Tag Archive for 'kids'

Elephant cow digs for tubers while calf bullies others: Video

Published

on January 4, 2007

. 6 Comments Tags:africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, kids, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The elephants spent this cool day in the sandveld.

And eat and eat is what they did all day. But with the temperatures being a lot cooler the calves were full of fun and all of them playing with each other.

Even some of the bulls took time out to wrestle.

When these sands are moist after rain, the elephant love to search for tubers, which are then so much easier to dig out. And Chipfongwe took full advantage of each hole his mother dug, either to find scraps of tubers or just to roll in the cool moist soils.

I left the elephant at dusk and just down the way found an adult male lion. He was lying down but hearing the elephant approaching, he was up and ducked off into the thick mopanie. Not even time for a photo.

Elephant calf learning life skills: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on January 3, 2007

in videopost

. 5 Comments Tags:africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, kids, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, rain, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Well even after all that rain yesterday, we were eventually able to get out today.

I didn’t even try to follow up on the wild dogs as following them off road hunting would definitely have meant some sticky times.
Instead we picked up on the elephants. They had moved into the sandveld into the Albizia woodland where they love to go after the rain. I think they too keep out of the heavy clays, which is hard work for them to walk in. On the harder soils the clays get really slippery. And when such a big beast slips, they fall HARD.

Chipfongwe is gaining more and more confidence using his trunk and putting leaves into this mouth. But that seems to be about all he does. He doesn’t chew them and they soon fall out.

His teeth should now be starting to erupt, so he should start chewing soon. And again today he was eating fresh elephant dung to help build up the necessary mircoorganisms in his stomach for breaking down what he eats.

The elephants spent most of the day in the sandveld, but in the heat of the day they ventured to pans in the clays. I was so caught up filming them playing in a pan that I didn’t notice this elephant bull that had sauntered up to the front of the vehicle. Right up to it! But he meant no harm and Lindy, who a month ago was absolutely petrified of elephant, sat there and actually chatted to the big dude. It’s wonderful how she has turned around to now totally accept elephants. (I think it was little Chipfongwe who won her heart)

And it’s just as wonderful how the elephant accept us too!

Elephant calf learning life skills: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on January 3, 2007

in videopost

. 0 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, kids, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, rain, teach, video, waterhole, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Well even after all that rain yesterday, we were eventually able to get out today.

Chipfongwe is gaining more and more confidence using his trunk and putting leaves into this mouth. But that seems to be about all he does. He doesn’t chew them and they soon fall out.

And it’s just as wonderful how the elephant accept us too!

Wild dog dawn uprising: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on December 29, 2006

in photopost

. 8 Comments Tags:africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, cites, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kids, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, polls, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The dogs are all accounted for!!!

At dawn the whole pack were lying out in the open near Khayeni, all 21 of them. BB is still well but always seems to be in extra pain when they first head out hunting, until her joints have loosened up. Then she hits the front of the pack and will, if not lead the way, be flanking the pack to scoop any prey not encountered by the rest of them. She sure is a classy hunter, even with her handicapped leg.

The dogs were well fed from last night and lethargically headed out hunting across the Umbrella thorn woodland. They encountered several impala but the chase was limp and soon they were lying up at a pan.

Not wishing to roast myself again all day, as I did yesterday, I was back in camp early to catch up on admin.
Back out in the afternoon the dogs had moved a little east but were still resting up. Luckily from here they headed back north at sunset. Going south was impossible for me with the many dongas/ravines and horrendously thick bush.

But even so their hunting attempts were rather futile and we left them resting soon after sunset.
With the moon being past half they could hunt tonight but then they still look fairly well fed from yesterday.

Buffalo: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on December 24, 2006

in photopost

. 2 Comments Tags:africa, animal-kingdom, black-rhino, blogumentary, buffalo, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, kids, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, polls, teach, video, warthog, waterhole, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

It was almost a bad hair day!

I was filming the buffalo this afternoon and just about to put the camera away when I noticed one of the switches on the wrong setting. This meant all that footage would have been useless, so I thought. I wasn’t too concerned as the footage wasn’t anything unique, but back at base I found it all to be just fine.

This morning Mandlovu and her herd were near Lisililije spring. We followed them into the hills as far as we could. And a ways up there found another spring that they were using and this time the cows were dominating the fresh water from the spring keeping the youngsters away.

With them moving out of range deeper into the hills, I took the girls to go check out some other springs. Chikwelane is flowing pretty strongly. There weren’t any elephant there at the time but they are using this spring too.

I was told about another pan to the south of the reserve that was a good spot for black rhino. It was a pan I didn’t know about. Anyway I spent the afternoon there with most of the time just waiting. Eventually a lone warthog boar came for his afternoon session followed by the herd of buffalo.

And by dusk I was still out of luck with black rhino, so called it a day.

Vultures maintain a healthy environment: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on December 22, 2006

in photopost

. 3 Comments Tags:africa, african-birds, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, buffalo, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hyaenas, IUCN-Red-List, kids, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, polls, predators, teach, video, vultures, waterhole, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

We rushed out to the lions on the buffalo carcass being sure to get there at first light.
But they had beaten us to it. Just as we arrived the lions were on their way out having finished that whole buffalo bull in less than 24 hours. Now that takes some eating!
And then of course the vultures piled in. Not 20minutes later the carcass was nothing else but clean bones. Those birds are so efficient in cleaning up carcasses. And they’re lucky too they can’t smell. That carcass was truly high when we were there.

There was very fresh evidence of a herd of buffalo having moved through the area and they must have disturbed the lions and possibly chased some of them off. When buffalo smell blood they go wild and are not pleasant to be on the receiving end of.
We later picked up the herd drinking at Bandama pan.

And the elephants were right in the north at Chipanguchi pan loving the water and brilliantly green grass.

About an hour later they moved into the shade in the mopanie woodland to stay cool. The girls and friends then took to the mud and I confess I just had to join them too!

Eventually I managed to get the girls out of there to give the elephants another turn in their wallow.

The wildebeest started dropping their calves about a week ago. These little guys on Banyini, stay close to their mother’s sides at all times until they are a little older. This is their only defence should any predators try their luck. Hyaenas and wild dogs sure will do if they come across them. But for now there’s been no sign of the wild dogs for a week or so.

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Tag Archive for 'kids'

Elephant cow digs for tubers while calf bullies others: Video

Elephant calf learning life skills: Video

Elephant calf learning life skills: Video

Wild dog dawn uprising: Video

Buffalo: Video

Vultures maintain a healthy environment: Video

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