As part of our focus on long-term changes and potential research projects, the historical sightings from Ingwelala over the years are being converted into digital records.
This month, we digitised sightings from 2003. As an interesting way to look back at the history of sightings, here are some of the highlight comparisons from 2003 versus 2025 so far:
- In 2003, bird sightings made up 11.4% of the total recorded sightings. In 2025, bird sightings average 24% of the total recorded sightings - more than double what was recorded then! This shows an amazing increase of interest in birding!
- Over the course of 2003, there was a total of 1,105 sightings recorded for the year. Within the first six months of 2025, the overall recorded sightings total 1,006. That is an increase from 92 sightings per month in 2003 to 167 sightings per month in 2025! This is an indication of the overall increase, and higher consistency, of occupancy at Ingwelala.
- There were eight recorded Narina Trogon sightings in 2003. In comparison, only one Narina Trogon sighting has been recorded in the past few years.
- The most recorded species for 2003 were: Elephant (265), Leopard (138), Buffalo (123), Lion (117) and Giraffe (52). In 2025, the most recorded species thus far are: Leopard (153), Lion (112), Elephant (87), Buffalo (78) and Wild Dog (56), in half the amount of time!
- In total, there were nine recorded Wild Dog sightings in 2003. In comparison, within the first half of 2025 we have had 56 sightings. In numbers, the pack sizes have also increased from an average of three Wild Dogs per sighting to an average of nine or more Wild Dogs per sighting. In a monthly breakdown, this is an average of 0.75 sightings per month in 2003 versus 9.3 sightings per month in 2025!
Other than the above interesting comparisons, we found some lovely snippets and memories written into the book that we wanted to share with you:
Words by Tess Woollgar. Sightings courtesy of Members in 2003; Images courtesy of Tessa Woollgar