Elephants

  In the rainy season we don’t see many elephants at Sinamatella. Presumably they move out into the Park to feed while there is natural water available to them.

Sinamatella flood plain, December 2011

In the dry season however, elephants, and plenty of them, become a part of every day.

We meet them wherever we drive…..

  And wherever there is water……

..from morning to sunset.

   The adults can be intimidating…….

  but the babies are cute…….

   Elephants are incredibly destructive…….

Baobab tree felled and part eaten by elephants

Water pipe broken by elephants at Shumba

They change the landscape…..

Elephant-damaged Mopane scrub in the foreground, mature Mopane trees behind.

   And they become part of it when they die.

  There are surely far too many………

   But we’d miss them if they were gone.

Volunteer missions 4 and 5

  Since I last posted anything on this blog, we have had two more ‘volunteer missions’ helping us.

   First were Marthe, Cath, Nicolas, Fanny, Sarah and Armelle, pictured here at the edge of Sinamatella hill, close to our house.

 From left to right. Back row, Marthe, Cath and Fanny

                              Front row, Nicolas, Sarah and Armelle.

They helped us with a range of activities including some water pump repairs….

 

Nicolas and myself hauling a pump out of the borehole.

   and our regular water bird count at Mandavu Dam. The water is rapidly receding at Mandavu and there are a lot of animals coming to drink. Just as last year, it is possible to take a photo that would nicely illustrate the word “drought” simply by photographing the animals as they approach the water across the devastated surroundings of the dam. As far as we know there have been no deaths yet but I’m afraid there surely must be some before the rains come.

  

Zebra at Mandavu.

Buffalo leaving after drinking

  The next volunteer group has only just left us to travel to the Main Camp area for a week.

  From left to right, Myself, Laurence, Patricia, Anthony, Sandrine, Marie, Valerie and Sue. 

  The organisation Planete Urgence that sends our volunteers has new security arrangements that do not allow us to walk in the bush so we can no longer track rhino with them. Instead we are involved in a number of animal counting activities. That means we don’t get as close to animals as we used to but we certainly still see plenty of them…..

Lion near Kashawe view point.

Hippo, Mandavu Dam

Impala and male Kudu at Masuma

Dassie.

   Every year the dassies at Sinamatella become more and more tame as the dry season progresses and food becomes scarce. Those living near our house are used to receiving vegetable scraps from the kitchen (no point in throwing them in the dustbin for the Hyenas, Baboons and Honey Badgers to take them out again) and inevitably a few of them become tame enough to come running as soon as they see Sue approaching with some old lettuce or cabbage leaves. We try not to give them so much that they become dependant on us but they are not easy to resist!