MAKULU MAKETE BUSH DIARY

DECEMBER 2004

SEASONS

We received a welcome Christmas present of rain a couple of days before Christmas day. We recorded between 24 and 35 mm (just over one inch) on various parts of the reserve, adding to a light shower earlier in the month. The effect on the bush was immediate. What was left of the tired, well-chewed grass turned green within a day or so, and tiny forbs plants sprang up to give the red soil a thin cover of green. We are hoping that the New Year will be rung in to the sound of thunder and raindrops.

The impala lambing season is in full swing. Tiny, fragile babies, all ears and toothpick-thin legs, spring through the bush after their mothers, just hours after birth. A big herd of ewes and lambs mills around a single, harassed-looking ram, while bachelor groups of males keep their distance from this scene of domestic bliss. Peter counted one herd of 48 impalas, half of which were lambs in various stages of growth. The lambs are often left under bushes, in small nursery groups, so their mothers can wander off and graze freely. The babies stare apprehensively as vehicles pass by, unsure whether they should obey their mothers’ instructions and stay put until they return, or dash off deeper into the bush for cover.

GAME VIEWING

The waterhole at the lodge has become popular with jackals. A group of six was spotted there early one morning. A couple of days later Rox, our ecologist, watched three almost fully grown pups and one young adult drinking, their stomachs bloated from a recent meal. It’s a horrible thought, but the impala lambs must be a windfall for the jackal population. These are all black-backed jackals, and their yelping, thin howls can be heard signalling to one another through the bush, usually at dusk or early in the morning.

The gemsbok (oryx) must surely be one of the most spectacular of the antelopes, with its long sweeping horns and elegant black and white markings. Ten of these lovely creatures entertained us one evening at the lodge waterhole as we sat on the cocktail deck, sundowners in hand, watching the sun set behind Madia Pala Mountain.

There have been several sightings this month of bushpigs, much more porcine relatives of the warthog. Reddish in colour, with long hair, they are shy and nocturnal, but Jane saw an adult and two young ones on several occasions early in the morning. Late one night, Rox came across a huge bushpig which she initially mistook for a hippo. But Rox confesses she is short-sighted, and she had been celebrating Christmas at a local hostelry, so we will forgive her this one mistake!

On the reptile front, the hot weather has brought out the leopard tortoises, which are trundling through the bush in all directions, seeking out partners and mating laboriously. Rox has her eye on a nest of a leopard tortoise, which she discovered as the female tortoise was just filling in the hole after depositing her eggs. Our fax machine is constantly giving us the “paper jam” signal because two big, fat geckos have taken up residence in the paper tray of the machine where they seem to like the warmth.

One of Marthinus’s Jack Russell terriers had a lucky escape on Boxing Day at Lulu’s Camp, our camping ground on the banks of the Mogalakwena River. Yelps, barks and screams alerted us to Willie’s predicament and we all followed Marthinus to the rescue, to find the little dog in the river, tangling with a small crocodile. Willie managed to free herself, coming off second best, with a small wound to her throat. The croc skulked off to float a few meters from the river bank, waiting for its next victim.

BIRDING

The first of the gloriously-coloured Southern Carmine Bee-eaters arrived on 16 December, three days earlier than last year. A combination of brilliant red, lipstick pink, turquoise and pale blue, these birds are almost garish. To see them sitting on a power line, next to their cousins, the European Bee-eaters, with their chestnut, yellow and pale blue plumage, is a Technicolor extravaganza.

Our gallant female Spotted Eagle Owl, who finally managed to hatch out three chicks on her third attempt this season, has lost at least one of the chicks. At last inspection, there appeared to be just one, big fluffy chick left in the nest, but we are hoping that a second chick was hiding behind its heftier sibling. Once the chicks start to walk around outside the nest, they are particularly vulnerable to predators. We think one, and perhaps two, of the chicks have met this fate.

After the rain came the insects, and after the insects came the birds. A normally reclusive Redchested cuckoo found a perch in Jane and Peter’s garden and repeatedly flew down on to the lawn to pick up insects. It then sat on the grass, in full view, with its prey in its beak, unconcerned by the human spectators having their breakfast at the table next to it. It kept up this behaviour for a couple of days, giving us a good look at its beautiful big, yellow-ringed eye and handsome scalloped chest feathers.

A new bird for our species list this month was the Black Sparrowhawk, spotted feasting on a guineafowl, which appeared to have been a victim of the electric fence quite close to Jane and Peter’s house. On investigating the remains of the guineafowl, we found clear hyaena tracks, and this discovery led to our hyaena baiting experiment.

CHEETAH AND PREDATOR PROJECT

We still don’t have our cheetah. The latest news from the authorities is that an import permit, to transport the animal into Limpopo Province, will be issued in the new year and we have been told the cheetah should arrive in the week of 10 January 2005. We are counting down the days.

In the meantime, our attention has turned to brown hyaenas. After Peter’s sighting of a brown hyaena last month, and the tracks discovered near the dead guineafowl, Jane was thrilled to have no less than four sightings of browns within the past two weeks. The sightings have all been in the same area, on her regular early morning dog-walking route, and all have been in daylight. On one occasion, when the hyaena saw Jane and the dogs watching it, the long hair on its back stood up. The sun was right behind it, low, and Jane could see every hair individually. Putting up its hackles doubled the perceived size of the animal. It stopped and watched them on the road, then started to walk towards them, looking very interested. It took about 10 steps and Jane was getting a bit nervous – they are not supposed to be aggressive, but reputedly have the strongest jaws of any animal, especially for crushing skulls. One dog started to bark, but the hyaena didn’t seem to react at all. It just walked off into the bush again, sniffing here and there in an unhurried way. Jane noticed that only one of its ears stood up. The left ear appeared to be damaged and was hanging limply down by its face, so it will be easy to identify “Lefty” in future.

That night the first bait was put out in a fairly open area, near where the guineafowl had been killed, about 100 metres from Jane and Peter’s house. The bait disappeared, along with the wire attaching it to a tree. A chain was then substituted for the wire and, after a couple of nights of inactivity, we were rewarded with the spectacle, at 6 p.m., still in daylight, of two brown hyaenas tugging at the bait with the full combined weight of their bodies. They were trying to take the bait away, but when they realised they couldn’t, they started to eat it on the spot. They would have an occasional scuffle and one would chase the other one away, but most of the time they both attacked the bait. The long hair on their back was going up and down and their bushy tails stuck up. We could hear them making snuffling and whining noises. A big warthog appeared out of the bush and seemed interested in the bait as well, but they kept running it off. The ears of both of these hyaena were erect, so unless Lefty’s injury was temporary, these were two different animals. It was absolutely amazing to see these two hyaenas from our own back door. We watched them continue to maul the bait until it was too dark to see them any more.

Since then, we have baited every night and have left our Toyota Land Cruiser parked near the bait so that the hyaena will get used to it. We will use the vehicle as a “hide” when we eventually decide the time has come to dart the hyaena with a tranquilliser, and put a radio collar on it, so that we can then monitor its movements and behaviour. Another baiting site has also been successful in attracting predators – probably hyaena, jackals and small cats. So far we have seen no evidence of leopard prints around the baits. We hope guests to Makulu Makete will join us, not only in tracking, but also in the process of baiting, darting and collaring a variety of predators.

LODGE

Thomas Pakenham’s new book “The Remarkable Baobab” is now on sale, and Peter received two copies for Christmas. Pakenham visited Makulu Makete earlier in the year and has included photographs of two of our baobabs in his book, along with baobabs from Madagascar, Botswana and Australia. In his typically whimsical style, he says “In South Africa I came on one herd of 200 of these creatures (and I believe that most baobabs live in herds) which had been partly domesticated by the genial owner of a wildlife reserve... Makulu Makete.”

Mapungubwe National Park is only about an hour and a half’s drive from Makulu Makete, and makes a pleasant day’s outing. Jane and Peter took regular visitors, Pauline and Mary from Johannesburg, to see the new park on the public holiday for the Day of Reconciliation – 16 December. This time we weren’t the only people in the park. We were joined by several busloads of local Venda people, many of the women dressed in traditional costumes of brightly coloured long, striped skirts and shawls, adorned with beading which tinkled when they walked, with jewellery and headbands of beads. They were in high spirits and, like us, appreciated the significance, on that special holiday, of overlooking the confluence of the great Shashe and Limpopo Rivers, where the three countries of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe meet.

Most of the staff of Makulu Makete have taken three weeks off to be home in their villages over Christmas. Rox and Shawn are enjoying the holiday season with their families. We look forward to having the whole team back together in the New Year, when we will welcome our first cheetah and start our exciting predator collaring and tracking project.