Hello Everyone!
We hope you’re keeping yourselves warm with the start of winter. Out on the Reserve our winter has definitely started - along with some fantastic rainfall. The reserve definitely needed it and it is awesome to see things turn green again. The animals are very grateful! On top of that, it has been another great month, and a lot of cosy fires to return to after each activity. There’s nothing like seeing your guests' faces when they are met with a hot towel and a sherry to warm them up!
I know the New Arrivals section of my letter always gets everyone going, so I’ll start with that. The reserve has had quite a few little additions in the past month. Creatures I always seem to forget to write about, but which are such fun to watch are our ostriches! We have been blessed with 9 new babies and they are going strong. Their parents are on high alert in case our cheetah decide on a snack (which they seem to be doing of late - perhaps their metabolism gets affected by the winter too? You know how we humans can't seem to stop eating in winter?). As if these 9 weren’t enough, we have a beautiful baby giraffe too. He’s soo tiny compared to his mum that you can't help but 'ooh' and 'aah' (as we ladies seem to do the minute we see a baby anything!).
And here’s some news hot off the press. Just put a radio call out to the guys to see what I’d forgotten, and heard that we are the proud guardians to a new baby elephant, born just last night! There are restrictions on viewing, as it is so little - but I promise you some beautiful photos of him/her in my July news letter! I’ll also update you then on our white rhino mum, who should deliver any day now. Promise to keep you up to date on that little bundle!
The cheetah cubs you saw in last month’s newsletter are growing up fast and are so beautiful. Mum is allowing us to see them from quite close up now, as long as we don’t invade their space. The two cubs are so inquisitive and love to look at us! Then you see them quickly run back to Mum as if she has given the order for us to move on already. Our guests have really had the most amazing viewing of Damara & her cubs and have left with awesome photos to show the family. We have attached some pretty special moments that we got to see with our guests.
We’ve had an exciting month on the conservation side as we had to dart one of our rhino again: the transmitter we use to monitor this endangered guy had stopped working. It all went well and he didn't even know the difference. Steve got to go up with the vet in a helicopter so they could get a clear shot to dart him. Whilst they were looking for him, Steve got some fantastic photos of Hlosi - and wow it looks good. He said it was a really awesome experience to have seen the reserve from the air, and fairly low down - so needless to say we were all a little jealous.
One of the great opportunities during these darting exercises -- and thanks to the fact that our vets are so good at what they do -- is that all our researchers and students get to take part in the many things that take place whilst the rhino is down. Whether it be monitoring his breathing, or keeping him cool with water, or taking his temperature - it all counts. Needless to say, our guests are ecstatic to have been part of the operation.
Fishing has also been quite fun this past month. Some of the guests that are in for a few nights have opted for an afternoon fish and have come back with huge barbel, which we have released into our waterhole outside the Lodge. Nothing interesting to pan fry, but certainly entertaining for the keen fisherman!
Before I end off, I have attached a couple of photos of some awesome shots of a visitor we had at Hlosi early the other morning. Some of us were standing just inside the dining room watching him as he went about scent marking and as you will see.........doing what cats love to do best! This piece of news is sooooo exciting for us, and is definitely not something you see everyday. (Gotta keep some juicy news for the end of the news letter - can't have all the excitement at the top of the page!)
Well, again, we thank all those operators that have sent us guests, and we look forward to a whole lot more! Take care everyone & we'll catch up again at the end of July, with some more news from the bush!
Kerry
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