Den 08. december 2015
The forces of Mother Nature are one to be reckoned with!
Sometimes things change in a blink of an eye with temperatures raising up to almost 50 degrees celcius (!!) and the last thing you expect after a long drought, massive hail storm! With hail with an unbelievable size of tennis balls! This uncommon event has caused damage to much infrastructure, cars and of course has resulted in some animals deaths..but also resulted in some easy meals for the lions, as the lions experienced close to our camp! They got kudu meal out of it! Lots of leaves have been stripped clean from the trees, and now the bush almost seems like it's in winter time again! Luckily after this hail storm some good rains have fallen which will make the bush flourish again and give the animals a bit of a break from the long drought. And the flourishing trees after the rain also been a bonus for our student from the Western Kentucky University, Melissa, who with the help of Professor Kaprowski will be mapping the vegetation of Balule to look at affects of distribution of rhinos and assessing elephant damage to trees.
The lions seem to have made their new home close to our camp as they have been around almost every day. As well as our usual elephant visitors! Luckily with the river flowing heavily again they still left our water tower standing! And of course our more destructive friend has returned to our kitchen for another free meal...that honey badger sure has some skills to open the big freezer and enjoy all the free food!!
This month we also have some great funders at camp at the moment, Vivian Burns from Pennies for Ellies and Ralph and Perdita from Retten das nashorn from Germany that have supplied the camp among other things with lots and lots of doggy food! As well as many new dog toys which is of course the most important thing according to Shaya and Lilly! (although Lilly might prefer the food more...). It is always great to have to have our funders and good friends back into camp! Welcome back to Africa and we hope you enjoy your stay with us again! :)
Not only people from overseas are joining us to enjoy the beautiful bush, but also the Bush Baby program is on the reserve! 60 children of the local schools were invited over to our reserve to experience firsthand, all the wonders of the bush! They were given lectures about wildlife and the importance of fighting against poaching, but of course also plenty of room to explore the bush during game drives and playing fun games! It is important for the children to experience the bush and its wildlife to get a better understanding of what they have learned about and why we should protect it. They have been very lucky to have seen some endangered species like the white rhino and the ground hornbill! Thanks to everyone involved for making the first year of the Bushbabies project such a success!
As we enjoy tonights beautiful sunset in camp whilst cooking, we do look up to the sky from time to time, worried that Mother Nature will bombard us again with massive balls of ice! But so far so good, she is giving us the most beautiful sunset imaginable!
De forsvundne "drenge" er tilbage
Det er vildt - og vi har travlt
Babyer, babyer, babyer - overalt!
Vi har mistet en af vore Black Mamba ambassadører Siphiwe Sithole
Varme og dejlige dage og endelig en smule regn
Craig Spencer og Black Mamba er inviteret til CITES Cop17 for at tale
10 nye Black Mambas er nu færdiguddannet
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