Archive for September 28, 2011

Spring Cleaning at Umkhumbi Lodge

Lacey / September 28, 2011 / No comments

We are spring cleaning here at Umkhumbi Lodge,sprucing up everything to make it better for both our new found friends at the lodge and our facebook followers.

The website is being made cleaner, easier to use and more informative. Even our Facebook page is getting more fun.

As if this wasn’t enough we have yet another school group coming to us for a holiday which complements their college course in animal care. Our environmental awareness course is becoming so popular with UK colleges that we are running out of empty weeks in 2012!

You will be able to follow this college group here on our blog as we video, interview and photograph their adventures.

C'mon girls, show the boys how it's done!

If you are interested in an UK expedition holiday to South Africa Mozambique and Swaziland in 2012 and are aged 16-23 then you are in luck there are still spaces with this UK group.

Category: Albizia camp /

Did You Know – Spotted Hyaena

Lacey / September 28, 2011 / No comments

See below our fact sheet for the spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta)

Spotted Hyaena (hyena) Scientific name: Crocuta crocuta Description: Largest of the hyena family, look bearlike. Hyena are carnivores that are related to the mongoose. May have originated in Asia 5 million years ago. Coat is short and thin. Colour reddish brown/tan coat which gets lighter and less spotted with age. Natal coat is black, no spots. Yearling coat grey and heavily spotted. Habitat: Found in savannah and where ever there are antelope and zebra. Life expectancy: Males and females can live 20-25 years in the wild. Captive hyaena have been known to reach 40. Communication: One of the most vocal African animals. Have 11 different calls. - Groans and squeals - greeting - Whooping - contact call - Fast whooping - Rally call - male calls tend to be ignored. - Lowing - shows impatience, usually when waiting at a kill. Diet: Carnivore, rarely eats insects/fruit/vegetable. Unlike other carnivores eats most of animal (other carnivores can waste up to 40%). Hyaenas have the ability to eat and digest everything, even bones, hooves, teeth and smaller horns which are all digested within 24 hours. Hyaenas eat everything except the stomach content of their prey. Taking the easy way for food they will scavenge or pick young/injured animals. But they are capable of taking down wildebeest three time their size. Social structure: Live in large groupd to defend territory. But unlike other social carnivores; - compete more and co-operate less. - Females are bigger than the males - Females compete for rank and food - No cross suckling of young - Males play no parental role - the few that are allowed near the cub dens are bullied by higher ranking offspring. Male/female: Not as easy as you'd think... Males: height 79-86cm Females: Larger than males height 84-89cm. Both sexes have 2 teats and boneless penis 14.5-19.5cm. Female penis changes at puberty as urethral opening splits open and teats enlarge. Behaviour: Movement - rarely trots, moves at about 6mph. Can run 25-31mph but only for a few miles. Predators: No real predators, but heavy competition. Spotted hyaena practice mobbing attacks against rival clans and lions - usually to claim a kill. Lack of cooperative defense does put hyaena to disadvantage. Use vultures as indicator of carcass. Did You Know: -Their jaws are capable of exerting pressures of up to 800 kg/square inch! -Another name for the spotted hyena is the “laughing hyena”.

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did You Know – Purple-Crested Turaco

Lacey / September 21, 2011 / No comments

See our factsheet below for more information about the purple-crested Turaco (formerly known as the purple-crested Lourie).

Purple crested turaco Formerly known as the Purple-crested lourie Scientific name: Musophaga porphyreolopha Description: Colourful African forest bird with red underwings and distinctive call. It differs from the other Turacos due its very dark purple crest, and the lack of white around the eyes. Diet: Feeds almost exclusiely on fruits Habitat: Tends to be found in coastal and riverine forests, sometimes also found in broad leaved woodland. Inhabits a large portion of Eastern African continent including; South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Male/female/juvenile: Adults the same. Juvenile is duller in colour. Call: Loud 'kok-kok-kok-kok' call Nest behavior: Both sexes build the nest. Usually one will return with sticks to give to the other who will place it in the nest. 2-4 eggs are laid which are incubated by both parents for approx 3 weeks. Chicks are ready to fly at 38 days. Did you know: Despite being brightly coloured, the purple crested turaco is hard to spot. It is mostly noticed by the bright red feathers of their underwings as they move from tree to tree.

Category: Albizia camp, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course, Our animals / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunbird Building Nest

Lacey / September 16, 2011 / No comments

Spring is in the air at Umkhumbi Lodge. The birds are singing and soar through the air as they fly in search of nest building materials. One such bird is the Sunbird. Using spiderwebs to secure their nest materials the Sunbirds ensure that their eggs have the very best chance of survival.

In the video below you can observe the female sunbird adding grasses to her nest.

Category: Bushwire, Our animals / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did you know? – Toad Tree

Lacey / September 14, 2011 / No comments

Part 3 of our factsheet series

Toad tree Scientific name: Tabernaemontana elegans Description: Shrub or small deciduous to semi-deciduous tree with single upright trunk. Habitat: Bushveld and coastal areas of North-East South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. Bark: Thick and cork like with longitudinal fissures. Leaves: Found at end of branches. Glossy dark green on upper side, underside contains prominent hairless veins in lateral pairs of up to 22. Large; 90-200mm x 50-70mm. Fruit: Hang like pendulums on stalks from branches. Are joined at the base in pairs. Semi round with three ridges, they vary in colour from dark green to grey. Surface is covered with light grey cork-like warts. Sometimes covered in a white latex wax. Seeds are contained inside within a bright orange pulp. Uses: The leaves are suitable for browsers. The pulp of the fruit when ripe is edible. Pulp can also be used to curdle milk. The latex is used for birdlime and to stop bleeding. The root is thought to have medicinal properties. Flowers: Occur in fragrant bunches at the end of branches. White corolla lobes approx 10mm long and twist to the left. Did you know: Hang like pendulums on stalks from branches. Are joined at the base in pairs. Semi round with three ridges, they vary in colour from dark green to grey. Surface is covered with light grey cork-like warts. Sometimes covered in a white latex wax. Seeds are contained inside within a bright orange pulp.

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

First road cruise of the summer!

Lacey / September 7, 2011 / No comments

Well guys and girl, summer is now here, at least for us!

After a number of snake call-outs in the area we decided that the snakes were on the move making it road cruise time!

It was quite a quiet cruise with only one snake, sadly Dead on Road (DOR) :(
A real shame as it was a beautiful male puff adder.

 

 

But we did find plenty of sleeping chameleons, although we only harrassed one with the camera flash.

 

 

And loads of frogs!! This greater leaf-folding frog we brought home to take a photo of this morning.

 

 

But we also found lots of other frogs such as Rubber frog, shovel-nosed frog and a few of what we believe to be guttural toads.

 

For the furry fans out there, we also saw grey duiker, bushbabies, and a spotted eagle owl!

 

Things are hotting up here in the KwaZulu Natal, so the snakes should be moving soon. This means the next cruise can only get better!

 

10 – 14 days inclusive of; Telemetry Project - Cobra and Mamba tracking - Basic handling and ID course for African snakes likely to be encountered - Herping night-drives/ road cruising - Field herping - Overnight field trip - Help with problem crocodiles (where available) - Tracking white rhino - Game drives at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi - Sea Turtle experience - assisting research teams - Call outs - removing problem animals from rural residences - Frogging - Over 50 species! Based at Umkhumbi Lodge - Hluhluwe with possible excursions to Swaziland and Mozambique

 

Category: Road cruise, Snake Call out / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did You Know – Cocktail Ant

Lacey / September 7, 2011 / No comments

See below the factsheet for the South African Cocktail Ant
Cocktail Ant Scientific Name: Crematogaster peringueyi Description: Small ant species indigenous to South Africa. Habitat: Diverse habitat, usually found in a forested area. Distribution is along the East Coast of South Africa. Predators: Surprisingly few due to red colour and irritant fluid. Tend to be preyed upon mainly by birds. Food: Worker ants tend aphids and coccid insects for honeydew. Social structure: Like all ants they form colonies which comprise of a queen and worker ants. There are many different types of worker ant - some work in the nursery, some collect food, some protect the colony e.t.c. Communication: Unknown, presumed same as standard ant - Using pheremones (scents). e.g. an ant that finds food will leave a scent trail on his way to the colony for other ants to follow. Male or Female: This doesn't really apply to Ants.Two types of ant instead; Queen - Body length 6mm Worker ant - Body length 3-6mm, 2 segmented waist, head, thorax and legs reddish brown and black. Life Expectancy: Unknown, presumed to be the same as a standard ant - 90 days (worker ant) Did you know? Cocktail ants will build their nests near birds nests so that as the birds protect their own nests from predators they inadvertently protect the ants. Cocktail ants are called that because they cock their tails in the air and squirt on the bite.

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course, Our animals / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Serval at Umkhumbi Lodge

Lacey / September 5, 2011 / No comments

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a good weekend?

Our motion detect, night vision cameras (supplied to us by Brickhouse Security) have unfortunately not caught the Leopard whose tracks we found last week.

But what they did catch was even better!

Servals are reclusive and sightings are very rare, but thanks to the cameras we were able to capture this footage of the Serval here at our Hluhluwe accommodation near to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve in South Africa.

So, I hear you ask. How do we know that the Leopard tracks do not belong to the Serval? Well, we have found the Serval tracks and they are much smaller than the Leopard tracks, so there are definitely two different African cats at Umkhumbi Lodge.

Category: Bushwire / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Goodbye and good luck Gizmo!!

Lacey / September 1, 2011 / No comments
Gizmo's new home

Great view over the water for Gizmo

 

Well, the day has finally come where we say goodbye to Gizmo.

 

Gizmo hides in the grass

Home Sweet Home

 

In case you missed it, Gizmo was one of the original snakes in our telemetry research project. Unfortunately Gizmo was just a little too small and did not react well to the telemetry unit after the Surgery. There was only one thing to do, let Gizmo go without the transmitter. So back into surgery a few days later, the transmitter was removed and Gizmo returned with us to convalesce.

Gizmo has been getting stronger by the day and has even managed to put on enough weight to shed! So we thought it high time we let him go once more in the bush.

 

Forest Cobra unsure of release

Gizmo tentatively looks round

 

At first he seemed reluctant to leave his Hluhluwe hotel (namely the garage atUmkhumbi Lodge but then instinct got the better of him and he was off.

After a brief stop in the water – which judging by the speed he left it was cold!! – he ducked into the long grasses to hide from the sun.

 

Gizmo the forest Cobra gives us one last smile before slithering away

Be careful Gizmo!

Bye bye

Category: Bushwire, Donald Schultz, Forest Cobra Project / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,