This is not a sight you see every day but they are quite common in Kasungu. Note the way that they are facing in opposite directions looking out for trouble.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
BACK ON LINE
Hello to you all.
As you can see I am back on line. I have left updating my blog until now due to the problems you sometimes get in Malawi as well as the cost of updating anything on the internet. Some news in brief:
We eventually got fuel back in the country after around 6 weeks with no diesel.
A German (Bernt) who was looking after the lodge was killed just before Christmas by an elephant. To my knowledge the local police never came into the reserve to question the locals who witnessed it and no real enquiry was set up. Life seems to be so cheap out here.
The elephants are angry at the moment and do attack people due to their interactions with poachers and scouts. Both groups are inclined to use their guns when in the vicinity of the poor old elephants. One even charged the director the other day.
The project has been running along fine but the rain makes it difficult to travel and the grass being so long makes it difficult to see a lot of wildlife so in February I flew down to South Africa to spend several weeks in Valencia, the Kruger and Hluhluwe national parks. As usual I was not disappointed and managed to take many excellent photos of leopard, lion, cheetah, elephant, rhino and crocs as well as a good picture of a hamercop tossing a fish in the air just before eating it. I actually managed to see 5 different leopards which doubled my sightings for leopard in Africa.
The camera traps have been working well and I have many pictures of animals including genet, civet, bush babies, water and selous mongooses, hyena, leopard, elephant etc.
I have also got evidence of cheetah in the reserve. The pictures I have are of spoor and scat which experts from SA have confirmed as being cheetah, so this is good news for my project as well as Malawi because this is the only hard evidence of cheetah in many years.
As you can see I am back on line. I have left updating my blog until now due to the problems you sometimes get in Malawi as well as the cost of updating anything on the internet. Some news in brief:
We eventually got fuel back in the country after around 6 weeks with no diesel.
A German (Bernt) who was looking after the lodge was killed just before Christmas by an elephant. To my knowledge the local police never came into the reserve to question the locals who witnessed it and no real enquiry was set up. Life seems to be so cheap out here.
The elephants are angry at the moment and do attack people due to their interactions with poachers and scouts. Both groups are inclined to use their guns when in the vicinity of the poor old elephants. One even charged the director the other day.
The project has been running along fine but the rain makes it difficult to travel and the grass being so long makes it difficult to see a lot of wildlife so in February I flew down to South Africa to spend several weeks in Valencia, the Kruger and Hluhluwe national parks. As usual I was not disappointed and managed to take many excellent photos of leopard, lion, cheetah, elephant, rhino and crocs as well as a good picture of a hamercop tossing a fish in the air just before eating it. I actually managed to see 5 different leopards which doubled my sightings for leopard in Africa.
The camera traps have been working well and I have many pictures of animals including genet, civet, bush babies, water and selous mongooses, hyena, leopard, elephant etc.
I have also got evidence of cheetah in the reserve. The pictures I have are of spoor and scat which experts from SA have confirmed as being cheetah, so this is good news for my project as well as Malawi because this is the only hard evidence of cheetah in many years.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Nosey?
Not a great deal of news lately. We have had no fuel for 17 days now and we don’t know when the country will get any. What a way to run a country?
The good news is that one of the scouts saw a wild dog the other day chasing hartebeest. Because I didn’t have any fuel I could not check this out. The other news is that 2 people independently heard lion about 1 km from the main camp while they were out collecting mopany worms. I checked this out on foot but didn’t see any spore. We did come across a herd of elephant which could have been a bit dodgy but we managed to walk around these. People have seen herds of up to 32 elephants lately which is very promising for the park. The most I have seen is 21 which I saw at the lodge a few days ago.
All I have on camera lately is bush buck although the other day I did manage to get the above photo. It is really interesting but I think the elephants play games with the cameras. I have several pictures where the elephant seem to be standing very close to a camera and actually looking into it although the elephants eye is not captured on film its stance suggests this. From what I can tell they have not tried to damage any or remove them the tree but seem to respect them.
The good news is that one of the scouts saw a wild dog the other day chasing hartebeest. Because I didn’t have any fuel I could not check this out. The other news is that 2 people independently heard lion about 1 km from the main camp while they were out collecting mopany worms. I checked this out on foot but didn’t see any spore. We did come across a herd of elephant which could have been a bit dodgy but we managed to walk around these. People have seen herds of up to 32 elephants lately which is very promising for the park. The most I have seen is 21 which I saw at the lodge a few days ago.
All I have on camera lately is bush buck although the other day I did manage to get the above photo. It is really interesting but I think the elephants play games with the cameras. I have several pictures where the elephant seem to be standing very close to a camera and actually looking into it although the elephants eye is not captured on film its stance suggests this. From what I can tell they have not tried to damage any or remove them the tree but seem to respect them.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Leopard at her kill
Leopard number 2. The monkey people, while looking for their vervets, came across a common duiker that a leopard had recently killed. They informed me so we put up a couple of cameras to see what was around. The leopard came back for her kill and now I have an excellent photo. By comparing the 2 photos of the 2 leopard I have, we can now conclude that there are at least 2 leopard in the park.
I managed to get some fuel yesterday. The whole of the country has been without fuel for over a week now so I can at last move around for a while.
The rains have started now but they are not heavy yet so I can still get around.
There is no other news at the moment but will keep you informed if I get any more developments.
I managed to get some fuel yesterday. The whole of the country has been without fuel for over a week now so I can at last move around for a while.
The rains have started now but they are not heavy yet so I can still get around.
There is no other news at the moment but will keep you informed if I get any more developments.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Black mamba, 'what a beauty'
There we were driving along minding our own business when ____ snake, mamba!!!!!
I came to a grinding halt about 15 ft from the snake. He popped his head up showing a small hood, dropped it again and disappeared off in the opposite direction. It appeared to be a very large black mamba, it seemed at least 8 to 10 feet long. He shot through the short grass and up a nearby tree which he proceeded to climb. Up he went and then across and then down so that his body was higher than his head. He looked very plump for a mamba so I imagine he has recently eaten.
This was a chance too good to miss, I have seen several mambas out here but they usually disappear quickly. I grabbed my cameras and proceeded cautiously to within about 15m of the tree and proceeded to take some shots. He even ‘smiled’ at me, as they do? If you know black mamba you know what I mean.
Nothing much else to report other than my camera that the hyena ate has packed up because some bugs got into it and have blocked the sd card slot. (5)
I came to a grinding halt about 15 ft from the snake. He popped his head up showing a small hood, dropped it again and disappeared off in the opposite direction. It appeared to be a very large black mamba, it seemed at least 8 to 10 feet long. He shot through the short grass and up a nearby tree which he proceeded to climb. Up he went and then across and then down so that his body was higher than his head. He looked very plump for a mamba so I imagine he has recently eaten.
This was a chance too good to miss, I have seen several mambas out here but they usually disappear quickly. I grabbed my cameras and proceeded cautiously to within about 15m of the tree and proceeded to take some shots. He even ‘smiled’ at me, as they do? If you know black mamba you know what I mean.
Nothing much else to report other than my camera that the hyena ate has packed up because some bugs got into it and have blocked the sd card slot. (5)
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