Our Largest Rodent

The local Porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) is the largest rodent in Africa, weighing, apparently, up to 24kg. Even though it is a shy creature I'm not sure I'd be happy stumbling over a 24kg specimen on a dark night!

They live mostly on roots and bulbs and can do extensive damage to vegetable gardens and cultivated crops. Reportedly they are not averse to nibbling occasionally on animal carcasses and tend also to get caught in traps baited for carvivores. What is not in doubt is that they have an interesting habit of gnawing on bones. In my experience an old bone placed in front of the camera will almost always stop these guys, for a while at least.

You'd think that those spikes would make them pretty immune from attack. However there must be something very tasty about their flesh because large carnivores find them worth attacking - often with ugly consequences for both animals. They can't throw their quills but can reverse pretty quickly as a defense mechanism. I've recorded plenty of images like this:

This is not a particularly relaxed porcupine and looks like it's expecting an imminent attack by my trailcam. However they do relax after a while and continue on their snuffling way, seemingly oblivious to the camera.

Even though porcupines are regular 'catches' on my cameras I've, sadly, only ever seen a few in the flesh. Happily however they drop their quills everywhere as a reminder that they are indeed pretty common. I wish I did actually see them more often because they are very cool, and great survivors in both urban and wild environments.

SURPRISE!

One of the things that I love about using a trailcam is the anticipation of seeing the results. Normal wildlife photography is fun but I usually have a sense of how the photo will turn out as soon as I press the shutter. With a trailcam you simply have no idea.
Clearly it makes little sense to install a camera in a spot where nothing is likely to wander by. I'm always childishly optimistic that I'll get something exciting and rare! So when I approach the camera, which may have been out for a night or a month, I look for clues as to what I might have caught. Fresh tracks or scat is good to see as is disturbed ground in front of the camera.
What I don't like to see, in this part of the world, is evidence that baboons have visited.

 Baboons can't resist investigating anything unusual and I invariably find the camera at some crazy angle. What follows this shot is usually a series of waving branches.

The next indication one gets is on opening the camera. Most trailcams have a counter that indicates how many images are on the memory card. In setting up the camera, as well as retrieving it, a couple of images usually get taken. So my heart sinks if the counter shows only two recorded images. Conversely, if it shows many hundreds, then it's likely that the camera has been triggered by waving branches. So, my favourite sight is a counter that shows about 20 shots: something has triggered the camera but it's probably not branches!

So I was disappointed the other day when I opened the Cuddeback, after a week in the hills, and found only two images. But when I looked at the images on my laptop, what a SURPRISE.....

A nicely framed Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus). While these little antelope are not rare in these parts one seldom gets up close to take a photo.They live almost exclusively in rocky habitats and can disappear up the mountainside in a flash. Their coarse hair was once prized for stuffing saddles. That fact was another surprise for me.

Who Needs a Trailcam

Right in front of our house at the beach is a small lagoon/pond that is regularly visited by Cape Clawless Otters. We've seen them occasioanlly but I've never managed to get a photo of these otters on my trailcam. So, as dusk was falling, I found myself getting a few trailcams ready for a night's work. Suddenly I glanced up and saw a large otter slip out of the pond and make its way slowly across the beach towards the sea. I grabbed my binoculars and dashed down to the beach, followed closely by my teenage son.The otter saw us, calmly turned around and headed back into the dune vegetation. We presumed that was the last we'd see of him but suddenly he/she appeared back in the pond. What followed was, for us, the most extrordinary otter-viewing experience.
We had by that time been joined by my son's friends, one of whom was an exchange student who had the foresight to grab his camera.

The otter swam a little, snorting all the while, then got out and rolled in the sand. He seemed completely self absorbed in his rolling and only occasionally looked up - and gave us a bit of a stare. Then he got back in the water again and swam towards us - snorting even more loudly! One of us took a couple of steps backwards - but  I won't say who!

He then then got out of the water and again rolled around in the sand, as before. He repeated the swim & roll routine once more before slowly making his way down the beach and, presumably, into the sea.

I was stunned. I've seen many amazing wildlife 'sightings' but this was certainly up there with the best of them.
So, who needs a trailcam! You just need to be at the right place at the right time - and of course, have a New Zealander with a camera with you.

Vermin of a different kind.

Sadly the police in South Africa, like in many other countries, often have a bad reputation. There are just too many examples of the men in blue implicated in criminal acivity - from the highest level downwards. Nevertheless I have no doubt that the majority of the force is inherently honest and doing a vital job that none of us care to do.So I wasn't sure what to think when this picture showed up when I checked my cameras recently.

Now I need to explain that this is a very quiet spot alongside a stream that flows into the sea. Here I have often caught pics of  otter, porcupine and genet. I also need to explain, particularly to those of you that don't live along the coast of South Africa, that the illegal poaching of abalone (called perlemoen around here) is rife in these parts. Abalone is caught, processed and sent to the Far East where it has a reputation amongst the wealthy for its 'medicinal' properties. Because the abalone resource has largely been depleted, and is illegal to harvest, prices are high and so 'organised crime' is heavily involved. Illegal harvesting usually usually works as follows:
Divers come ashore at night with their haul and stash it somewhere, usually under water, for later collection. When all looks quiet the 'stash' will be retrieved, often by someone else.
So I wasn't happy to see the next image...

Its not clear from this image but the green bag undoubtedly contained abalone.
So, had it been hidden in the stream for collection by a corrupt cop? That was my initial thought but I had to wonder why my camera was left untouched. It may have been difficult to spot after dark but during the early evening it was very conspicuous.
However the next image confirms, I think, what happened.

This image was recorded a few hours after dark. The person in question was clearly looking for something. I think he had been sent for the 'stash' but the cops, probably acting on a tip-off, got there first.
So well done done to the police. I wish I'd aimed the cameras a bit higher as I might have recorded more detail of the poacher.These guys need to be caught since they are undoubtedly our worst vermin!

Sadly, there is just one thought I can't get out of my mind: what happened to the bag of abalone?

The more you practice.....

Gary Player is credited with saying " The more I practice the luckier I get" and I guess the same goes for using a trailcam. But it's not just about practice - its also about putting in the hours of hard work. Having tried unsuccesfully to "catch" my otter at a seemingly good Betty's Bay site, I decided to widen the search. So we scouted other streams in the area for any signs of these elusive creatures and eventually found what we were looking for. An otter latrine!
Otters habitually use a 'latrine' area where one can usually find plenty of scat (faeces). These scats are often in various stages of decay and give a good indication of how recently the otter passed by (if you'll excuse the pun).
So we set up the trusty trailcam and retired for the night, hoping that we wouldn't be disappointed, again.
When we retrieved the camera the next morning our hopes soared because there was very fresh scat, and right in front of the camera. And sure enough: some great images. Not exactly National Geographic quality but way more exciting for us. Whoops of joy and high fives all round!
We'd caught them at last.

And a few days later.....

Something to Celebrate

A twentieth wedding anniversary is a huge milestone in any relationship. So we decided to splash out and celebrate in style at a fabulous country  lodge. This establishment is renowned for its amazing food, accomodation and service and, by chance, just happens to have a bit of wildlife that wanders around. So, by chance, the trailcam just happened to find its way into my bag!

The attractions of the lodge, and in particular the honeymon suite, were many. So this didn't leave much time for scouting around for a good site to install the camera. There was however an interesting area in a dry riverbed, just below our suite, that had loads of game tracks. There was no time for further exploration as dinner was about to be served, so this had to be the spot.

There was no indication the next morning that anything had passed the camera in the night. But how wrong I was!

 Something to celebrate indeed!

Ghosts on the Beach

We're fortunate to regularly visit Betty's Bay which still has a great deal of wildlife. Animals like mongoose and francolin are frequent daytime visitors to gardens while porcupine, genet and grysbok can occasionally be seen at night.But my favourite sighting is the otter (Cape Clawless Otter) which we ocasionally see running across the beach. It never fails to give me a thrill to see these wonderful creatures.
Apart from the occasional sightings of otters I often come across their tracks on the beach. Previously this was of purely academic interest, but now, with a trailcam.....!
Their tracks lead to and from a small pond near the beach, so, how difficult could it be to catch them on the cam? Well, it proved to be extremely difficult. If I put the camera at one end of the pond - they went to the other. If I placed it on their usual route to the pond - they seemed to find another route.
The months went by and I began to doubt whether my trailcam could actually sense a passing otter.Or rather, whether they sensed the camera, got spooked and avoided it. They were like ghosts in the night. So I consoled myself with the knowledge that getting wildlife photos is never easy and requires a huge amount of patience and skill.
So, no otter pic with this post - just a sign of their ghostly passing! But I was determined to find a way to 'nail' them.