Gerhard’s wildlife update:
Good day all.
The winter cold is setting in here in the African bush with the morning and evening drives becoming cold to VERY cold. Nonetheless the wildlife is still amazing even though the cold air bites quite a bit.
06:00 am and it is time for a game drive taking on the cold. Again I had a whole host of guests from Germany, Wales and England. The morning was chilly with a small south easterly breeze blowing through the valley. The previous night there was a bit of rain which meant that there was a lot of mist about and visibility was restricted to about 20m. The guests had seen all of the elephants, buffalo and rhino previously so the aim of the morning was to find the Ngonyamas (Xhosa word for lions).

We drove for around 2 hours searching for the Lions. Just as we were about to lose hope, the radio went-off. It was music to our ears! The lions had been found on the Serengeti plains. Off! We rushed to the sighting. The lions were wandering across the plains that morning meaning only one thing –a hunt. The lions had not eaten anything the previous night. We trailed behind them at a safe distance –about 50 metres – for about twenty minutes. Then suddenly a big warthog boar stormed out of a hole. In split seconds, the chase was on. Nala (female) was in hot pursuit of the warthog. It all happened for a few minutes before the chase ended up in a thicket. We could not drive in. I took a drive around the thicket, but could not locate Nala. Eventually we caught up with her, but to all our disappointment, the chase had been unsuccessful. Still in our Land Rover, we were happy to have seen the lions after driving around for a long time in the cold weather. We stopped for a coffee break and I could feel that the spirits of the guests were up again. It just shows that even a cold African morning can turn into an adventure and drama in the blink off an eye.

In the bush winter, most of our snake species go into hibernation. Most if not all snakes are poikilothermic which means they have no internal organ to regulate their own body temperature. So snakes have to take on the temperature of their environment. They hide away during their winter hibernation but on very warm winter days you might just find a snakes basking in the sun and that was exactly what happened to us on one afternoon’s drive.
We were out on the usual afternoon drive when I spotted the unusual looking “log” in the road ahead off us. I slowed the vehicle down and discovered that it was a huge Puff-adder basking in the warm winter sun. My two guests from Germany were astonished by the snake’s beautiful coloration and so I explained to them the purpose of camouflage. Puff- adders lie motionless between fallen leaves etc. and wait for their prey to come to them. They are very bulky snakes and cannot move very quickly thus waiting for their prey to come to them is a much easier way to a meal. Their prey menu includes small rodents, reptiles and birds. Puff-adders are known to have the fastest strike of all snakes in Southern Africa and with their hinged front fangs, the bite is extremely painful. The venom of Puff-adders is cytotoxic - it breaks down the cell-tissue of the victim and leads to localized bleeding around the bite-site. Since Puff-adders are not very mobile they are responsible for most numerous, serious snake-bites in Southern Africa. People usually stumble upon them and the snake just defends itself with a terrible biting. Luckily, I knew the rep that a Puff-adder has and we looked at the snake from a safe position -the Land Rover.

I have a little project running at the lodge. I’m trying to establish which small mammals come in and around the lodge while we are not even aware of their presence. For that you will have to wait for the next newsletter. I will tell you just how to discover small mammals, birds and reptiles around your house.

Until then remember:
REAL MEN DON’T STAND ON ANTS.
Gerhard Erasmus
Idwala Ranger