The Lions are still hanging around Paradise Camp and the surrounding area, thrilling the residents with their vocal serenade at dusk and dawn. We have logged 20 lion kills and only 2 leopard kills in this period and it appears that the York Pride still dominates the area have been responsible for 80% of the kills. Chosen prey for this season appears to be varied but giraffe make up the first prize, so it seems. Warthog also feature, perhaps as a snack! Waterbuck appear on the menu more frequently than expected and a few buffalo kills have also been recorded. It will be interesting to see if there is a shift in prey selection now that the antelope have started to drop their young. There are fantastic sightings of infant giraffe, warthogs, impala, wildebeest and some buffalo. Big Boy and Mazinio, the dominant pride males, have made an appearance for the first time in a while. Pride dynamics are interesting and small sub-groups have formed out of this pride. Monitoring continues. 

For the first time in a long time, and very exciting for the team, two leopards have staked claim to the area surrounding the camp. One big, yet young, male and a female who appears to be the size of a lioness at first glance. Volunteers in November had a rare treat when they found the female casually walking past the vehicle whilst monitoring wild-life in the evening.  She then subsequently made a bushbuck kill which the team logged. 

The tree monitoring and elephant damage surveys are becoming ever more sought after. The data showing consistency with other literature and we are finding that the impacts of fences and waterholes (as could be expected) influence the data to a large degree. The poor old Knob Thorn Acacia’s do not respond well to the ministrations of elephants and die after being pushed out of the ground or ring-barked. Other prominent species such as the Marula Tree seem to have adapted to this by producing adventitious buds under the bark and have a lingo-tuber that allows them to re-sprout, even if broken off at the base. Knob-Thorn Acacias must rely on re-seeding for the survival of the species and we are monitoring this. 

Soil Erosion projects continue and the team and volunteers have tackled some sizable erosion gullies, preventing further erosion. Another positive point to note is that over the last few months, we seem to have conquered the Prickly Pear invasion. This was our most violent alien invader on the reserve, and we have revisited several sites to monitor the effectiveness of our treatment methods. Volunteers may be pleased to hear that this unpleasant task is almost over! However, our recent vegetation surveys along the Olifants River have found Lantana cammara in low density in the riparian zone! This is a serious invader and we look forward to tackling it!

Paradise Camp marches on in the name of conservation. 

Our new Research Technician and project assistant has arrived! John Slabert from the Cape Town University of Technologyis a 3 year Environmental Conservation student and will be with us for one full year. John is responsible for a lot of the computer entry and summarizing of the data. It is very hot up here now and we are still behind in our rainfall! We have received little over 85mm to-date and are becoming concerned that we could be in for another dry year – making it three in a row! Be that as it may, the vegetation has responded well and the grasses may be able to complete their seasonal cycle (produce leaves, flower and setseed) with the rain that we have had. The animals appear to have picked up condition with the new growth on the trees and game-sightings are generally up from last year. The advantage of working in an open system like this is that the animals are not FORCED to stay in one area and attempt to find all of their protein, nutrients and water in a fenced environment with artificial water provision. This would place untold pressure on the vegetation (especially the grass) and would reduce carrying capacity in the long run if not managed intensively.

The Transfrontier Africa Team in South Africa wish you all the very best for 2009 and heart-felt gratitude to ourvolunteers over the past months!

Please click here for photos of the project