Wildlife Encounters

Surviving Safari Camps
Wildlife Encounters operates the Galaxy Collection of safari camps in the Greater Kruger Park- Timbavati and Klaserie Game Reserves. Almost all of the four safari camps were severely damaged in the floods following Cyclone Dando in January 2012. Safari camps tend to situated along the banks of the dry water courses where the bigger evergreen...

Birthday in the bush
nDzuti Safari Camp is still closed after the floods in January when during the space of 18 hours Cyclone Dando rained down some some 500 mm of steady down pour. The rivers burst their banks and dam walls broke causing enormous damage to camps situated along the water courses. After the flood, we were fortunate...

Cyclone Dando- Rivers in Retrospect
The little town of Hoedspruit and the surrounding private nature reserves of Timbavati, Klaserie, and Balule that make up part of the Greater Kruger Park are situated in a fairly arid area of South Africa (It’s just this characteristic that bestows us with our converted sweet grasses.) Rain is revered; we pray for it, dance for...

Things go croak and jump in the night.
During this season of plenty, our nights in the bush are filled with a cacophony of sounds that are often unrecognisable. Frogs are responsible for many of these and even for the most determined nocturnal explorer, the frogs in question can be very difficult to find. They can be tiny, well camouflaged and concealed in...

Arachnid Alchemy- Golden Orb Spiders
Arachnid Alchemy This summer has certainly been a time of plenty, along with the abundant flocks of White Storks we are witnessing this year, there are also a fair number of Golden Orb Spiders. Their vast golden webs span almost every available gap between trees and shrubs. Reaching great vertical heights and stretching across distances of...

An African Iron-age Kingdom leaving a legacy and some mystery.
      The World Heritage Site of Mapungubwe while being of enormously significant historical value has had a rocky past and seems destined to face future difficulties. The discovery of the site in 1933 confirmed the existence of a population of commercially active indigenous people that thrived and traded in this area of Southern Africa in the...

The Collective Ecological Conscience of the Kruger to Canyon Biosphere
The different disciplines of Agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife management are without doubt independent yet they are inextricably connected. Each discipline affects the others consequently a holistic approach to any field of environmental management is increasingly accepted as the way forward. In the 1920’s a young American forester from Yale was assigned to Arizona Territories in...

Oxpeckers-busy birds and groomed game
In September we were thrilled to sight 3 Yellow-billed Ox-peckers feeding on a buffalo cow within a herd. These rare birds differ from the Red-billed Oxpeckers by the swollen yellow base to the bill and a pale rump as well as the lack of the yellow eye ring that the Red-billed Oxpeckers have. Yellow-billed tend to...

Children Environmentalists
 Children Environmentalists. The Klaserie Game Reserve should be applauded for its proactive approach to conservation education. This Private Game Reserve was formed back in 1969 when adjacent land owners then farming cattle and game, removed their fences to allow free game movement over a much larger area, and agreed on and wrote a constitution for a...

Winning the Rhino War only to lose again?
Poaching Rhino now (2010) and then (1995) Will this scourge of Rhino poaching never cease? As I considered writing about this topic so close to my heart I feel picture stays the same somewhat. The numbers grow , arrests are made,  there was simply nothing to say that hasn’t yet been said. But with the...

Global Warming Action
24 Oct 2010 -Make a Noise! The 24 Oct 2010 is an International Day of Action on Global Climate Change and when we, the people are implored to “make a bigger noise”!  In so doing, we will draw attention to global climate change and insist on Real Solutions that will help us attain the goal of...

Summer Visitors- migratory birds to South Africa
Summer visitors This is that time of the year when we are often thrilled by our first sighting of a returning migratory bird species. Already the Wahlberg Eagles are back in early August. As an Intra African migrant they don’t have to travel far and are not away for long. But many species are not so...

Beetle Mania- Dung Beetles in Africa
 Beetle Mania - Dung beetles in Africa Mention Dung Beetles and we all think of a pair of large black beetles struggling to manoeuvre a hefty ball of dung along a difficult trail. Nonetheless there are over 4000 different species of dung beetles each having a specific technique of using dung to feed and breed. If...

Conservation in the desert
 Commendable Conservation Accomplishment in Arabic Desert When one thinks of Dubai, it is of towering sky scrapers that defy gravity, fabulously tempting shopping malls and man-made snow in the desert.  However recently there is a new emerging and gratifying facet to this particular emirate, one of seven “regions” that make up the UAE. With the rapid...