The Umbabat Private Nature Reserve (UPNR) has received a generous sponsorship from Lydenburg Toyota.
Two 2025 Toyota Hilux DC 2.4GD-6 Raider AT vehicles have been donated to the UPNR’s counter-poaching unit. This sponsorship is in addition to a previous sponsorship from Lydenburg Toyota of a manual transmission 2015 Toyota Hilux DC 2.4GD-6 Raider, which is still in use within the counter-poaching fleet.
Toyota Lydenburg also fitted the newly sponsored vehicles with Iron Man Bullbars, Iron Man Front Suspensions, Iron Man Belly Plates, Onca CV Protectors, Iron Man Side Steps, Toyota Trali cattle rails, rubberising, rubber mats, seat covers, Hella spotlights, BF Goodrich K03 tyres and all signage. The UPNR would like to thank Lydenburg Toyota for such a generous sponsorship - it is certainly much appreciated and will go a long way towards the dedicated efforts of the counter-poaching team within the UPNR.
On the wildlife front, UPNR officials are searching for a specific pack of six African Wild Dogs that they are hoping to collar for tracking and monitoring purposes.
Collaring Wild Dogs has proven to be an incredible tool within conservation and contributes greatly towards the conservation of protected and endangered species. It would be ideal to collar two adults from the pack, so that if the pack splits up, or one collar becomes unreliable or stops working, the pack can still be monitored efficiently. The pack is comprised of two adult males, two adult females and two sub-adults. These Wild Dogs have very few white markings on their coats. Below are images of two of them.
Should you see this pack, or any Wild Dogs, please report their location on the radio so that we can verify which pack it may be. Thank you!
In other wildlife news, the male white lion, known as “Xakubasa”, was seen in the far north-eastern corner of the UPNR on the 11th of July. This is the first confirmed sighting of him in a few months! The young female white lion cub and her family have not been seen since the previous sighting of them on the 1st of March. They have likely left the UPNR, perhaps moving into the Kruger National Park instead
Words by Tess Woollgar. Images courtesy of Stacy Pretorius.