P a g e 1 A P R I L / M A Y & J UN E 2 0 1 4 Lissataba Times L E O P A R D First Aid Camera Traps Security C A U G H T Karen and Deon Scheepers from Site 16 set up their camera trap on the plains over a period of time. When downloading their electronic safari you can imagine the excitement when they came across a sequence of photos of a Leopard stalking an unsuspecting Wildebeest in broad day light. This is an extremely exciting first for us at Lissataba. We continue to be amazed by the footage supplied by our extra eyes in the bush. S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T : S T A L K I N G W I L D E B E E S T O N C A M E R A T R A P I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Annual Cycle Ride 1 Snakes all around 2 First aid pays off 3 Security 4 Camera Traps 5 Classified 6
Page 2 APRIL/MAY & JUNE 2014 S U C C E S S F U L A G M The AGM is a good time to see how the reserve is being run, and also a great time to catch up with old friends. Feedback on the conversion was presented and although there was set back due to the unfortunate death of Paul Hay the surveyor everything is back on track. The board of directors all made themselves available to serve another term and were warmly welcomed by the owners. One of the more exciting presentations was the proposal of a Nyala breeding project on Lissataba. The proposal will be circulated with the draft AGM minutes. The evening festivities started with the rugby being screened and the bokke not disappointing. The club house gardens were lit up with lanterns and a cosy warm fire took the chill out of the night air. The food consisted of both lamb and a pig on the spit, delicious salads and vegetables and a few glasses of tasty red wine. W o r k O n t h e H o u s i n g S e c t i o n r o a d s After two years of heavy rainfall on the reserve the roads have taken a beating especially the housing section roads due to the steep decent from the control room area towards the river. Another challenge is that the area is incredibly rocky, combined with the positioning of the water and electric cables on most of the roads makes it almost impossible to repair the roads with a blade. The only option that we are left with is to gravel pack the worst areas in the housing section. We have so far laid down over 85 trailer loads of gravel, unfortunately this gravel has to come from somewhere and therefore we have had to open borrow pits or quarries in the housing section. We all agree the borrow pits are not pleasing on the eye, however they are a necessity in order to get the job done. Once the work is completed the un-used pits will be filled with old thatching grass as well as the vegetation from the fire breaks around the houses.
P a g e 3 A P R I L / M A Y S N A K E S A L L A R O U N D & J UN E 2 0 1 4 U S While Niche Cleaning Service was cleaning one of the homes we received a frantic call to say that one of the ladies had found a snake in one of the rooms. Upon arrival Donovan found a relaxed 1.2m African Rock Python curled up in the corner of the room. The amazing snake was carefully removed and relocated on the reserve. Over the Easter weekend Andre Nel from Site7 and his family were enjoying birding in Mike J s hide when they noticed a snake curled up on one of the support beams next to one of the bird posters. The snake was identified as a African Rock Python. Donovan went down relocated the young Python near Giraffe dam. Our little boy Dylan went outside to play in the garden and was greeted by a Mozambican spitting Cobra. He ran inside shouting snake-snake. Donovan went out and found the young cobra trying to get through the fence into the pool area. The snake was caught and relocated. A N N U A L C Y C L E R I D E The annual cycle ride went extremely well. The course took the cyclists on a scenic yet slightly challenging ride. Shane who came first in the 35km ride was privileged enough to encounter a herd of zebra and waterbuck on his ride. Andre from Site 7 came in second place for the 15km and received two vouchers from Khamai. The Lissataba bush cam managed to get some photos of the riders. Other cyclists came across the Eland when cycling back to their homes. We managed to Raise R1 100.00 for Khamai Reptile Park. Donald who owns and runs the establishment is raising funds to print off posters of snakes found in our area for the local schools. His passion and dedication is overwhelming. We are extremely honoured to have an individual such as Donald part of the Hoedspruit Community. We encourage all Lissatabians and friends to visit Khamai Reptile Centre. Andre Nel Site 7 Bernie Krone Site 27 Thank you to everybody that assisted during and after the ride.
Page 4 APRIL/MAY & JUNE 2014 F I R S T A I D C O U R S E P A Y S O F F Three staff members from Lissataba as well as three home owners attended a first aid course offered on the reserve. Over the 3 days they learnt how to perform CPR and procedures to follow in an emergency. On the last day of the course they participated in emergency simulation. A section of the course covered burns and the treatment of burns which was put to the test when one of our staffs 9 month old baby girl pulled a cup of boiling water onto her chest. The little girl was brought to the office where burn shield was applied to the wounds before the entire chest area was rapped in bandage holding the cooling burn shield in place. While Donovan was dressing the wound Sean contacted Pieter from Hoedspruit medical rescue. Who arrived in record time from Hoedspruit. Pieter examined the child commended us on the actions taken. He recommended the child be taken to hospital. The little girl has almost recovered fully and has full movement of her arms and is again crawling around with a smile on her face. We would again like to inform all the owners that should you have a emergency please contact Hoedspruit Medical Rescue as well as management. Hoedspruit Medical Rescue has offered to assist Lissataba with medical scenario rehearsals free of charge in order to keep all the qualified staff and owners up to speed should there be an emergency. Lissataba s medical response equipment now includes a fully portable first aid pack, a spine board and spider harness and a neck brace.
P a g e 5 A P R I L / M A Y F E N C E & J UN E 2 0 1 4 U P G R A D E Maintenance work on the reserve is ongoing and unfortunately nothing lasts forever. We are in the process of replacing some sections of the western fence line. We have already replaced the Housing section (vet fence) and in order for us to keep our P3 exemption permit which allows us to manage the game on the reserve without the interference from Nature Conservation we have to have all our fences upgraded to Nature conservation standards. C A M E R A T R A P S The camera trap project has been going for a while now getting some really good results and assisting us to positively identify a number of individual leopards and hyena that call Lissataba their home. A wildebeest passed away from natural causes near the clubhouse. The camera traps were put up near the carcass. 2 hyena, leopard and jackal visited the carcass. Deon and Karen Scheepers left their camera up at the plains and managed to get footage of leopard 3 times, hyena, impala, giraffe, warthog, wildebeest, vervet monkey, nyala, kudu, scrub hare, bush pig, zebra, genet, steenbok and porcupine. Graeme Yates from Site 27 managed to get video footage of an Aardvark on his camera trap, the clip has been placed on our face book page. It just goes to show what happens on the reserve without us knowing. The camera traps have become very popular on the reserve with a number of owners purchasing their own cameras that they set up outside their house when on the reserve. If you have a camera and would like it to form part of the Lissataba project please contact the office for more information.
Page 6 APRIL/MAY & JUNE 2014 S E C U R I T Y U P D A T E The security team have made their presence felt and word has spread that Lissataba should be given a miss. During full moon the team are divided up and the western side of the reserve is patrolled 24 hrs a day as this seems to be the time that the poachers prefer as they can use the moon light to navigate their way through the bush. During the month of May their have been no poaching incidents on Lissataba this includes any entry through the Western fence or any snares being found. However this does mean that its time to relax. Feedback from some of the surrounding reserve is that the have taken off up to 32 snares in two days and have found a wildebeest, zebra and two impala in snares. Our team have also assisted in sweeping for snares on neighbouring reserves. May however was tarnished by a break in at site 37. Thanks to our security team and the local community a suspect who turned out to be a Lissataba employee was caught in possession of the stolen goods. The suspect will again appear in the Hoedspruit court in June to hear the ruling. June however was a bit more active with poaching and thanks to the good relationship that has been formed between the community and Lissataba we were able to catch the two poachers. On the afternoon of the 21st June while driving back from the plains area two poachers were seen running across the open area. The Team was mobilised and followed the tracks into Finale while Sean and Donovan went around into Final to try and catch the poachers. On route a member of the community was contacted and informed about the incident. Our anti poaching team followed the tracks of the two poachers and dog up until the village were the tracks were lost due to the high density of tracks and the roads. At 01h00 we received a call from a member of the community informing us that they had found out who the poachers were. Sean and Donovan went back into the village and the poachers were caught. Unfortunately they were not found with any meat and were given a warning from the community. On the 28th our team assisted one of the nearby reserves and found that poachers had snared and removed two Zebras. A Wildebeest and Impala were found in other snares and over 40 snare were removed in total from the property. Once again management would like to ask all owners and friends to report any incidents directly to the office and please not to get involved with any security issues that occur on the reserve with out the consent of management or the board of directors. The enclosed photos are of the anti poaching team being put through their paces during a training exercise. The anti poaching team faced a jungle lane set up where they had to identify tracks and then remove the threat that waited for them using the pepper ball guns that they now carry.
Page 7 APRIL/MAY & JUNE 2014 APRIL, MAY AND JUNE BIRTHDAY WISHES Here wishing all of our April, May and June birthday friends a wonderful day from the Lissataba family. APRIL MAY JUNE Megan Faure (site 25) Kim Faure (Site 25) Bernie Krone (Site 27) Anton Jankowitz (site 11) Mariaan Kruger (Site 9) Liz Jankowitz (Site 11) Lillian Bay (site 10) Carla Verschoor (Site 32) Derek Blanckensee (Site 40) David Lawrence (site 20) Carin Lawrence (Site 20) Mike Brown (Site 45) Nicola Zotos (site 39) Elia Zotos (Site 39) Emily Faurer (site 25) Andre Faure (Site 25) Len Yates (site 27) Chris Zotos (Site 39) Cynthia James (site 12) Stephen Bay (Site 10) SITES FOR SALE Site 1 Open Site Site 16 Built Site Site 19 Open Site Site 33 Share for Sale Site 37 Built Site Site 43 Built Site Site 25 Built Site Site 26 Built Site Site 30 Built Site Site 34 Open Site Site 41/44 Share for Sale S T A F F W E E K E N D W O R K As mentioned in previous newsletters the Lissataba staff may not work at home owners houses during work time or after work time during the week. The staff are also limited to only doing garden work at the houses and no maintenance or building work may take place. Please be aware that should any staff member be found doing maintenance work or working outside the allocated times they will face disciplinary action. It s what you learn after you know it all that counts John Wooden Best regards, Donovan, Joeleen and the Lissataba Team