MAKULU MAKETE BUSH DIARY

FEBRUARY 2006

SEASONS

The bush is a picture of knee-high grass, topped with silver, gold and pink seeds waving in the breeze. Trees are covered with freshly-washed leaves, and the tiny fruits of the raisin bush are turning from green to purple. Female impalas, with well-grown lambs from last season, mass together in big herds of more than 60-strong. They dash across the tracks in front of the vehicles, joyfully flipping their hind legs high into the air. All the game is fat and shiny, enjoying at last the lush conditions following the long-awaited rain. The lanterns that light the paths around the lodge and the tents at main camp twinkle through curtains of waving grass, and in the background we can hear the roar of the Mogalakwena River as it races over the weir about a kilometre away. The reserve is now cut in two by the wide flooded river, surging and muddy. We can no longer drive across the dam wall or through the drift in the river to get to Lulu’s Camp from the lodge, a distance of 10 km. Instead, we have to drive 40 kilometres around public roads, adding half an hour to the normal trip into town as well. Under the circumstances, we don’t really mind. The last month has been a good one and we are confident that we will have enough grass to take us into the dry winter months ahead.

CHEETAH PROJECT

Our female cheetah, Dottie, has had her cubs! They were born on Wednesday 22 or Thursday 23 February, as predicted by Rox, our ecologist, after Dottie and Danny, our male wild cheetah, were seen together soon after Danny’s release into the reserve. Although none of us has yet seen the cubs, Rox knew immediately that they had arrived when she was tracking Dottie on Thursday 23 February. Dottie came out of the bush looking somewhat more slender than the previous day, with black teats clearly visible hanging below the hair on her belly, and indicated a change in behaviour by snarling at Rox, instead of simply ignoring her in her usual fashion. Since then, she has stayed in an area of thick bush, not far from the lodge, where she is keeping the cubs. We don’t know how many there are and we are counting the days until they are big enough to come out of hiding in about three or four weeks.

The battery on Dottie’s radio collar is due to run out in a few weeks. She will have to be darted and tranquillised so that we can change her collar, but we could not do this while she was pregnant. It will be safe to use the tranquillising drug on her at the end of March. A blow-gun will be used to dart her, so as not to traumatise her with the noise of a gun, but using a blow-dart means getting very close to her. While she was in her enclosure being habituated to her new surroundings, Dottie got used to being fed when a whistle was blown. When we change her collar, we will use this method to draw her out of the bush and we will be able to dart her while she is feeding on the meat we provide for her. A few days after the birth of the cubs, Dottie was looking quite thin. At this stage the cubs are very vulnerable to predators, such as jackals and hyaenas, so Dottie doesn’t want to leave them for long to go hunting. We decided to give her a “habituation feed”, to help her and to keep her in practice for the time when we have to dart her.

Rox took her father, Adrian, visiting from the UK, Peter and Jane with her for the habituation feed. Dottie’s radio signal took us into thick bush, where we found a small clearing nearby, and Rox blew the whistle to call Dottie. Soon we saw grass and leaves moving in the undergrowth and then we could just make out the big paws coming towards us through the bush. As Dottie emerged from the bush into the little clearing, Jane threw the impala leg towards her, but the cheetah didn’t seem to notice it and came running straight for us, spitting and snarling. Rox was standing with the radio antenna in front of her, next to Jane. Peter and Adrian were behind. Dottie charged up and slapped her feet with a big bang only 18 inches from Jane’s boots. It is important not to move back when being charged by a cheetah, though we all flinched, and Jane somehow managed to lean backwards at an angle of about 60 degrees. Dottie stood with her nose almost touching Jane’s knees, but with her eyes down, not making eye contact with any of us. We were immobilised in a Mexican stand-off for several minutes, neither side moving or looking the other in the eye, Dottie panting and drooling. Casting her eyes down, Jane was looking right at the top of Dottie’s head. To distract Dottie, we threw a bunch of keys across to the impala leg and finally, she turned, saw the meat and walked towards it. She ate the impala leg fast while we stood in the same spot and watched, all hearts pumping. When she finished, she came back towards us, but this time there was no threat. She just sniffed the bushes and the keys and then headed back the way she came through the bush to her cubs. It was quite a stimulating start to the day.

Any of our guests who have seen Dottie out in the bush would not have recognised this spitting, charging cheetah. We all know that this is uncharacteristic behaviour by Dottie and we are pleased that she is being so protective of the cubs. When Dottie was caught illegally by a farmer in the Kalahari area, she had a cub with her, so she is an experienced mother. No doubt her placid attitude will return once the cubs are big enough to fend for themselves. The next few months at Makulu Makete will be full of excitement as, all being well, the cubs grow and learn to hunt from their mother.

GAME VIEWING

One of our guests recently asked Rox if a giraffe would run away from a cheetah. While she was tracking Danny just the other day, Rox saw a group of giraffe suddenly take off at a gallop as Danny emerged from the bush. So the answer to the question is “Yes, giraffe will run away from a cheetah”. Rox also witnessed an exciting chase as she followed Danny’s signal with her telemetry equipment. With a crash of branches an impala raced out into the clearing where Rox was standing, with Danny in hot pursuit, at full tilt, demonstrating the classic cheetah chase. The impala swerved around a bush and managed to side-step certain death. Most of the bush is too thick for such a chase and we believe the cheetahs have adapted to ambushing their prey, like a leopard.

The newest species which has been added to our mammal list is the aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) which was seen near an active burrow this month. Although we have seen dead aardwolves on the road outside the reserve, this is the first sighting at Makulu Makete, probably because they are so shy and nocturnal in their habits. Looking a bit like an elegant and diminutive hyaena, it has a mane and stripes and feeds mainly on termites. Along with aardvarks, porcupines and honey badgers, the aardwolf is one of the animals everyone would like to see on a night drive, but very few are so fortunate.

The last sighting of the lone wild dog was by the participants of our birding course early in the month, when it was seen on the south side of the flooded river, unable to cross. Since then the river has receded and risen again, taking with it some of our fencing and perhaps giving the wild dog the opportunity to move on elsewhere.

BIRDING

It was a big month for birders, with our second Birding Skills Course being conducted by birding expert John Isom, and attended by Trish and Andrew, from Daintree, a birders’ paradise in Far North Queensland, Australia. Jane tagged along as well. Because of the cool weather, birding was not restricted to the early morning and for the first few days and we made the most of the opportunities, recording 81 species on the first day and a total of 208 for the entire week (153 at Makulu Makete), adding 10 new species to our list. Some of the highlights were an unusual sighting of Caspian Plovers amongst a flock of Temminck’s Coursers, and the first sighting of a Bateleur at Makulu Makete. Outside excursions to Mapungubwe National Park, Den Staat wetlands, Ratho and the Limpopo River produced a flock of Eastern Red-Footed Falcons (Amur Falcons), Blackwinged Pratincoles, nesting Marabou Storks, Little Bittern and Retzs Helmetshrike, to name a few. This time the Pel’s Fishing Owl eluded us. However, thanks to the “Isom Factor”, as well as birds, we saw a rhino and a rather unfriendly elephant at Mapungubwe and half a dozen hippos in the Limpopo, rising and sinking in the river, keeping an eye on us and making lots of rude, wet noises. John’s “Eye Language” course taught us what to look for, how to look and how to format our observations in order to make a proper identification. Lectures and discussions on bird migration and bird classifications complemented our field work. It was another hugely enjoyable and informative week, the good vibes from which encouraged even the non-birding guests at the lodge to start noticing the birdlife around them. If you are interested in future Birding Skills Courses at Makulu Makete, please email us at pgr@worldonline.co.za.

After the course, Trish and Andrew headed off into the Soutpansberg district and Kruger Park for some more birding. Their own bed and breakfast establishment, Red Mill House, in Daintree is a favourite destination for birders. Have a look at their website www.redmillhouse.com.au.

The following week another Australian couple - Bill from Naracoorte in South Australia, and Martine, now working in Toowoomba, Queensland - joined us. Their primary interest was in birds, and they were lucky enough to see a pair of Cape Rock Thrushes on the top of Kremetartkop. The birds posed for them for several minutes so that they could positively identify them and photograph them. Their total number of species for their week at MM was only slightly less than the birding course total. Apart from birds, they were enthusiastic about absolutely everything they came across. As a farmer, Bill was amazed at the diligence and number of the dung beetles. Both he and Martine were delighted at their first encounter with a large chameleon which obligingly changed colour from brown to green as it climbed slowly up a bush, its swivelling eyes watching them suspiciously. A professional ecologist, Martine proved to be an able debating opponent for Peter at dinner in the lodge, where lively and stimulating discussions ensued. Bill and Martine brought the rain with them and good-naturedly put up with some tropical downpours during their stay. They left us to drive into Mozambique, one of the few places in Africa that Bill had not already visited.

Our self-catering camp, Madia Pala, was once again the base for a group of birders on the Soutpansberg-Limpopo Mega Birding Tour. The unusual weather conditions resulted in a disappointing number of species for this year’s tour, but knowing the rain was desperately needed, the birders didn’t complain.

LODGE AND CAMPS

Peter’s old friend Toby, from Hong Kong, and Maiko, from Tokyo, spent ten days with us at main camp, revelling in the opportunity to get out into the wilds, in contrast to their busy corporate lives in two of the most dynamic cities on earth. Driving across the veld in an ancient, open Land Rover, past giant baobab trees, and climbing Kremetartkop to see archaeological ruins, it was hard to believe they would be back to the “reality” of riding the Star Ferry across Hong Kong harbour and taking the Tokyo Subway to the Ginza the following week.

Our Dutch volunteer, Bregtje (or “B”, for short) finished her tour of duty with us in February. Before she left, her parents joined her for a week to see the life their daughter had been living for the past three months. Coming from such a tiny country, they were overwhelmed by the vastness of the bush. “B” is now enjoying herself in Cape Town. She was a delightful member of the MM team and we wish her well with her future studies in Veterinary Science.

Peter and Jane took off for Namibia to attend the wedding of Peter’s son, Wayne, in Windhoek, a good excuse to go camping in the Etosha Pans National Park on the way home, where the wettest season for years has transformed the dry, dusty, salt pans into fields of green grass, covered with herds of springbok, zebras, giraffe, wildebeest, black-faced impala and gemsbok, all with plenty of youngsters at foot. The big, wet weather system followed our happy campers right through the Caprivi and along the Kavango and the Zambesi Rivers. Bird numbers were well down, but a pack of wild dogs milling around their vehicle on the highway through the Caprivi, was an exciting experience. While Peter and Jane were away, Shawn and Rox looked after things at Makulu Makete so well that Peter and Jane are already planning their next camping safari.