Monday 16 January 2017

Rain, bugs and cheetah

We had some really good rain over the weekend which has filled almost all the dams.  The Omaruru river has been flowing relieving the severe drought in the town of Omaruru.  The dam at the lodge is almost full and there is a lot of water in the dam at Tasha's house.

For the first time bull frogs have appeared at Tasha's dam which was very exciting.  These frogs have real teeth and can cause nasty bites as can be seen in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1nIpf0t_9k&t=1s

With the rain comes all the bugs, flying ants and flying termites, so we have to close up the house or be overrun!!

Last week on Thursday three new cheetahs arrived from CCF (Cheeta Conservation Fund).  We released them into a boma to get used to their environment.  These cheetahs are 3 males that are about 4 years old and are supposed to be used to people and vehicles, but it turns out they are not.  These cheetahs are so used to being fed pieces of meat that they are not feeding properly on an impala carcass that was provided for them.  Looks like they will be a challenge to habituate them so they can be viewed when released into the reserve.

Last night on the way home from checking up on the cheetah we came across a number of bull frogs hopping down the road so we decided to collect them and release them at our dam before the Maribu Storks eat them all.  When we released them we counted 16 frogs which more than doubled the population on the dam by the house.

A Solifuge

A Yellow-billed Kite

A Cheetah waiting to be released

A full Lake Giraffe

The lodge dam is almost full

The river flowing into the dam by the house

The house dam filling up

The next morning

The bull frogs appear

A large male bull frog

Fighting for mating rights

A terrapin

Thursday 5 January 2017

Fish, frogs and snakes

Unfortunately the Maribou Storks ate all the bull frogs so we never got to see them closeup.  These storks are resident here because of all the available food which has now resulted in all the frogs being eaten.  Fortunately some frogs did manage to lat eggs and some tadpoles have hatched.

We have had a little more rain so the animals are dispersing and we see less of them although we do see some interesting smaller critters.  We found a Tailless Whip Scorpion in the house which is harmless but rather intimidating.  Some of the guides went fishing in the local small reservoir and caught a 10.5kg catfish!

We fed the wild dogs a couple of times which is quite thrilling riding on the back of the bakkie (ute) and having the dogs run alongside at 60 kph. They (25 dogs) devour a full grown impala in 15 minutes.

We have been mapping a lot more roads so the map is really improving all the time.  On our drives we came across a dead puffadder, rhinos and tortoises.

Today an egg-eater snake was brought to us so we photographed it and fed it an egg which it duly ate without us even seeing it!  When the egg is swallowed it is broken open by bony protrusions called gular teeth in the back of the throat and then the eggs shell is spat out.

Soon after we went out into the bush to see an African Rock Python which has recently shed its skin and was lying in the shade of a shepherd's tree.  We photographed it and then headed back to the lodge too look at all the pictures.

Tailless Whip Scorpion

Black Rhino

Leopard Toroise

Sparring elephant bulls

Rhombic Egg-eater snake

10.5 kg Catfish

African Wild Dogs running alongside the vehicle

Dead puffadder

African Rock Python