! The revolver was nice for a change, also quite a kick for a hand gun! While we were there, a mommy warthog ran past with 4 babies!! I must say that this is possibly the cutest thing that I have ever seen in my life!!! They really are tiny – like the size of bunnies – when they are new born!

Last night I got some sad news… Wimpie our head ranger found another job!! So he resigned and is starting his new job on the 1^st Jan 2011. I am really upset about this and feel a bit scared- especially because we are supposed to be getting in 3 new cheetahs to be rehabilitated - but I know that everything happens for a reason!

Today was quite a hectic day. Started off with checking the rain gauges around the reserve and getting stuck on a clay road… I had 6 giraffes starring at me wondering what on Earth I was doing. Wimpie came to my rescue (what am I going to do without him??) and pulled me out with the Landy. I then went off to track the cheetahs. I found them under a tiny tree relaxing in the shade and spent half an hour sitting with them. I find their deep purr very soothing! On my way back to the lodge a huge dung beetle flew into the car window, smack into my face! Eina! (Only in the bush!!)

From now until the 7^th of January we are going to be seriously busy! Mom, Dad and Grae are coming to visit in Dec for 3 nights which will be great!  Cant wait!

New Beginnings

Monate Game Lodge - My new job and home!

The night before last I was sitting outside and saw a torch scan across the reserve for 2sec and then off again. I woke Wimpie up and we went to look because it was in the direction of where the rhinos were that afternoon. We took the hand gun and shot gun with us and drove along the fences. Quite an adrenaline rush!! We didn’t see anything suspicious and we found the rhinos so we headed home. We are on high alert for rhino poaching again... there have been another 3 rhinos poached in the last 2 weeks! Lots of helicopters flying around!! We have an anti poaching team (2 men) that live out on the reserve and track the rhinos everyday so that is comforting.

Yesterday the cheetahs were in the main lodge area, drinking water from the swimming pool and lounging about on the green grass yawning and stretching and enjoying the sun. Only 1 problem... we had guests! Wimpie and I managed to get them out of the gate and towards the next watering hole... this took forever!! At 4:30 they were back just before my next game drive... lovely for the new guests (8 men) We watched them for a while and then headed out for our drive, it was threatening to rain. The men insisted on carrying on with the drive! ( I packed rain ponchos ) We headed out to hippo dam and it started drizzling - the men wanted to carry on. We saw the hippos and the crocs and then the thunder and lighting started. Wimpie radioed me to make my way back asap. The heavens opened!!! The poncho I packed for myself I used to cover my books and camera. By the time we got back I was soaked from head to toe - im amazed I even found my way back with the rain in my eyes - the viewer has no windscreen! The 8 men behind me were all snug and dry under their ponchos - but still bitching and moaning about being wet - but they insisted we carry on all macho in the beginning. What a group! Got some chauvinistic comments on the drive as well grrrrr!!! I kept my cool though.

Back at the lodge with grumpy men offloaded we had no electricity AND the cheetahs were back in the lodge. Shoo what a day! I offloaded my viewer and then headed out to help Wimpie with the cheetahs again. We got the under control but not for long. They spotted Nyala eating the grass near the top office and they were off! Wimpie and I behind them... what a sight it must have been! Once again we manage to herd them up - Nyala's just, just escaped!

The cheetahs are still hanging around the lodge but outside the fence so hopefully they stay put!! I have a drive this afternoon with 14 people - hopefully it doesn’t rain again! I am also hosting tonight so will finish up late.

That is my news for the time being!!