June sightings, wildlife monitoring and interesting research projects.`
Sightings of the month
Thank you to all who recorded their sightings in the book this month! We had 150 recorded sightings, with an average of 5 per day. The number of sightings of some species is below:
Highlights
The overall number of sightings was more than in the previous few months, and the accuracy of the reporting was really impressive. Thank you! Our highlights were:
- Seven lion sightings, totalling 35 lions; twelve leopard sightings, totalling 16 leopards.
- Southern Ground Hornbill sightings have surprisingly remained steady, which is somewhat unexpected due to the season.
- African Wildcat, Civet, Genet, Honey Badger, Black-backed Jackal and Side-striped Jackal sightings formed our mammalian highlights for the month.
- A large herd of buffalo has been steadily moving around Buffelsbed and Op Goedehoop.
- A Narina Trogon at Farmhouse Crossing is our birding highlight of the month!
- General species recorded: Lion, Leopard, Wild Dog, Elephant, Buffalo, Hippo, Genet, Civet, African Wildcat, Vervet Monkey, Chacma Baboon, Nyala, Kudu, Bushbuck, Impala, Steenbok, Klipspringer, Spotted Hyena, Tree Squirrel, Dwarf Mongoose, Banded Mongoose, Zebra, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Honey Badger, Slender Mongoose, Side-striped Jackal, Black-backed Jackal, Springhare, Scrub Hare.
- Reptilian species: Flap-necked Chameleon, Leopard Tortoise, Crocodile, Serrated Hinged Terrapin, Marsh Terrapin, Rainbow Skink, Rock Monitor Lizard, Rock Python, Spotted Bush Snake, Snouted Cobra.
- Bird species recorded: Yellow-billed Stork, Verreaux’s Eagle-owl, Kori Bustard, African Fish Eagle, African Barred Owlet, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Tawny Eagle, African Hawk-eagle, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Grey Go-away Bird, White-crested Helmet-shrike, Helmeted Guineafowl, Southern Ground Hornbill, Retz’s Helmet-shrike, Long-billed Crombec, African Cuckoo-Hawk, Gabar Goshawk, Narina Trogon, Grey Heron, Green-backed Heron, Black Crake.
Sightings in Camp - Highlights
Once again we had a multitude of animals moving through camp, but this month the predators were particularly prominent. In particular, there have been many leopards moving through camp.
We wanted to share some stills captured from video cameras mounted at bungalow 149, which had frequent visits from leopards during the day and night. Thank you, Brian, for sharing!
Mapping of Sightings
As usual, we have been monitoring and mapping sightings reported across the reserve. This process involves listening in on reported sightings on the radio and combining that with sightings recorded in the book at reception in order to map sightings across the reserve using EarthRanger. We try to do this as accurately as possible, and we want to thank everyone for their updates and recorded sightings.
This helps us gain a greater understanding of the dynamics of the animal populations and movements across the reserve, and even detect seasonal changes in some cases.
This month, herds of buffalo as well as leopards have been highlight sightings to monitor, as they have been much more frequent. On the contrary, lion sightings have dropped. To show some of the more popular areas with buffaloes and leopards, we have drawn up new “hotspot” maps for both leopards and buffalo herds below.
Words by Tess Woollgar, images courtesy of Ingrid Passier & Tess Woollgar using Google Earth Pro