WILDERNESS AFRICA TRUST DIRECTORS REPORT - JUNE 2013 HIPPO POOLS WILDERNESS CAMP Hippo Pools has been quiet due to the cold weather but we had a very busy exit weekend with all the Chalets full at Hippo Pools, the A-Frame and at Sunungukai; with a total of 50 guests arriving. The good news from Hippo Pools is the incredible amount of game that is coming to “graze” at the top dam. The water level is right down and a small scrubby plant emerges from the mud. This is what the animals come for. We call it “grazing” but since there is no grass involved it is actually technically “browsing” that they are doing. Surprisingly; the Waterbuck are also browsing and not grazing. One of the calves is in the habit of “grazing” on its’ knees, like a Warthog, so we call this character “WARTBUCK”. Totals so far spotted at the dam are Kudu – 12, Waterbuck – 13, Impala – 38, Duiker - 1, Grysbok - 1 and 3 Klipspringers. There is so much pressure on the grazing that we have dug a small well at the top end of the dam to irrigate this highly productive pasture, using a 1 Horsepower Podrollo pump running off a 300 metre electric cable. Also at the top dam; birdlife can be prolific, especially if a bird party comes through. One Sunday morning we photographed 17 different species. These can be seen on Facebook including a Bi-Weekly Bird Identification competition. The prize being two nights for two people at Hippo Pools. The Black Storks, which are nesting in Amms Mine, are now regularly at the top dam feeding on the incredible amount of fish in the diminishing ponds. Our Camp Manager Damien O’Donnell, has taken some excellent photographs of them. Apparently there are now two pairs coming down. We also got some excellent photos of a young female Leopard, using a camera trap borrowed from Umfurudzi Park coming close into the camp. Jackals and a Civet are also frequenting the camp area. Good news is that the Pels Fishing Owl was successful at raising their chick at the Big Baobab. It was last seen and photographed hanging around near the nest site. Anybody interested in this story will find regular updates on the Hippo Pools Wilderness camp Facebook page if they “Like” it. Or on my own Facebook profile “Ian Jarvis”. It will also be updated with photographs and stories. MAZOE RIVER GAME RESERVE Garura - this month progress was very slow on the causeway due to the tractor being broken down for the greater part of the month. However; it is now working and we can expect good progress due to the area being much shallower than the first 40 metres where we started this operation on the south bank. Good news is the successful breeding of the bush buck. Two more lambs have been spotted and of course there was one reported last month. We now have 12 bushbuck in the area and this is now double our initial reintroduction of 6 animals. Sad news was the death of our “white” female zebra. We noticed she was losing condition about six months ago and treated them all for worms. She seemed to recover well but recently we noticed her very thin again and before we could do anything she died. The symptoms point to typical plastic bag ingestion. However in a post mortem we could not find anything. Damien again took an excellent photograph of a Half Collared Kingfisher that frequents the dam one feeding off millions of fingerling there. See this on Facebook. Otters are also making full use of this dam, going for the larger fish. This has got so bad that we have given up the idea of doing tilapia commercially as we would have to choose between that or the Otters. We have opted to have the Otters instead, but we have had to put brush wood into the dams to stop them getting everything. We are currently digging the debris out of a natural granite pool on the eastern side of the area. This will be a storage pool for water being pumped by the ram pumps. Hopefully one day it will become an attractive swimming pool for the “thousands” of tourists that we expect! We are also constructing a small causeway across to the Island on the Garura side because there is a wealth of lush vegetation there being kept green by the surrounding water. We are, however, concerned about crocodiles and this will need monitoring or closing off if the crocodiles become too successful. NYAGANDE SECTION Good progress has been made by rehabilitating the gazebo which can be used for small workshops and conferencing. We are also re-thatching Rondavel 5 and another one, Rondavel 4 is having its attachments built onto it. This will consist of a kitchen, toilet and shower. Bringing the total of en suite Rondavels available to 4. The new solar lighting system is working very well and clients are enjoying it, and want to know where we purchased them from. It has taken about two months to get the animals to come down to the beach in front of the chalets for food (game cubes and mineral blocks). The Zebra and Eland cow were the first to come. Followed by the Giraffe, which I did not expect to expose themselves on the open beach. The wildebeest haven’t yet come down but they are circling around and hopefully will be brave enough to come soon. The new Impala will probably join them shortly. The first Zebra foal was born at Nyagande on the 27th June 2013. It seems to doing well. We have acquired 11 impala from Mukuvisi at about the same time as the Zebra was born. At the time of writing they are still in the boma, and we are expecting another 6 Eland to be captured at Mukuvisi and brought down to Nyagande in the next couple of days. With these Eland we wish to try experimental herding in the surrounding area with the eventual objective of convincing the local residents that they would be better off exchanging their cattle for Eland.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:15:27 +0000
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