March Diary

The bush is looking wonderfully lush.  We can’t remember when last the grass cover was so dense.  We haven’t had that much rain, only 288 mm but the quality of the rain has made the difference.  It has mostly been soft, soaking and regular.  We lost Impi (our serval teenager) in all this wonderful grass for a whole day.  Shane took him for his regular morning walk when the phone rang, so he was left to his own devices for a very short period.  When the call ended we went to resume our walk but Impi was no where to be found.  It is one of his favourite games, lying flat in the grass while we pretend to stalk him except that with the very long, thick grass we were not pretending, we simply could not find him.  Many anxious hours followed but eventually by late afternoon and a hungry tummy he sat up, only a few metres from where we had left him and that relieved a great deal of stress for Shane and I. 

rni, the bushbuck is getting survival lectures at the moment.  We will be introducing him into the big wild world in a few weeks but we have every faith that his instincts will see him through.  He just has to learn to dodge the delinquent hyeanas that come and play every night and of course Pula, the very resident leopard that has a fondness for sitting on the couch in our lapa at night.

We have collared a beautiful female leopard, called Victoria because of a V in her ear and her regal stature.  The collar is a very sophisticates GPS collar that a researcher from Mashatu, Villiers Steyn, generously allowed us to use and the information we are getting is very interesting.  The whole Nitani team was involved in the capture, from the executive chef to wellness therapist and of course all the wizened field hands.  She was with a male in the middle of March so hopefully we should see some cubs by the end of May.  Our aardvark collaring program is due to start shortly and that will no doubt also prove to be fascinating.