WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA SABI SAND, SOUTH AFRICA For the month of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen

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1 WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA SABI SAND, SOUTH AFRICA For the month of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 12.7 C (54.8 F) For the month: 3 mm Sunrise: 06:40 Average maximum : 28.4 C (83.1 F) For the season to date: 860 mm Sunset: 17:15 Minimum recorded: 09.0 C (48.2 F) Maximum recorded: 33.0 C (91.4 F) Golden light, misty mornings and sultry sunsets - winter has been full of delights. Our morning game drives have lengthened into later hours of the morning as the cooler temperatures allow for extended drives, not to mention that the sightings have continued throughout the day. Here's a highlights package of the month: Lions Prolific lion sightings were had not only due to the large variety of kills the lions were viewed feeding on, but also a number of different individuals that are seldom seen both lionesses from unknown prides and young coalition males possibly seeking new territories. The Majingilane males continue their stronghold in this area, though were seen returning from the east a little scarred and worse for wear. Sad news from the month is that the Ottawa pride have lost one of their cubs they are now down to two youngsters, two sub-adults and two adult lionesses.

2 Mhangeni pride in full force moving through the reserve in search of the buffalo herds. The proximity to watch these lions act out in their natural behaviour is a privilege.

3 Leopards A leap of leopards should be the term of the month! Several sightings included more than two leopards, with cubs and mating leopards attracting many oooh and aaah moments. A very active Mobeni female ensured that she has covered all of her territorial bases, by mating with the various territorial males within her range. First she was with the Torchwood male, then a few days later associating with the Nyelethi male leopard - sparks were flying as the mating ensued for several days. The Mobeni female is generally known to be an elusive female, so with the multiple sightings of her over the last few weeks, it has been a treat to view her. Buffalo The excitement of finding a large herd, is always further enhanced by the possible opportunity of seeing lions in the area. The Manghene pride continues to follow these large grazers as they provide a sustainable meal for a pride of 16 lions, and they are often joined by three male lions taking advantage of their hunting success. Wild dogs It is that time of the year again - den-sites and puppies! We have wonderful news to share - a pack of wild dogs has settled down at a den-site north of the river, the very same one that they made use of last year. Excitement is hard to contain as you drive towards the den-site, especially with 12 new pups slowly finding their legs, playing and interacting with the adults. Elephants Large groups of elephant continue to move through the reserve, and some of the matriarchs have been easily recognised by their unusual tusk development, ear tears, or any other distinguishable markings. It is proving to be interesting to see just how far these large pachyderms travel in a 24-hour period.

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5 The buffalo and the marsh owls Article by Wesley Cragg A privilege we have here at Singita Sabi Sand is being able to drive off road for certain species of animals, including: Cape buffalo, elephant, and lions just to name a few. I never thought I d be off-roading for buffalo, only to discover a very special nest sight belonging to a marsh owl and her three chicks! Marsh owls are one of the slightly rarer of the nocturnal birds of prey in the area; they are very secretive and are only ever seen briefly when flushed from the long grass. On this particular occasion I was trying to reposition my vehicle in order for one of my guests to benefit from slightly better angles for photography. The large herd of buffalo were lovely to photograph in the very long grass, the sun coming through from behind. My team-mate and expert tracker, Peter Ubisi was sitting next to me, directing me through the long grass. I spotted some movement in the long grass over Peter s tracker seat; little did I expect it to be a rather defensive mother marsh owl! She came out hissing and spread her wings wide in order to make herself look very large and impressive! I thought she was incredibly beautiful, however, so as not to stress her out, I immediately shifted my large green Land Rover into reverse and gave her plenty of space. The nest sight was clearly hard work to put together, long straws of grass intricately tied together at the top, and it concealed three smaller versions of the very beautiful female marsh owl. She reversed back into the nest site and lifted her left wing to allow the youngest of the three siblings to tuck itself in safely. The other two were very obliging and provided for some great photos, also way too big to still be hiding under their mother s wings. We did not spend too much time at the nest sight. One of the other guides and I did return a couple of days later to see that all was still well, and so it was. There were also a few yellow billed hornbills, a couple of Burchell s starlings and a large flock of arrow-marked babblers mobbing what we assumed to be the father of the three small marsh owls. We watched as the other birds swooped down into some thick brush over and over again until the male marsh owl flew off and drew the other birds away. A first for me and one of the most special finds of my career as a safari guide.

6 Top-down or bottom-up regulation Article by Stacey Gerber I am often asked the question, If there are so many animals for the predators to eat then why aren t we seeing more predators? or If hippos are rarely hunted by predators, then why are there so few hippos? Most people don t realise, but animal numbers are regulated by a number of different factors, not only predation. We call these top-down and bottom-up regulatory processes. Examples of regulators include food resource availability, predation and social structure. Within a natural ecosystem, one would not find a pride of lions around every corner as their numbers are regulated by the species social structure. Lions have territories and therefore there will typically be a certain number of lions within an area as they would fight one another. If resources (e.g. prey animals) are scarce within a pride s territory and they are forced to venture into another pride s territory, fights will take place and deaths could result from these fights. This situation is an example of a top-down population regulation process as the resources (e.g. number of buffalo) are not limiting their population numbers but rather other predators are reducing the species animal numbers. Another example is that of hippos, who are very rarely hunted and killed by predators. The reason that we do not have hundreds of hippos around every corner is not because predators are killing them, but because their populations are limited by resources such as food and space. Hippos only eat grass (except on rare occasions), however they are large animals, so they require a lot of it. Here at Singita Sabi Sand we experience dry winters. Winters are hard on all the herbivores, as they have to worry about finding food that has sufficient nutrients to sustain their bodies. During these dry times hippo experience a lot of stress as they struggle to find enough food to sustain their large bodies. Due to these harsh conditions, some sick, injured or weak animals might not make it through the winter (or through a drought), resulting in deaths. If this natural process did not take place there would be no grass left for any of the grazers, resulting in an imbalanced species composition. The situation mentioned above would be an example of a bottom-up regulatory process, where their numbers are controlled by resources rather than predation. This leads us to a very important point and a question I am asked even more frequently: Do you ever intervene when you see a sick or injured animal? The answer is no (unless it is an endangered species), it is best not to, because in the long-term we actually do more damage than good if you look at the big picture. For the reasons mentioned above, animal numbers are regulated by numerous aspects and if we intervene every time we see a hungry animal, then we would be left with an imbalanced system whereby there would probably be a lot of social tension due a severe lack of resource including space and food.

7 Vultures - beauty or beasts? Article by Michelle Campbell Most of us grew up with Disney s Lion King, a film referenced too often on safari. Disney outlined the good guys as the lions, and the baddies as the hyenas and vultures. With their perceived ugliness, scavenging antics and tearing apart of rotting carcasses, vultures particularly are easy to dislike. Even Charles Darwin, lover of nature, disliked vultures on first sight, writing in 1832, these disgusting birds formed to revel in putridity. Non-naturalists seem to take offence to vultures too - in the 2012 Kenyan Elections, for example, local graffiti artists took a stand against Kenya s Vulture politicians. Raptor specialist Munir Virani had something to say about that, though. In discussing the unfairly compared vultures to Kenyan MP s he stated that MP s are nothing like vultures at all - MP s do little to keep the environment clean, nor do they prevent the spread of disease, that their monogamous lifestyles are questionable, and stated that they are certainly far from facing extinction! It is a laughable matter when making such comparisons, but Virani brings up a very serious point. Vultures are endangered, and critically so. Of Africa s 11 vulture species, six are on the verge of extinction, with some reports stating that the decline has been as much as 60% over the last 30 years. Work by scientist Darcy Ogada and her team from Africa Programs for the Peregrine Fund predict that these natural recyclers, which breed slowly and need years to mature, could be extinct in Africa in the next 50 to 100 years. The result of their extinction would be devastating, not just from a conservation and environmental standpoint, but an economic one, too. As biological waste disposers, vultures are vital to our ecosystem. They are able to consume carcasses so putrid and rotten that they are toxic to other animals. They can achieve this because their stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive, allowing them to safely digest carcasses infected with Botulinum toxin, hog cholera bacteria, and anthrax bacteria, thus stemming the spread of disease. Vultures have bare heads and often bare necks so that when they feed on rotting carcasses, bacteria and other parasites cannot burrow into their feathers to cause infections.

8 Why are so many vultures now in danger of extinction? There are multiple reasons, and such reasons vary from region, to country even to continent. Here in Africa, Ogada revealed that poisoning from eating pesticide-laced carcasses caused as many as 60 percent of the vulture deaths recorded since the 1970s. This alone is a three-fold issue, and includes a combination of birds dying after eating poisoned carcasses intended for lions and predators who hunt domestic livestock; from direct poisoning by farmers who believe the (false) myth that vultures prey on healthy livestock; and third due to deliberate targeting by poachers. The presence of vultures, perched or circling, act as a beacon to alert authorities to illegally poached animals - poachers therefore lace carcasses with poison, killing the vultures and preventing them from being spotted. Other key causes for the drop in vulture population size include the demand for vulture body parts for use in witchcraft and traditional medicine (ground vulture skull apparently gives you magic powers and due to their exceptional eye sight, their bodies parts also apparently let you see into the future); urbanisation, loss of habitat and breeding areas, high numbers getting electrocuted by power lines and many more getting crushed by wind turbines, numbers of which are rapidly growing in the African region. In his book What has Nature ever done for us? Tony Juniper attempts to calculate the economic and financial value of Nature s services. He included vultures in this assessment and surveyed the effects of the 99.9% loss of vultures in India. He calculated that the loss of vultures, inadvertently killed off by an antiinflammatory drug called Diclofenac given to cattle and buffalo, cost the Indian economy a whopping USD 34 billion in healthcare alone! With no vultures to clean up, there was a build-up of carcasses (which take three to four times longer to decompose without vultures), which posed significant risks to the population as the carcasses harboured diseases such as anthrax, and also contaminated nearby water sources. The other side-effect was an explosion in the population of feral dogs. A dangerous spike in rabies resulted, leading to a huge increase in dog bites, and rabies deaths in humans rose dramatically.

9 With such extreme side effects resulting from the direct loss of vultures, the India case was an important wake-up call to the importance of vultures in our ecosystems. With the sheer scale of population declines in vultures across the world, immediate action must be taken by conservationists, law makers and governments to save these creatures. The more we know about them, the more vultures and the services that they provide can be appreciated. Even Darwin had a change in heart, and was later quoted: These vultures certainly are gregarious; for they seem to have pleasure in each other s society on a fine day, a flock may often be seen at a great height; each bird wheeling round and round in the most graceful revolutions. - Charles Darwin, Birdlist: June 2017 Birdlist in June was 192. Specials included a white-headed vulture, secretary bird, little sparrowhawk, marsh owl, Denhams bustard and Kori bustard. Moments from June

10 Misty mornings are spellbinding - the beauty continues to linger for hours.

11 An African Hoopoe Photographs on location by Ross Couper, Michelle Campbell, Wesley Cragg Singita Ebony and Boulders Lodge Sabi Sand South Africa Thirtieth of June 2017