The battle of the rhino war continues........

Ok one more blog before we take the long road. I was reading an article on rhino poaching last night and realized once again South Africa sits with a great dilemma. The more people are aware of this the better. So I decided to do something on Rhino poaching

Sometimes the horns are hacked off while the animals are still alive.
The means of killing the rhino are done by assault rifles like AK-47 and 303 rifles. The use of these rifles started thanks to the liberal wars in Africa in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It left a legacy of AK-47 rifles in the hands of poachers. That enabled the start of the commercial poaching. In the modern times of today they are implementing helicopters with drugs like M-99 to tranquilize the animal and work quietly. Rhinos are very sensitive to this drug and can easily be overdosed. Now the question “where do they get the drugs” if only registered and qualified wild life vets have access to these drugs?

It is January 2010 and the horrific news continues, 14 rhinos have been poached thru out South Africa up to date. Where will it stop, will it ever stop? The rhino numbers plummeted down from 65000 in 1970’s to about 3600 black rhino in the whole of Africa. That is about 90% down from what they were. The rhino horn is a very lucrative market. The horn is being sold at between R12000-R25000 per kilogram. The biggest market is East Asia and China. Average weight for rhino horn is about 8-11kg. It is sold in powder form. The sad part is that medicinal wise, it is worth nothing. Rhino horn consists of Keratin, compressed hair. It is the same substance as our nails or hair, they can just as well chew on their own nails or suck on their hair, they will get exactly the same effect: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

I think because it is a cultural and probably money driven act it will never stop unless we as conservationists do everything in our power to stop it. I also feel that 5 years in prison is by far to a light of a sentence for such a crime. So Zimbabwe surprised everybody in October 2009 when a poacher was sentenced to17 years in jail for killing a female rhino. WELL DONE ZIMBABWE!! I have asked myself the question so many times………….. why use rhino horn?

I have read that the reasons they use rhino horn are:

· The horn comes from a powerful beast
· The horn is erect, straight, hard and long
· His skin is tough like armor
· It’s a very phallic symbol
· The rhino have balls like baseballs

How ridiculous but that is what they believe in, even in today’s modern world of medicine. In an article by Judy Lelliot, the Minister of water affairs and environment, it stated that an average of 36 rhinos have been killed in South Africa each year ( 2005-2008 ). Last year alone 125 rhino were killed.
2009 poaching:
· Kwazulu Natal :21 where 2 were black rhino
· National Parks : 41
· Provincial Parks : 33
· Private Reserves: 30
Yip these numbers are scary I know, and this is the ones the parks know of. Kruger National Park are employing the help of the army and police to assist in the problem. All of us that live in reserves can be of great help just to keep our eyes and ears on the ground. Even you guys out side the parks can be of great help. Earlier this year self driving tourists reported suspicious signs to park authorities and they apprehended the poacher. We should not turn a blind eye to this and think it will never happen in your area…..It is already happening!!

Let’s keep our rhino safe

Grant

For more info go tohttp://www.savingrhinos.com and http://www.rhinoresourcecentre.com

Holiday time !!

This is the Mica pride at Vleischfontein waterhole

We just left Madikwe Yesterday to come and face the traffic of Joburg, and we realized why we live in the bush. Its time for our two weekly holiday. Gues where we are going for a whole week...................Kruger National Park! I know its a busmans holiday but I just cant get enough and besides it is so different going by yourself. You can really just relax. If you want to spend three hours with an Ashy tit you CAN ! ...by the way that is a bird. There will be more photo opportunies arising. What is nice about kruger is you can drive and drive or go and sit stil at a hide at one of the water points and just relax and enjoy nature. In Kruger I also go out with this thought : Always expect the unexpected !!! That is what I always tell my guests, the unexpected could be something WOW !!. The WOW I am hoping for is a leopard stretched out on a big branch of a Marula tree. :)

This image was taken in Aug 2009. A mature territorial White Rhino bul killed this 3 year old sub-adult. His mother was in oestrus and the youngster refused to back of and in the process got killed, yip nature is cruel but so fascinating. The vulture action was amazing !
So we are leaving Saturday morning very early. We are going to start up north at Pafuri, Crookes corner and make our way down south to Lower-Sabi. I will try and post on the blog where we have reception, other wise will update you guys when I get back.

This was the last pups the Dwarsberg pack had last year and they are all doing VERY WELL. Five survived out of the seven pups, not bad considering the amount of lions we have.

So I am off, hope fully I will be able to give updates as we go !

Grant

A morning with lions

Yesterday morning we went out to look for the pack of 7 wild dogs. They were seen heading South from on of the lodges in the middle of the reserve. So instead we found this pride of 10 lions at one of the waterholes. This was the Mica pride with one of the Kgala Etali males. They are the pride males of the South eastern pride and South western pride. We got there just as the light was at its best. We call it the golden hour. What a show they put up for us. To the frustration of the 2 adult females and the big male the youngsters couldnt sit still for one second. They had everything else on their minds but food.



Eventually the females gave up and went to sleep.One of the reason lions wait at a waterhole is to ambush antelopes while they are drinking. But with all the comotion of the sub-adults nothing pitched up. One of the youngsters tried dad's patience as well....it was so funny. Its always interesting to see where the priorities of differnet age groups lies. Adults : save energy and get a meal
sub-adults: spend as much energy and mom will provide








All this playing around is not for nothing. This is how young lions develop their hunting skills and paw eye coordination. So in fact they learn and its fun !!

Hope you enjoyed the morning with lions

Grant

New beginnings

As most of you probably know it is the rainy season, that means there are plenty of little hooves ( and 20 little paws…..but coming to that ) running around. At the moment there are an explosion of baby impala and wildebeest. When we go out early mornings and we stumble onto a rank of impala or an implausibility of wildebeest the first thing you see is the babies all clustered together in a crèche almost on top of one another to keep warm. There will be one or two adults to keep an eye out while their young are sleeping.
The below image is probably not the best but these females are trying to avoid any confrontation with anybody or anything. So it was just great to get the image of these cubs for the first time.



Now for the big news! We have been missing the two Tshabala females for quite some time now. We had no tracks or no signs of them. Until one morning I found her walking towards Phiri hill and I could see something was different in her behavior and appearance, she was clearly lactating with dirty nipples. That only means one thing…..NEW CUBS! After that morning we haven’t seen any trace of them anywhere. At least we knew they were still alive and with a few new additions to the pride. That got us all buzzing and more determined to find them. The morning of the 10th of November myself and Gavin decided to go South and see if we could get lucky with some lions. In the distance I could see a few small figures running around and bouncing up and down. At first I had no clue, when a large tawny shape appeared from underneath a Buffalo Thorn with ears flat, snarling lips and tail twitching up and down when she saw us. Then I knew it was them!! I started counting 1,2,3….and there were 5 cubs with the 2 females. And I quietly said: “Well done girls”. I could see they were very skittish and aware of the vehicle. It was probably the first time these cubs have seen a land cruiser. I got on the radio and called Gavin to come and join. We didn’t really follow them because the mothers are so overly protective. So we gave them space and they went back to the hill where they were born. Gavin and I, and even the guests were so excited! Because I was the first ranger to find them I got to name them as well, so I decided on Maropeng youngsters. That means Place of origin. Before lionesses give birth they leave the pride for a few weeks and seek shelter on a rocky outcrop or thick cover where she then gives birth. After the birth she moves the cubs to a safer place. The reason for this is to get the cubs away from the scent of the birth, hyenas and other lions pick it up very quickly. When the cubs are strong enough to keep up she will go and introduce them to the pride and the males. The Maropeng youngsters’s fathers are the Kgala Etali males.





On the 27th of December I went out to look for a leopard the guys had spotted the previous night on the Western airstrip. We drove along slowly scanning every Marula tree and bush. My eye then caught fresh lion tracks on the road. I followed them for a while and they went off on an elephant path. I left it there and then Malcolm spotted a Red Hartebeest. We stopped to view him and we could see he was focused on something, so we waited a few minutes, I then heard it to our right. Cubs fighting over food! What a sound those little ones can make. I got out of the vehicle and walked in about a 100 meters. I stood behind a tree where I could see clearly how the cubs were dominating one another over the fresh wildebeest. The lioness saw me and kindly asked me to back off in her own loving way. We then went in with the vehicle. The lions backed off from the kill and I switched off. It wasn’t long before the hungry cubs returned and gave us a sighting of a lifetime.

Hope you enjoyed the update

Grant

Purpose of my blog

My name is Grant Marcus and I am a field guide/ranger/wildlife photographer. I am based in Madikwe Game Reserve in the North west of South Africa.

The whole idea of my blog is to share my work with as many people as possible. I believe criticism can always be good. I got the idea from a very good friend who posted a blog on sharing your work. Think about it the more criticism you get the more open minded you will look at your own work. Go and read the blog at http://www.photo-africa.com/. Gerry really gives a whole new meaning to, sharing your work. This is just the beginning of the whole journey and I have quite a few things planned with my blog, but more on that later.

Being a field guide brings up the most wonderful and exciting photo oppertunities you can imagine. This blog will also keep my guests up to date with happenings and news from Tuningi Safari Lodge ( http://www.tuningi.com/ ). I will try and give Safari updates on a regular basis.

on this sharing note

till next time

Grant