5 African animals you may not recognise!

The majority of people head to Africa for that "Big 5" experience... Lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and buffalo! They enjoy the sight of a few antelope, some giraffes and perhaps a cheetah or two. But Africa is not known for it's richness and diversity for these animals alone, there is a great range of animals that make up this wonderful environment and, if you're heading out to Africa on Safari perhaps you could challenge your guide with a request to see one of these guys! 

1) Serval
Servals are pretty elusive. They are members of the cat family, although certainly bigger than your cat snoozing on the sofa, they are of the small cat family, and mainly hunt rodents and small birds. They are stunning animals and I have been lucky enough to watch one hunting for a good half an hour - an extremely rare sighting that I am unlikely to forget. 

Not one of my best quality photographs (several reasons for this): Serval hunting on Shamwari Game Reserve

2) Pangolin 
Pangolins are one of the strangest of creatures I have ever come across in my life. Unfortunately I have never had the luck to see one, although I continue to hope. They are small mammals often referred to as "armoured anteaters"; when threatened these creatures roll into a tight ball and the scales on their back are so strong even lions struggle to attack. What I find so funny about them is that they rarely walk on four feet but rather use mainly their back legs for walking, and their front for digging! 

Photo from: www.wildlifesafari.info

3) Honey Badgers
I hold a strange fascination with Honey Badgers, which are perhaps one of the most ferocious animals you'll ever come across. Their main prey includes venomous snakes and honey stolen from stinging bees - when bitten by the former they will simply fall asleep and wait for the venom to wear off before resuming their meal. One thing that makes the honey badger so successful is it's loose skin which, when grasped by a possible predator, allows them to twist around and attack! I've been lucky to have a couple of glimpse sightings of honey badgers, but never enough to take a photograph! 

Photo from: www.kickstarter.com

4) Caracal 
Caracals, similarly to Servals, are of the small cat family and prey mainly on rodents and birds. They are extremely pretty animals with an almost egyptian-like quality to them.

Caracal at N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary 

5) Brown Hyena
Now pretty much everyone has heard of a Spotted Hyena, who amongst the lions and leopards are one of the most well known animals in Africa. But rarely seen or spoken of is it's cousin, the Brown Hyena which lives quite a different lifestyle! Although Brown Hyenas will den together they hunt and scavenge as individuals and you are unlikely to see more than one at a time. I was lucky enough to study my field guiding on a reserve that had an abundant population of Brown Hyenas and even saw one come into conflict with a couple of cheetahs who had just made a kill.   

Brown Hyena finishing off a stolen kill - Shamwari Game Reserve.

So if you are ever lucky enough to go on Safari in Africa don't just ask to see the animals you see on the television, remember that there is a whole abundance of animals that don't always make it onto the shows! And you are likely to find your guide will be extra enthusiastic to talk about animals he/she doesn't often get to show off. 

I'd love to hear from anyone who has seen any of these animals, or perhaps even other African wildlife that is rarely seen! Please feel free (and encouraged) to comment on any of my posts :) 

VOLUNTEERING IN AFRICA

This past year I have been extremely lucky to have the chance to volunteer and study in South Africa and Namibia over the course of seven months. When I first booked up to go I decided to stay for three months, being a first time traveller and very nervous of going alone I didn't want to put myself down for too long, but also wanted to push myself a bit. 

Volunteering in Africa has been the best choice I have made in my life so far, and anyone thinking of going I hope this will help you to make that decision and take a leap!

Volunteers enjoying a bit of time off - GVI Karongwe

What is so fantastic about volunteering is that it doesn't matter where you come from, how old you are or what you've done with your life. I've worked on schemes with people aged from 18-60+; people from the UK, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, America, Canada, Japan, Korea, Egypt, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland (and probably some that have slipped my mind); people who are students, retired policemen, social workers, accountants, teachers, doctors... The people who you meet are incredible and you never find a dull person. Everyone is a part of the team, no matter what. 

The first place I volunteered was a life-changing experience and what I learnt and discovered here led me not only to go back to Africa but to apply for my upcoming MA in Wildlife Filmmaking. This was with the company GVI (Global Visual International): African Wildlife Expedition on Karongwe Game Reserve. 

The work on this reserve is mainly for research purposes - as a volunteer you collect data on cheetahs, leopards, lions, elephants and rhinos, as well as keeping track on survival of prey animals in order to ensure the reserve is keeping balanced. You track focus animals (which currently includes 3 cheetahs, 2 lions and a leopard) using telemetry and keep note on their movements, what they are doing and what prey they are consuming. As well as this you are involved in reserve maintenance (such as invasive species removal and fence management), and a community project involved with children at a local school. The team who run GVI Karongwe are the most fun, interesting and intelligent people you can meet; they want to teach you everything they know and do so in a way you will never forget. 

Sub-adult Lion - Karongwe

As well as the work on the reserve this particular scheme has an additional trip to Marieskop Mountain where you spend a week mostly on small mammal research, but also helping with collecting data for MA and PHD students at the University of Pretoria. The mountain is one of the most beautiful places I've visited; you can enjoy exclusive access to one of the most stunning sunset sights I've ever been to looking out across Blyde Canyon, and swim in the lake (if it's not raining... which unfortunately it was most of my time there!) 

Small Mammal research. 

I was extremely lucky to be at Karongwe when a cheetah was darted in order to be fitted with a tracking implant, and was able to get closer to a wild cheetah than I ever imagined... And then my luck doubled when later a leopard was darted after sustaining serious injuries; in both instances volunteers were given the opportunity attend the surgeries and really get to see these incredible animals up close. 

Cheetah darted for surgery. 

I could go on forever about my time with GVI - I spent three months there and truly fell in love with Africa and it's wildlife. It's the whole reason this blog ever begun, and a place that I will never, ever forget. 

If you are interested you can check out their website here: http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/wildlife-research-south-africa-expedition

The day after I got home from Karongwe I was online researching where I was going to go next. Within two months I was on a plane heading back. I first spend two months on a Field Guide Training Course at Shamwari Game Reserve where I became a qualified guide. It was an incredible course but I won't be talking about it here as I am focussing on volunteering, but if you are interested feel free to message me! 

My next stop was N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. On this project you work to care for animals that have been harmed by humans and either cannot be released or are waiting before they can be released back into the wild. The animals include baboons, leopards, cheetahs, lions, wild dogs, warthogs, meerkats, porcupines, caracals and a variety of other animals. The main duties include preparing food and feeding the animals, reserve maintenance work, cleaning enclosures, enclosure patrols, walking with the animals and taking care of orphaned baboons. A huge amount of time is spent with the baboons who have to be cared for 24/7 (that often means taking a baboon to bed with you); they are certainly hard work but you can quickly form a close relationship and learn to interact with them as individuals. 

Three baby baboons!

It's an incredible experience to get up close to animals and really learn their true nature. The sanctuary does a lot of good work and although many animals are set to stay there for the rest of their lives many of them are also released. Whilst at N/a'an ku se you can take the opportunity to visit their Leopard and Cheetah release project which tries to keep track of animals that have been released from the Sanctuary, but mostly focusses on animals on the local reserve with camera traps. It is on the beautiful site of Neuras Vineyard where you feel like to are miles from the rest of the world. 

If you are interested in N/a'an ku se you can check it out here: http://www.naankuse.com/volunteer-at-naankuse.html

The final project that I visited was also in Namibia, but miles out into the desert. It was with EHRA (Elephant, Human Relations Aid) which works to reduce conflict between the African subspecies Desert Elephant and the humans that live in the area. It is definitely the most physical project I have worked on; it works in two week phases in which you spend a week building a wall around water sources that elephants often damage, and a week tracking and taking data on the elephants. The work is enormously rewarding and you will never feel you've worked so hard in your life! 

The start of work! EHRA 

 One thing that really makes this project special is the "back to nature" feeling. Whilst on the building week you set up a camp with a bit of tarp, a long drop and a fire; during patrol it is even more basic in which you set up camp each night and "go"  behind whatever private tree you can! Sleeping you look up at the clearest, most beautiful sky you can imagine and then you spend the day searching for, and hopefully finding, one of the rarest species of elephant in the world. There are no fences, so when you find the elephants (against all odds) you feel an incredible sense of achievement. The main base camp is visually stunning (no giveaways) and the people are incredible fun! 

Watching the Elephants pass with EHRA

If you are interested in this project you can find it here: http://www.desertelephant.org/

During my time travelling I have seen the most incredible sights and had some fantastic experiences. For someone who was terrified of travelling I have come a long way and hope to spend a lot more time doing so! It is a great way to experience a place, you get an insight no other tourist sees and you are doing something to HELP! 

If you are interested and have any other questions, or you have experiences of your own you'd like to mention please don't hesitate to comment/contact me! If you are thinking about volunteering, stop, and just go! You will have the time of your life and never look back. I promise. 

LIONS, COOL... BUT SHOW ME THE AFRICAN WILD DOGS

Despite having little experience with African Wild Dogs, and zero of them in the wild, they have come to be one of my favourite species you might find in Africa. They are resourceful, resilient  and often very misunderstood. They are also stunningly beautiful. 

African Wild Dog - N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary

Why I love Wild Dogs:

1) Family means everything to them; their social order is fundamental to their survival. 

They usually live in packs of around 10 individuals made up mostly of brothers, sisters and offspring. Only the Alfa pair breed and the whole pack works together to raise the young, bringing in food and working as babysitters in turn. Sometimes a non-Alfa female will breed, and in many situations it has been recorded that the Alfa will either raise the pups as her own or kill them. Wild Dogs produce the biggest litter of any of the canine family bearing up to 16 pups at a time! 

2) They are epic hunters.

Wild Dogs have an unusually high hunting success rate of around 80% - which means if you see them hunting you are quite likely to see them make a kill... If you can keep up. In comparison  Cheetahs on average are around 50% successful. This is because they are endurance hunters and work together as a pack. Incredibly they can keep up a speed of 40 km/hour for about an hour and often chase their prey to exhaustion before grotesquely disembowelling and eating it alive. Although this seems cruel the death is actually quicker and more humane than cheetah and lions' strangle grip. Their main prey is medium sized antelope such as impala and springbok. 

A herd of impala: average food source for Wild Dogs - Shamwari 

3) They can't be domesticated.

Most people hear the name "dog" and simply thing that these are animals that were once pets but now run free. NOT TRUE! This is one of the most ancient species of canids on Earth and developed on a completely separate lineage to domestic dogs. Unlike Wolves, Wild Dogs will not accept a human as part of the pack as their structure relies so strongly on family lineage - instead they will completely ignore a human (unless for food) and would never be able to be domesticated. They defy humanities desire to have control over everything! 

4) They know no boundaries. 

Wild Dogs love to run - they will run for miles and miles and very few reserves can contain them. They really are true wild animals and I love them for that. 

5) They have individual personalities. 

I haven't spent nearly enough time with these animals and I would love a chance to really study them properly. But the small amount of time I have seen them, and what I have watched on Wildlife Documentaries (although there are few that feature Wild Dogs) you can really see that each animal is an individual, bringing different skills and abilities to the pack. They speak to each other and greet each member of the pack individually after being separated. They really are highly intelligent creatures. 

The Wild Dogs of N/a'an ku se

Sadly the African Wild Dogs are under great threat and are the second most endangered carnivore in Africa (behind the Ethiopian Wolf)... There is currently an estimated population of between 3,000-5,000 left in the wild. So many of the things I love about them is what drives them towards extinction:

1) Family means everything to them; their social order is fundamental to their survival. 

Close pack life means that disease spreads through the family like wild-fire. Many packs die of diseases such as rabies - often passed on from local domestic dogs. 

2) They are epic hunters.

Successful hunting in the past has often brought them in to competition with other hunting animals - lions will kill them. They are also habitual livestock killers so farmers will kill whole packs of Wild Dogs in an effort to protect their livelihood. 

3) They can't be domesticated.

Many animals survival has relied on their abilities to live alongside, and even amongst human beings. Animals that can be domesticated and benefit the human population will always survive.

4) They know no boundaries. 

Most African animals now purely survive in protected game reserves where a fence stands between them and poachers. The fact that Wild Dogs don't survive in these smaller fenced off areas means that they are harder to protect. 

It breaks my heart that these animals face such difficult times, and I hope that I get my chance to really see and get to know them in the wild before they are gone. 

Please let me know what you think about this article and what you know about African Wild Dogs. You can also see more of my pictures of the Wild Dogs at N/a'an ku se in my post "Feeding the African Wild Dogs". 

 

Feeding the African Wild Dogs

These photos were taken at N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. I volunteered here for 2 weeks where I got to meet a group of animals I have never had the chance (yet) to see in the wild. These are the African Wild Dogs (or African Painted Wolf). This group was rescued as puppies... Born to a Beta (non-dominant) female they were rejected from their pack and would have been killed had they not been rescued. I normally don't agree with intervening in a natural situation such as this, but African Wild Dogs are highly endangered and the survival of all the young is fundamental to the survival of the species. When these dogs are old enough the plan is to re-integrate them into a wild pack and hope that they can live the rest of their lives naturally. 

Here is when I had the luck to go to a feeding session and got to see the dogs true natures come alive.