Bush Life

Working in the bush has got to be one of the most exciting and interesting things you can do!! Admittedly I'm comparing it to working in a call centre and as an event steward, but even so!! 

The Green Monster. What can I say....we've been through a lot over the past five months, from breakdowns to nearly driving her off a cliff, to awesome sightings, to more breakdowns, to almost driving her off a cliff, to stake-outs in the bush, to more breakdowns, to almost driving her off a cliff. She really is the ultimate in bush vehicles; I only hope she's still going strong when I return at some point in the future!! 

Every few weeks we would go on a couple of 10k walks around different parts of the reserve, On the way Tara would be teaching me about the bush (left), we'd check on camera traps (middle) and also get photo's of carnivore spoor we found (right). It's amazing how much you can read into just a few footprints in the sand!!

Leopard Spoor: you can identify it from the three lobes at the bottom of the pad, oval shaped toes and it being anywhere between 75-100cm in length.

You can also tell which foot a particular print is. The one on the left is a left foot, as shown from the fact the the toe furthest forward is second from the right. Similarly, the one of the right is  the a right foot, as shown from the fact the toe furthest forward is second from the left. If you hold your hands up to the screen, left hand to left foot and right hand to right foot your fingers should line up perfectly with the toes.

Left: Leopards normally walk pad on pad, so the hind feet stepping where the front feet where placed, in order to reduce noise as they walk through the bush. When they walk a bit faster the hind foot can be see in front of the front foot. Their front feet (bottom) are more rounded, with the hind feet being more oval shaped (top). Right:Whenever we could we would also take 4 measurements from Leopard spoor we found, measuring the length of the track (A), the width of the track (B), the length of the pad (C) and the width of the pad (D).

We also took samples of any Leopard scat we found. Traditionally Leopard scat is "log" shaped (Left), and more than 2cm in diameter. Occasionally we would find scat that was "deposited" very soon after the animal made a kill (Right). 

Top Left: Brown Hyena are the other large carnivores found on the reserve. Despite many weeks of trying, we weren't able to see them because they're very shy, nocturnal creatures, but we found signs of them all over the reserve. Bottom Left: Their spoor is similar in size to a Leopards, but they don't have three lobes at the bottom of the pad and their toes are moon/bean shaped. Top Right: They leave pastings on long stalks of grass to mark their territory. Bottom Right: Their scat is usually small white balls, white due to high amount of calcium they eat because their jaws are strong enough to crush bone. 

Top Left: African Civet, another elusive nocturnal predator we tried and failed to get a visual of. Bottom Left: Their spoor is roughly 5cm in length, with tracks from their front feet being more rounded than those from their hind feet. Top Right: They also leave pastings to mark their territory, and we found plenty of those when a girl from France who is researching Civet came to visit. Bottom Right: Civet utilize dung middens, called civetries, which are characterised by berries and the shells of millipedes. 

This stunning little carnivore is a Genet; they have absolutely tiny footprints, about 2.5cm in length.

Very rare, but we did find four (for definite) carnivore spoor in one spot. 1. Leopard. 2. Brown Hyena. 3. Civet. 4. Genet. Apparently there was also a Water Mongoose spoor around the area 5. but for the life of me I can't see it. 

 

One of my favourite aspects of life out here was cooking over a fire. I've eaten well enough that now I've popped the buttons on two of the three pairs of trousers I brought out with me!! We had a few staple dishes, like the awesome curry (Left), while on my birthday I treated myself to my old favourite Pasta and Pesto!!

Hands down the best Toad-in-the-hole I've ever had!!

My first ever Braai!! Say the word Barbecue to a South African at your own risk!! Once the guys had stopped laughing at me for making a fire under the handle they actually seemed to like the food, which was a huge compliment coming from an Afrikaner and someone who's been out here for 8+ years!!