MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Summer is in full swing and the rain is bucketing down. Huge excitement was created this month with regards to the wild dogs and the new pups, Jaco and the Ranger team has more stories on this in their report.

Despite of the good rain that has fallen, transforming the bush into luscious shades of greens, the animals still come to our waterholes for their drink of water in front of the camp. The Elephants are visiting us daily, feeding and bathing in the water holes.

We have also seen a lot of Lion activity this month with the Lion’s frequenting the clearing to hunt Impala or just laze around under the shade of a tree. A lioness with cubs was also seen on the clearing enjoying playtime with her small cubs.

 

 

Molatedi Project

The Crèche is coming on very nicely with only a few tasks such as plumbing and instillation of a hand basin, kitchen sink, toilet and shelving for the store room to be completed.

Molatedi crèche will close for the December holidays and re-open on the 12^th of January 2009. On the same day, we are planning to hand the completed new crèche over to the community.

 

 

Thank you again to the following people for their contribution towards the project.

Adam McDermott & Jacqui Wakeman
Dilys Jones
Ivan & Lyn Goddard
David Kennedy
Koen & Belinda Smit - Zeerust Stationeries
Ivubu Investments Pty Ltd.

Staff Member of the month

Michael Modise ‘Big Boy’ has been with Madikwe Hills since opening day mid 2004. He started as a scullery attendant and worked his way up to Senior Sous Chef in the kitchen. Michael is an inspiration to us all and again proves that one can achieve anything in life if you set you mind to it. We are extremely proud of Michael and hope to have him with us for many years to come.

RANGERS REPORT

It has been a beautiful month here in Madikwe, a month of extremes, weather differing daily, from hot (42°C), dry, grey to wet and lush. The transformation after the rain was incredible indeed and it was also accompanied by other changes. All the rangers at Madikwe Hills are extremely grateful for the rain resulting in beautiful sightings and breathtaking landscapes.  Herewith theirs stories for this month. 

Jaco

Change is in the air and it is now time for the bush to produce new life. It was during the middle of the month when we first started noticing the newborn impala lambs. If there was ever a sign in the bush that summer was here then this would be it. These little guys are born in almost perfect synchrony (the whole herds lambs are born within two weeks). This concentration of births around short time intervals in the beginning of summer is in fact a clever strategy for survival. What happens is a phenomenon called predator satiation. These multitudes of little lambs running around are in fact proverbially “flooding the market”. All sorts of predators are feasting at their heart’s content on many of the new born lambs, but because of the vast numbers that are produced and at the same time means only a small number are taken by predators in the big picture (they just can’t eat fast enough). Inevitably a large number of lambs will survive to an age where they will be able to escape from predators more efficiently. Leopards, hyenas, and cheetah most notably are enjoying in the feast.

Frans

Finally the summer rains have arrived, turning the dead, grey bush into a lush and green environment. We were starting wonder if the rains would come at all this year survive. In certain areas there were almost no grass and the trees where deprived of any foliage, looking like the true Kalahari.  Luckily our prayers where answered, we had 110mm of rain during the month, which is almost a quarter of what we usually expect in a full season.  Where there was nothing a few weeks ago grass is now 30cm tall and the trees have fresh new leaves for all the browsing animals to enjoy.  The watering holes have started to fill and we are now expecting a lovely summer season ahead of us.

 

Sam

It has been an extremely hot and dry spring until the first week of November. We were waiting for the rain to come and settle the dust. It has been two weeks now having rain almost every day and everything is green, especially the areas that were burnt. On Thursday the 20^th of November we were looking for wild dogs and not long after we departed, the call came in from another station announcing the sighting. It was far away from the lodge, but we headed in that direction immediately. While on game drive you shouldn’t just concentrate on looking for the bigger animals, but the small ones as well. That’s what we did and on our way to the wild dogs came across an animal some call the “vacuum cleaner of the bush”, the humble dung beetle. Everybody was patient enough to watch these little creatures do their most essential job. They are the ones that clean up after everybody. They feed on the dung of animals and can be seen as they roll their balls away to be buried underground. You get two types of dung balls, one we call feeding balls and the other breeding balls. Feeding balls serve as food for the adult beetle while the other serves as food for their larvae. The female will usually accompany the male by sitting on the ball as he rolls it away to find a nice spot to burry it. A single egg is laid on the ball and when the larvae hatch it is surrounded by food and also protected from the elements and predators.  This behaviour of burying the dung balls fertilizes the soil and also helps keeping fly populations from exploding.  We actually export dung beetles to Australia to help them cope with the masses of cow dung and so keeping the fly populations at bay.  

 

The wait and trip paid off, as we arrived at the wild dogs we saw that the pups are with the adults. They are finally old enough to join the adults on hunts and now we are expecting to see much more of these incredible animals. There are 8 pups in total which brings the pack to 22 individuals and to a total of 23 in the reserv

Werner

The bush exchanged its brown winter jacket for a beautiful green one this month. It was very waterlogged for most of the month and it made for very interesting and exciting driving on the Madikwe dirt roads. But despite this limitation we still had amazing sightings.  Lion sightings almost on a daily basis. On one occasion we sat with one of the “Batia” brothers, a 16 year old male lion that was evicted with his sibling a few years ago from the north eastern side of the park, scarred, with skin draped over his bones. He somehow managed to kill a wildebeest though. The commotion also attracted two much younger males that are coming into the prime of their lives. We thought we were going to see a huge fight between them and maybe even the end of this Batia brother. An hour later after plenty vocalization and scent marking the two younger males left the old man in peace to enjoy his meal. I would like to think it was out of respect, but more likely then not they were full and maybe even lacked a bit of experience not taking the chance to pick a fight with him. They still have a couple of years to go before they can compete with the current dominant pair for dominance of the area. The Dwarsberg Wild dog pack left their den and brought their eight pups down with them for the first time during this month. My guests and I were fortunate enough to see the wild dogs return after a hunt to the eight pups and their “babysitter”. We witnessed the adults regurgitating meat from the kill to the youngsters and the one female left behind to baby sit. Once again one of those “once in a lifetime” sightings…

As you can see, all the rangers here at Madikwe Hills had a wonderful month with the first rains undoubtedly being the highlight for all. It looks like it is going to be a very good season this year and we are looking forward to an unforgettable time in the most beautiful season of the bush.

Until next time

Regards
Jaco and the Hills Rangers.

Animal Sightings for the month:

Lion:                         165
Leopard:                   13
White Rhino:            66
Black Rhino:             7
Elephant:                  94
Brown Hyena:          18
Spotted Hyena:        42
Buffalo:                     37
Wild Dog:                  26
Hippo:                       11

David Jones & Sian Williams

9 November 2008

Overcast, drizzling & dark, surely not the perfect description for a wedding, but the day was yet to tell of a wonderful story, filled wih love, family, smiles and two hearts to be united as one….

Both Sian and David, were very relaxed about what was awaiting them.  Later the afternoon while Sian was assisted by our staff with hair and make-up, she enjoyed a glass of bubbly to ease the nerves that now took a swing from the calm earlier the day.   The bride to be was only worried about the guests being on time for the ceremony, constantly making sure her maid of honor is on schedule, indeed creating a funny role reversal.

 

 

On 9 November ‘o8, David Jones & Sian Williams woke up for the last morning as individuals, waiting in anticipation for the afternoon to wrap around them, the knot of love, longevity and the bond that will at last make them one, as they will pledge their eternal love to one another in marriage.

At 17:00, Sian Williams, with her father by her side, took everybody’s breathe away and made David Jones realize that not even the worst of weather could take away the feeling of him being the luckiest man on earth at that moment.

The weather  in its gloom, created stunning photos, cherished memories, of love and family that will endure and last in the Jones’s hearts forever!

We wish you all the happiness, bliss and love in the world!

Drienie & The Madikwe Hills Team