The Birds and the Bees

I've always had a soft spot for birds in our garden but, if the truth be told, I'd rather be out camera-trapping for some of Africa's mega-fauna. But since I do have domestic responsibilities it seemed like the time to try some 'close up' camera-trapping in the garden. To get my calibrations right I thought I'd practice on the nectar-feeder with a view to getting some camera-trap images of the Sunbirds that visit it.
I thought the idea worked pretty well and within a couple of days I had, in my opinion, some fun images:

Amethyst Sunbird, Chalcomitra amethystina

Malachite Sunbirds, Nectarina famosa

Cape Weaver, Ploceus velatus

Southern Masked Weaver, Ploceus ocularis, most way through his moult

And that was when the trouble started...............

A Cape White-eye, Zosterops capensis, spots the first bees

I presume these bees are our regular Apis melifera capensis, known for their hardworking ethic. And so, within 10 minutes the word was out:

no more birds!

 ....and 20 minutes later:

What's particularly alarming about this image is not just the quantity of bees but the number of drowned individuals in the bottle. How did that happen? Did they fall or were they pushed?

Within a couple of hours, by the time the liquid was all done, I'd guess there were at  at least 100 dead bees in the bottle:

So now I'm really bummed. The birds have all gone and there is a dent in the local bee population - which we can ill afford.

I can easily make a design change to the feeding bottle so that the bees can't drown. But while there are bees there I know the birds will stay away. I will need to keep my distance too since these guys are pretty aggressive - all sugared-up I guess.

I'd appreciate any advice.

A Raft of Hippos

I've always been amused by some of the collective nouns given to African mammals. Apart from the above, some that make me smile are: a Dazzle of Zebras, a Crash of Rhinocerous, an Obstinancy of Buffalos, and a Skulk of Jackals. But my favourite has to be an Implausibility of Wildebeest - who the heck thought of that?

But lets return to the humble Hippo.Well perhaps not so humble because these beasts are reputed to be the most dangerous mammal in Africa as measured by the number of humans killed. However that dubious honour is clearly not appropriate because man himself beats the hippo hands down - with the malaria-carrying mosquito certainly the most dangerous animal.

But let me get to the point here. I've recently returned from the north-eastern part of South Africa where I spent a few days giving camera-trapping advice to a lively group of trainee field guides. We left the cameras-traps out for a week and, fortunately, none got eaten by hyenas (a Clan of...) or smashed by elephant (you must know that one). We got some pretty cool photos, which I will show in another post, but what was interesting for me was how many hippo (him of the Raft) photos we got.

The first few simply recorded the comings and goings of an individual along a game trail not far from a small river:

However the next few were, for me, more interesting. The camera had been set up on a rocky outcrop where the students had hoped to record images of a leopard reportedly living in the vicinity:

I'd love to know whether this hippo was a regular stroller on these rocks or whether this was a one-time event. It took me a couple of years to record my first hippo photo on a camera-trap and suddenly I get a load of them in a few days. Could one call that an Implausibility of Hippo Photos?

Two Days at the Salt Lick

For some months now I have had a memory card from one of my cameras sitting on my desk. It is effectively full and contains 3984 images of mammals recorded at a salt lick in the Tswalu Kalahari reserve in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. These 3984 images were recorded over just a 48hour period.
I've been reluctant to write a new post about these images because, well, I just couldn't think of a good story to go with the images. However I now need to use the card and am reluctant to add another 4GB of images to the hard drive on my ageing laptop. So its a case of use-them-or-lose-them - and I've decided to use them.

Salt licks (possibly better described as mineral licks) are commonly used in wildlife reserves in Southern Africa. They're particularly used in the dry winter months when the quality of the grass is often poor. I don't know to what extent the mammals really need the additional minerals or whether they just like them. But that is immaterial because mammals arrive at the lick in droves, especially if there is also water in  the vicinity. So its an interesting site for a camera-trap.

These mineral supplements usually begin as a sold rectangular block. But it doesn't take long before they get licked down into an amorphous blob, like the one at Tswalu, shown below:

There were various mammals in the area when we arrived to set up the camera and it wasn't long after we left that the first 'lickers' arrived. The procession hardly stopped for two days.

Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis)

Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

Greater Kudu ( Tragelaphus strepsiceros)

Common Eland (Tragelaphus oryx)

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae)

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)

Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)

Roan Antelope (Hippotragus equinus)

Impala (Aepyceros melampus)

So what's the story here?

Well, for many wildlife professionals working in reserves like Tswalu these scenes are a daily occurence. But for the rest of us these camera-trap images represent an extraordinary view into the daily life of mammals in Africa. 3984 images in two days! Its a story that I hope our grand-children will still get to see.

Death of a Camera-trap

When we set up the camera-trap it was a leopard that I was after. One was known to live in this part of Welgevonden Game Reserve and I thought my chances of photographing it were slight - but possible. My  guests on the camera-trapping safari (see previous post) were optimistic.

I swopped out the memory card a few days later and the only images were those of a game-viewing vehicle cruising past.

However when we went to collect the camera shortly before leaving the reserve we knew we might have a problem. A large breeding herd of elephants had spent time in the area - the signs were everywhere.

And sure enough........the camera was gone. The webbing strap remained on the tree which now sported some fresh damage to its bark:

So we started looking for the camera and, miraculously, eventually found it some distance away. It wasn't in a good state but the SD card looked unscathed. This is what it showed:

The first sign of trouble........ very big trouble! Note the time at bottom right.

The elephant gets up close.......

.....but then appears to lose interest...........

......only to return again. I am making an assumption that this is the same animal.

........and spent more time examining the camera, very closely.

The camera and strap/tree then parted company (note to Bushnell...you need to strengthen the strap brackets on the back of the camera!).
The camera obviously took a traumatic, but not lethal, blow because the date/time got reset. This was the image that followed.....

......and this was followed by a few more photos that clearly showed the camera being carried by the ellie. It's being held in the elephants trunk while aimed upwards at its mouth, tusks and ears.

The camera presumably then took more body blows because the next few images show that the clock was reset again.....and again.......

 The elephant appears to have carried the camera for about a minute before dropping it - which caused it to  trigger one final time. Then it was all over!

I don't know whether the same elephant delivered the coup de grace or another one that was following. But that's fairly academic because this is what we found the following morning:

Trailcam Safari

I've recently returned from taking a party of guests into 'Big 5' country for an African safari experience as well as some camera-trapping - obviously!
We had a great time. The lodge was wonderful, the game viewing was sublime and our guide knew just when to back away from boisterous elephants. There were plenty of 'aaah sweeeet' moments with baby animals and also a few heart-stopping minutes when a large bull elephant gate-crashed our sundowner drinks. But it is experiences like these that make for a great safari.

Here are a few photos to illustrate what I mean:

......and his Dad:

One of the many elephants that caused some discomfort on the back of the open game-viewing vehicle....

.......and some that didn't:

This cheetah sadly didn't stay for too long......

......but this young Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) did:

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CAMERA-TRAPPING?.. I hear you all ask.

 Sadly, the images weren't quite of the same quality. Nevertheless my camera-traps certainly attracted the interest of a few mammals:

A curious Kudu bull (Tragelaphus strepsiceros).......

....and an African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) giving my camera a sniff:

A Waterbuck cow (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) drinking at the lodge's waterhole....

.... a Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus) that passed by during the early hours........

and a beast that was just too close:

Overall, I think my guests had a wonderful safari that they will never forget. I, too, had  memorable trip - but for other reasons. That will be the subject of another post!

The Secret Seventeen

The term “Big Five” is synonymous with hunting and safaris in Africa. Many wildlife reserves will use the term ‘Big Five Reserve’ to proclaim the fact that they have Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino on the property. 

Black Rhino

Sadly, many visitors to this region are only interested in seeing those five species. They tick them off and return home happy – oblivious to the remarkable diversity of wildlife that they didn’t see. 

 Now I have nothing against the Big Five - they are wonderful creatures and are not called the Big Five for nothing – but they are just five examples of the remarkable diversity of mammals present in Africa.

 

                                                                           However I would love this all to change, which is the purpose of this post. I’d like to encourage all wildlife enthusiasts to get excited about seeing our SECRET SEVENTEEN mammals. Why seventeen? Well, there is no compelling reason why it has to be seventeen. It could just have easily been the Secret Sixteen or perhaps the Elusive Eighteen. The Furtive Fifteen came to mind as did the Nocturnal Nineteen – but the adjectives ‘elusive’, ‘furtive’ and ‘nocturnal’ weren’t universally appropriate.

Aardvark

  The point is the number needs to be reasonably high – so that it’s not just another small exclusive club of mammals. This is about celebrating biodiversity rather than getting picky.

I’ve compiled the list that follows from mammals occurring in South Africa but there is no reason why the concept should just be a South African one. All countries should have their own version of the SECRET SEVENTEEN. Each country has its own wonderful endemic species that should be included in its national list.

  

My guidelines for selecting a proposed list of seventeen secretive species were as follows:

1. They shouldn’t be easily seen, but should nevertheless be capable of being seen with some effort.

2. They should have a reasonably wide distribution within the country. Species that only occur at the margins of South Africa might be rare but are not appropriate for this list. So something like the Suni (Neotragus moschatus) might be rare enough in South Africa but is widespread in Mozambique – so is excluded. 

Riverine Rabbit

Similarly, the Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) now only exists in such isolated pockets that the likelihood of most people seeing one is very slim.
 I have also favoured those rare species that occur in the traditional ‘game viewing’ regions of this country because that is where most visitors go to view wildlife.

Small-Spotted Genet

3. Where there are closely related species of a particular family, that are all worthy of inclusion, then I have simply included the generic family. 
For example, any one of the three species of genet occurring here could have been chosen so I’ve decided to include just ‘Genets’ on the list. 
The same goes for our two Otters and two Galagos (Bushbabies).

4. However, in contrast to the above, there are some families with both rare and abundant representatives e.g. Mongoose, where we have ten - I think. Here I’ve made a decision to include just one species which I think best fits my other criteria.

 

5. I’ve excluded those Orders/Families that are particularly difficult to identify (and possibly of lesser interest to the general wildlife-viewing public). These would include the small rodents, moles, bats and marine mammals. I appreciate that I’m now on dangerous ground! I know that there are many extraordinary examples of the above but most wildlife enthusiasts, and even guides, wouldn’t be capable of identifying them without catching them.

Brown Hyena

6. I’ve also excluded large mammals which might be fairly rare but, if they occur in the area/reserve, are usually easy to see during the day. Examples would be Roan (Hippotragus equinus) and Sable (H. niger) Antelopes.

So here goes. This is my suggested list – in alphabetic order:

1	Aardvark	Orycteropus afer
2	Aardwolf	Proteles cristatus
3	African Civet	Civettictis civetta
4	African Weasel	Poecilogale albinucha
5	African Wild Cat	Felis silvestris lybica
6	Brown Hyena	Parahyaena brunnea
7	Bushpig	Potamochoerus larvatus
8	Caracal	Caracal caracal
9	Galagos (Bushbabies)	Galago moholi; Otolemur crassicaudatus
10	Genets	Genetta genetta, G maculata, G tigria
11	Honey Badger	Mellivora capensis
12	Otters	Lutra maculicollis, Aonyx capensis
13	Pangolin	Manis temminckii
14	Porcupine	Hystrix africaeaustralis
15	Serval	Leptailurus serval
16	Southern African Hedgehog	Atelerix frontalis
17	White-Tailed Mongoose	Ichneumia albicauda

This is a very personal selection and I’m very aware that some worthy species have been excluded. So I would really welcome your suggestions as to what would be other appropriate inclusions to this list, or simply your preferences. As mentioned above, this is my South African selection. So if you’re not from South Africa I’d also love to hear what your SECRET SEVENTEEN would be in other countries. Please do respond – I’d love to hear what you think.

African Wild Cat

 p.s. So when you do go out and find these secretive species please do take a photo and send it to the University of Cape Towns's MammalMAP programme ( http://mammalmap.adu.org.za ). The distribution of the Big Five is fairly well known but data on the SECRET SEVENTEEN would be invaluable to them.