Limpopo-Lipadi Blog

Recently one of our new shareholders spent a number of weeks at the reserve. Noticing the large number of burrows in and around River Camp he decided to do some more detailed examination.

Picking a couple of sites that looked to be in use Fons placed his trail camera out at each location for the night. Within a couple of days he'd captured great images of the holes being used by warthog families, at least three separate brown hyenas, black-backed jackals and a porcupine!

The warthogs were even observed entering a burrow that turned out to be already in use by brown hyena, which left swiftly shortly afterwards! It was apparently so distraught after its rude eviction that it remained outside the burrow howling!

Another pair of brown hyenas were seen dragging the remains of a carcass back to the burrow too.

Even the porcupines don't seem to be fazed by close encounters with brown hyena...

There really is always something interesting going on at Limpopo-Lipadi - check out the Galleries to see more shots.

This week an old eland had to be euthanised and so we positioned the trail cameras at the carcass site not far from Zanzibar Dam to see what would arrive. Over the course of the next few days the camera captured stunning images of brown hyena, leopard, vultures and civet visiting. The leopard above looks likely to be one we have identified as part of our project, but can you tell which one? 

You can see more images from this, and other dens and kills, in our online gallery. Other trail camera galleries catalogue the comings and goings at various waterholes around the reserve.

All the signs are that the wild dog pups are growing up fast! The trail cameras are recording them outside the den for longer periods of time, throughout most of the day, and up to all sorts! Ears are growing up, snouts are pushing out and legs lengthening as they transform from the balls of fur they were just a few weeks back into the rangy adults we know well.

Although still happy to be within close proximity of the adults, especially if there's a chance of some milk, they are becoming increasingly confident readying themselves for the time when the pack will leave the den site and they will have to roam with them. 

At that point the pups will be especially vulnerable as they will still not be fully grown and will lag behind the leggier adults, especially when they hunt. This can leave them vulnerable to other predators who won't think twice if the chance comes to grab a meal and diminish a rival species' numbers at the same time.

But that time must come and perhaps there will be a last image like the one above, where the pups realise they must follow the last adult off into the bush on the next stage of their lives?

The last couple of days has brought another tranche of images from the wild dog den on Limpopo-Lipadi, such as the shot above showing the pups being encouraged to explore by one of the adults.

Although still suckling (see image above) you can clearly see their legs and snouts starting to lengthen into the characteristic adult shapes and their ears are growing too. There have been some lovely moments of the pups at play captured - in the image below you can see a pair practising hunting skills, critical for their life in the future.

There has also been a lot of interaction seen between adult dogs and the pups, such as the picture underneath.

Our gallery has over 70 new shots since the last blog so why not check it out for more images of the pups exploring the den site as well as the adults giving the camera a closer inspection!

Limpopo-Lipadi is thrilled, excited and proud to announce that our most recent litter of wild dog pups have been seen for the very first time! We have suspected that they were underground for some time, but at 16.34 on Sunday 10th June 2012 the trail cameras located at the den site clicked into action and recorded the first shots, shown in this blog, of the brand new pups emerging from the den for the very first time. The shot above is the first captured clearly showing a tiny pup crawling up the sandy tunnel towards an one of the parents while the other keeps watch.

Encouraged by the adult it keeps on coming, perhaps moving slowly out of caution, getting used to all the new smells in the outside world. 3 minutes later it has nearly reached the lip of the tunnel!

A minute later and no sooner have the first two pups made it above ground then a third can be seen following bravely in their path. So there are definitely at least three pups!

By now the first pup is starting to explore its new surroundings closely chaperoned by the parent dogs while other adults patrol the vicinity - the pack vigilant for any threat to the new pups. 

Moments later the pups are nowhere to be seen but the adults are on alert staring into the bush - what has startled them and led them to hide the pups back underground? Perhaps they have picked up a scent on the breeze or alarm call in the distance? 

Whatever it was, just over 10 minutes later the danger has apparently passed and the parents are once again encouraging their offspring to leave the den in the late afternoon sunshine.

A pup can just be seen emerging from the tunnel with the parents watching closely.

And what a greeting it receives as it again leaves the den!

Now the exploring begins again and some of the other adults arrive for a closer look.

There will be many more pictures to follow over the coming days and weeks as the pups spend more and more time outside of the den, interact with the other adults dogs, are weaned onto solid food and take their first trips deeper into the bush. But for now they are just small bundles of fur taking those first steps in an unfamiliar world.

If you've enjoyed seeing these first images - more evidence of how strong and successful our breeding pack is - then do share them with friends!

Keep checking back on the blog for more updates from the den!

 

The trail-cameras have once again brought us a stunning set of candid images from distant parts of the reserve. Towards the end of December one was sited at Mac's Pan and has captured a sequence of shots of elephants visiting the trough to drink, wash and socialise - and at some point give the camera a nudge so that the rest of the shots are at a jaunty angle!

Shareholders will be excited to hear that the waterhole regeneration programme continues apace and this month has seen work at Mbusi. The new pool is located a little to the southwest of the old trough but remains within view of the hide (as well as being sited perfectly for potential future hide developments). Feedback from shareholders has been used to create a reasonable size pool with an irregular outline to better mimic a natural waterhole. The low profile and coloured concrete mixture means it blends in very well with the surrounding soil and I'm sure all will agree this represents a major improvement on what went before.

Since the trail camera arrived on the reserve we have all been waiting for it to capture a leopard. Amazingly despite the numbers on Limpopo-Lipadi and the frequency with which they are seen by our shareholders they have remained strangely hard to catch on the trail camera. But finally this week they have showed themselves. And yes, that is plural for there was not just one but two leopards catch on the camera at Mbusi!

The trail camera has been catching some great shots of late, including the first arrivals at the new waterhole on the Northern Plains, but this week saw some lovely images of a pair of spotted hyenas drinking at Mbusi around dawn. Looking closely you can make out traces of blood on the neck of one, probably a sign they had been feeding on a fresh carcass shortly before arriving at the waterhole.

More remarkable images from the Trail-Cam over the weekend have confirmed the presence of bushpigs on Limpopo-Lipadi. Until now we had considered them likely to occur given the thick riverine woodland we have on the banks of the Limpopo but as they are nocturnal in behaviour (in contrast to warthogs which like to be tucked up safely in their burrows by dark) it had not been possible to definitively say whether they occurred or not. Although the image captured on the camera is very grainy (due to post-processing to try and bring up the maximum detail) you can make out the bushpig on the left of the trough.

Well the Trail-Cam so kindly provided by Gerald Briers has been rotated through three sites over the last two weeks and is already yielding exciting images almost every night. Check out our special Trail-Cam photo galleries to see some of these candid shots of the wildlife when there is no human presence. They just go to show how productive it can be to sit quietly a short distance from a waterhole and watch the comings and goings.

Mr. Gerald Briers, one of our shareholders from the UK, was kind enough to provide Limpopo-Lipadi with a wonderful trail camera device to allow us to capture still photographs of animals at various locations throughout the reserve. This enables us to update new photographs onto the website for your enjoyment. The Management of Limpopo-Lipadi would like to thank Mr. Briers for this wonderful opportunity.

The Reconyx trail cam was installed at Mbusi waterhole for a test run, what an amazing item this is! Have a look in the new Trail Cam photo galleries see what you've been missing (as the Reconyx logo says).