In order to avoid inbreeding amongst the reserve’s lions, Kariega had to administer a contraceptive to all the lionesses on the reserve. What made these captures so exciting is all the responsibility that rested on us as volunteers. We were given the tasks of firstly finding the lions, then getting the team ready and to the location and finally to block other pride members from the darted lioness using our vehicle so that the team can load her and treat her in a safer location. It was absolutely unreal being so close to these massive lions and being able to touch them.
The females are injected with a capsule that will release the contraceptive drug over a period of 18 months. This will ensure that we have the luxury of time to look for new lions elsewhere in the country which will bring new genes into our lion population.

Our next capture was even more exciting and special when we joined the team with darting our matriarch elephant in order to remove her collar. Kariega used a helicopter for this particular operation, and while the vet and team were busy with the matriarch, our Big Bull elephant showed some serious concern for the matriarch’s safety and health and decided to come have a closer look. The helicopter and elephant were in a proper stand off and neither seemed to give way. Finally, Big Bull decided that it is better not to interfere and moved off.
Volunteers could not believe how warm an elephant is and how hard their skins are. What a privilege to be able to get so close and even touch this animal that we see so often.

Our final captures were on our dear rhino, Thandi. We were devastated to find that her wound had opened up again. This capture was not at all exciting or even a pleasure to watch. We were absolutely sickened by the sight and felt such sadness and empathy for her. Dr William Fowlds had to properly clean the wound and this left her with a big open wound again.
Once again this brave rhino paved the way for poached survivors and gave doctors and vets across the world a chance to do some ground breaking surgery on her. This entailed employing 3 different techniques of skin grafts on her wound in order to establish which method is most successful and can be employed on other rhinos. It will also answer many questions we have concerning the viability of these grafts on rhinos. We let Thandi be for a few weeks until the follow up will reveal the results. If any rhino can endure this, it is Thandi. We are all hoping and praying for her.

Other than captures, wildlife sightings on the reserve were as incredible and special as always. Having our massive Big Bull graze past the car, getting within 2m from a black rhino and seeing the lions hunt are just some of the highlights of our Africa conservation work.
Visits to the volunteer house include the whole herd of elephants actually blocking us from going into the yard for at least two hours until we were left under the Milky Way. Not many people can say this after a hard day’s work.
We can’t wait for the new month and all the incredible and special experiences it will bring.

See you soon
Azél Crous
Kariega Game Reserve: Volunteer Coordinator

When an animal walks through it, the loop tightens around their neck or leg. The animal’s natural instinct is to fight it and ends up choking itself. The other end of the snare is tied to a tree or rock to prevent the animal from running away. This is a cruel and unselective way of catching bush meat.  The rhino calf must have walked through one and because it is much stronger than the animal it was intended for, pulled it free. Luckily it was wrapped so loosely around its ankle that it came of easily and did not injure the calf.  We took the opportunity while the calf was down and the SCE volunteers got to ear notch, micro-chip and take blood from the calf.  This could have ended on a more serious note if it wasn’t for Shamwari’s expert conservation and monitoring team.

The next day started with a talk on game capture and the methods we use for the different game we capture on Shamwari.  This is to prepare the students for what they will get involved in.  The young vets met local vet, Murray Stoke, who would be their mentor during their stay at SCE.  They were told that their duties during game capture would include loading and offloading of the animals, monitoring breathing and heart rate and discussing which ‘’knock-down’’ and ‘’wake-up’’ drugs to use on the different animals captured.

In the two short weeks we darted zebra, waterbuck and impala, which were sold to other game reserves.  We treated buffalos for mainge, a hair loss disease.  We darted our two fertility research elephant bulls, Jabulani and Meshatu with the Onderstepoort vet research team and the students got to watch the interesting process of the sperm collection.  Konrad and myself got to fly in the helicopter to find the bulls.  The students learned about the reality of game capture when an eland cow died after running down a valley and we couldn’t find her in time.  They later conducted an autopsy on it to determine the cause of death.

One of the most exciting parts of the course for Konrad and myself was visiting a local dairy farm.  The students wanted to see how we South Africans do things, but I think Konrad and myself learned more from this experience as we are only ever involved in wildlife.  The cows walks onto this rotating wheel, where they eat their food while getting milked and by the time the wheel has rotated 360 degrees it walks off and is replaced by another cow.  And there is about 900 of them … Wow!! Besides the veterinary component we also did a few predator, elephant and rhino monitoring sessions and some shooting on the course.  We also did a night petrol, where we saw a brown hyena, porcupine, small spotted genet, striped-polecat, hippos and lions hunting.

As usual, we did not forget our weekly visit to Sinovuyo to spend some time with the kids.  On the last day we decided to go on one last game drive, but was called to assist in doing a health check on an old lioness at Born Free, who wasn’t looking too great the day before. The students drew some of the cats’ blood to send away for testing and put her on a drip as she was very dehydrated.  Then it was time to rush home or we would miss the taxi.  After a very poor attempt from the students trying to sing the South African anthem and an excellent recital of the Scottish national anthem by Konrad and myself, we said good bye.  Good bye you pale Brits! You will be missed!

Special visits from animals at the volunteer house this month include warthog babies in our yard, the elephant herd, lions having a peek through our gate and last but not least a swarm of bees! Volunteers just love the saying we have here: T.I.A – This Is Africa. We can never prepare for things that the African bush will throw at us.

We started a new project on the reserve – planting of the so-called ‘miracle’ tree of the century: Spekboom. This plant is AMAZING! Each hectare of Spekboom could capture 4.2 TONS of carbon yearly and will also increase the carrying capacity of the reserve. A hectare of Spekboom is about 10 times more effective at carbon fixing than any tropical rainforest! To date it’s one of the most successful carbon sinks in the world. Volunteers are taking Spekboom cuttings from trees on the reserve and spreading it to other areas of the reserve. Words from volunteers that have been involved in this project include: “Saving the world one Spekboom at a time” and “it feels like I’m fighting global warming hands on”. At the moment we’ve planted 4560 Spekboom trees on the reserve and loving every moment of it!

The reserve has become the new home of various species over the last month. Volunteers have been part of releases of Blesbok, buffalo and rhino. It’s always amazing seeing animals take their first steps on the reserve! Volunteers are always given the task of monitoring the state of these new arrivals and to make sure that they are settling in just fine on the reserve.

Our two Servals that have been in the reserve’s temporary bomas for a few months have finally been released onto the reserve and we are thrilled to say that they are settled in and healthy. Guests have had very frequent sightings of the two and they are a great addition to the extensive wildlife list of the reserve.
Another unexpected addition to the wildlife list is at least 2 Spotted hyena that have moved into the reserve and sightings have been fairly often. We are welcoming the two with open arms and really hope they stay in the area.

Lastly, volunteers were part of an amazing once in a lifetime experience by joining a lion capture and relocation. They got up close and personal by helping with the finding, carrying, relocation and waking up of the two sub-adult lions on the reserve. What an unforgettable experience!

We are waiting in anticipation for what the next month will bring. One thing is for sure…it will definitely be filled with lots of memories and adventures!

Come join us…
Azél Crous
Kariega Game Reserve: Volunteer Coordinator

We chopped alien prickly pears and thorny Acacia bushes to clear roads, fed the buffalos and nyalas at the breeding centre, learned about held snakes, started a new community project (planted trees, erected a fence around a playground, painted tables with the kids and planted poles for a kitchen project at a school in Colchester), we watched eland being offloaded from the game truck and into their holding pens, we did lectures and talks, had a rehab tour and spent some time feeding lovely Debra the zebra and her donkey friend, we went on an anti-poaching walk and learned about poaching in South Africa and how to find snares, we spend a whole day looking for elephants only to find them on the furthest possible hill, but found dung beetles pushing their balls, black rhino, the king of the jungle and some hippos instead. We got stuck in the mud and got dirty and cold but we had fun!

Besides spending time with us Sparshalt also got to do some pretty cool stuff in the area. They visited Daniel cheetah farm, raptor and reptile centre, Addo Elephant National Park, did an elephant back safari, went zip-lining through the tree tops and took a scenic plane ride.

A big thank you to the awesome group who introduced us to chubby bunnies (a game involving multiple marshmallows in your mouth) and hope to see you back soon!

Cindy – SCE Coordinator

For two weeks the volunteers had very early mornings, leaving in the dark to get to the far north of Shamwari by the time the sun rises. We had to find the buffalo herd at Bayethe and radio the game capture team to give them the herd  location. The buffaloes were darted two at a time and as the first one went down we would drop off a team to keep it upright as the second team tended to the second buffalo. Volunteers helped from the loading to the offloading. All the darting was done from our vehicle and the vet, Johan Joubert and ecologist, John Obrian explained the procedures as it happened. All and all we captured 20 buffaloes.

Then came phase two. The state vet arrived on Monday to test all the buffaloes in the holding bomas for the diseases mentioned above. Volunteers helped with the ear tagging and numbering, drawing of blood, injections and micro-chipping for keep track of which buffalo is which.

All and all a great experience for those who are looking for a real wildlife conservation experience!. Well done team!!

Kariega Game Reserve volunteers learned this when one morning we found the elephant herd on our way to do alien vegetation clearing. It was the first morning out in the field for 3 new volunteers of which one’s favourite animal was the elephant. She burst into tears of joy when our impressive Big Bull elephant came right up to our car, smelled us and spent a while leaning against our car with his massive tusks staring us in the face. With feelings of awe, respect and excitement filling the car we headed off to work when suddenly we stumbled upon an elephant mother standing around the next corner. We were almost excited again before seeing the absolute sadness in her eyes. At her feet was a baby elephant that passed away. No book could have prepared us for what we experienced next to the mother. Again all the volunteers on the car were in tears but this time for our compassion for the mother. We drove away feeling heartbroken, but soon realised that this is life – it gives and it takes, we were very fortunate to have experienced and shared such an emotional filled wildlife encounter with an elephant. These creatures are absolutely incredible and we are so blessed to have them surround us so very often here at Kariega. Since the baby elephant encounter we have seen and  been surrounded by hundreds of babies of all the other species – which include all the antelope species, a brand new baby elephant (Lancie), a baby rhino (from Thandi’s female companion) and last but not least…4 lion cubs!

Kariega hosted the one year memorial of our poached rhino male, Temba, in the last week. People of all walks of life were part of this event, from local clubs, schools and reserves to NGO’s, corporate companies, banks, the police, conservationists and just your average South African that’s trying to help with rhino conservation in their immediate community. Even though the event was based on a tragic incident, management of Kariega Game Reserve tried to make it about the positives around the whole poaching drama currently going on in the country. The morning was filled with people speaking about success stories and telling us about what they are doing to help raise awareness not only in South Africa but across the globe. The volunteers walked away feeling inspired and encouraged to do whatever we can to help in this war against our animals.

The reserve has recently bought 2 female servals. They are currently in temporary holding bomas which will help make the release into the wild more successful –  seeing that they now have the chance to acclimatise to the area and get used to all the animals on the reserve that pop in for a visit. Kariega already has 2 male servals roaming freely and hopefully we’ll have several babies in the year to come. The volunteers are in charge of ‘spicing’ up their bomas with hollow tree stumps and things for these cats to climb in and under. We are also trying to catch live bait for them which will encourage them to hunt seeing that they were kept in enclosures from birth. These females are only a few months old so we are positive that their natural instincts will take over once they are released and hunting will be no problem for them. We have also put up some camera traps around their bomas to see if the reserve’s males are popping by for a visit.

Alien vegetation clearing on Kariega has kept us busy and has provided some very comical moments with an all-girls house for two weeks now. The women feel more empowered with every fall of an alien tree and helping us improve the reserve’s ecosystem one alien at a time.

The first rains have arrived in the area and all the burnt areas that were part of Kariega’s prescribed burning plan has been soaked with water and green, lush grass will soon sprout from these areas. Burning is absolutely essential in any game reserve’s management plan and plays a major role in removing moribund and/or unacceptable grass material and to eradicate and/or prevent the encroachment of undesired plants. Not burning a reserve will lead to a decrease in the diversity of plant species and thus the animal species that the reserve is able to provide a home for.

Our most amazing wildlife encounters have oddly enough not been from the vehicle, but from inside our house’s fences. The elephant herd and especially our Big Bull have been visiting our house so often we have almost adopted him as a volunteer. Apart from breaking our fence with one of the massive falling branches he broke off the tree outside our house, the herd’s visits are an absolute highlight of any volunteer’s stay here at Kariega. Other wildlife encounters from our yard included a male lion hunting a warthog right in front of our house – what a thrilling and humbling experience! This is what makes volunteering in Africa so much different from being on a safari – as a volunteer at Kariega you don’t only get actively involved in Africa conservation on the reserve by working with animals – but you are always surrounded by the wildlife and what better way is there to learn the ways of the bush than by seeing and experiencing these things.

We can’t wait to see what each new day brings and we know that life in the bush is all but predictable! Come share in our special experiences as a volunteer here at Kariega Game Reserve…it’s a conservation work experience like no other.

Azél Crous
Kariega Game Reserve: Volunteer Coordinator

We’ve had some really odd and amazing lion sightings this month, which included 4 adult lions walking very speedy towards our car with tall bushes enclosing us and me reversing for (it felt like 1km) ages to get out of these hunters’ way. We also had a lion sighting where one of the males pretended to walk past our ship (new name for our game viewer -thanks to our volunteer, Gustavo, who couldn’t seem to find the name ‘cruiser’ in his Argentinian vocabulary) and actually went around the bush and popped out on the other side, giving our poor volunteers THE STARE. Other than odd, our lion sightings were blessed with Full mane mating with Mommy – this is incredible to see! News is that Aunty has had cubs! She disappeared from the pride a few weeks ago and has been seen with very swollen teats…we are still trying to follow her to her cubs but she is amazing at disappearing into the bush. A female lion will keep her cubs hidden for the first few weeks after birth before she introduces them to the pride. What is worrying however is that Aunty has recently been spending extended periods of time with the rest of the pride. We really hope the cubs are still alive and well. We will keep you updated on this story on our official volunteer Facebook Page: ‘Kariega Conservation Volunteers’.

The ship and its volunteers have officially been selected to be the ‘Rhino Scouting vehicle’. This means that we have to find our seven rhino as often as possible and log their locations. This information is then given to the wildlife managers who are constantly concerned with their safety and we are also using this info to build up a database which will soon become a rhino spatial movement study.

Our first night drive of the year was delayed by about 30 minutes because we were ‘trapped’ in our yard as Charlie (our young elephant bull) was leisurely blocking our gate. Our night drives have been filled with incredible sightings of wild cats, active and patrolling lions, us being in the centre of an elephant herd with members almost scraping the ship as they passed us, genets, porcupines, rhino, buffalo, hippos and last but not least, the very rare AARDVARK! Night drives give us a glimpse into the lives and behaviour of all the nocturnal species that we often lie awake and listen to at night.

We’ve been mostly viewing the elephant herd members browsing in the bush over the past two months, but when we finally got to see them on the plains, we discovered that there was a tiny new addition that was fiercely protected in the centre of the herd. Our herd is now 26 members strong, which is still under our reserve’s elephant carrying capacity. We would however have to keep an eye on the herd’s impact on the vegetation through our elephant impact monitoring study in order to ensure that these destructive feeders don’t go overboard with their indulging habits.

Our leopard monitoring study – which entails us putting up camera traps on ‘leopard habitat looking’ areas on the reserve – provides the volunteers some excitement every week as we race home after fetching the cameras from the field to view the photos. We have not been successful in capturing a leopard on camera but it is never disappointing seeing all the elusive nocturnal animals close up. We have seen many leopard tracks on the reserve and will enthusiastically keep on trying to find these beautiful, elusive cats.

We look forward to many more adventures and unforgettable animal encounters here at Kariega Game Reserve. Come join our journey and be part of a wildlife conservation experience of a lifetime!

Azél Crous

Kariega Game Reserve: Volunteer Coordinator

This could have been due to us setting up the camera or our general activity around the den area. I also wanted to make sure I extended the height of the camera this time because on a previous occasion, a hyena chewed the camera.

We set of towards the den, my eyes scanning the ground for any fresh signs that may indicate the hyenas were still in the area. As we walked closer I started seeing fresh dung and fresh hyena anal pasting’s on grass stalks around the area. This was a good sign and we quickly set the camera trap and moved off trying not to make too much noise. We did notice some small footprints around the den and I was convinced that there were some youngsters at the den. The plan was to come and fetch the camera after about two weeks.

On Monday morning we went to do some bush clearing and decided to go and fetch the trap while in the area. I retrieved the camera and was very excited to download the images it captured. To our surprise, we did not just get a couple of photos, but well over 600 fairly good images.

We also got images of youngsters and adults interacting around the den! There are three babies we can now ID. These new additions are a good sign for hyena conservation and for our project as a whole, as we can expect more regular activity around the den which willl be great for collecting bone samples and IDing the adults over the next few months.

This find was really great after the earlier disappointments. I was relieved that they didn’t move away from the den and that some of the images even showed them to be quite relaxed in close proximity to the camera.