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People with an interest in shark conservation have known for years just how important it is to protect sharks. However, with this week’s news that great white sharks are now more endangered than tigers it is hoped that more people will pick up on the need for shark conservation projects, such as those offered by Worldwide Experience. I love sharks and I love tigers, but I especially love tiger sharks so I decided that I’d fly over to Kwa-Zulu-Natal and see what our tiger shark volunteers made of the news.

The volunteers had already heard the news and although they had known about the dangers that sharks faced for a while, they were pleased that the news had made it into the public domain. I wanted to know what dangers sharks faced in the ocean and the shark conservationists told me how sharks are mainly harvested for their flesh, which is used to make leather and also for their liver, which contains a lot of vitamin A and is used to make vitamin oils. Sadly though, tiger sharks are also caught just for sport by fishermen.

Tiger sharks face further danger in Asia, where shark’s fin soup is something of a delicacy. Tiger sharks in these waters are caught for their flesh, which is sold in Hong Kong for $100 a serving. However, it seems that the Chinese aren’t the only ones that like the taste of shark flesh – tiger sharks have even been known to eat each other. This isn’t surprising as they are known as ‘the dustbins of the sea’ due to their voracious appetites. Some of the items recently found inside tiger shark carcasses include bags of charcoal, boat cushions, antlers, lobsters and hubcaps. The shark conservation volunteers in Kwa-Zulu-Natal were currently undertaking research on whether the tiger shark’s unusual diet showed that the creature was primitive and un-evolved or whether simple being able to eat anything was a smart evolutionary defence. It certainly would be interesting to find out!

Why not test your knowledge on tiger sharks with this fun Tiger Shark quiz? I’m pleased to report that I got a whopping 7/10.

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The worst part of a wildlife conservation experience is, for most people, the part where they have to leave behind the perfect climate and experiences associated with their time in South Africa and head home. As oxpeckers don’t migrate, I’m lucky in that I get to stay on the game reserve on a year round basis. However, I do dream of being able to visit some of our conservation experiences in India and Sri Lanka one day.  

Like me, game rangers and programme coordinators are lucky enough to stay in South Africa all year round, and for this reason, many of our wildlife conservation volunteers see them as having the perfect job.

I decided to fly over to Kariega, which is located near to my home in Shamwari, and catch up with Jacques de Klerk, who has the jealousy-inducing job title of being a programme coordinator for the volunteers on the Kariega course. Kareiga is less than half the size of the Shamwari Game Reserve and attracts a mixture of mature volunteers and the usual gap year students. You could say the smaller size makes Kariega a bit more personal than some of our larger reserves.   

Jacques told me all about the fascinating week that he had had, which started on Monday with an elephant monitoring session. Many of the volunteers had never been in such close proximity to elephants before and certainly none of the volunteers had ever seen them in the wild, so as you can imagine this was an incredible experience.

On Tuesday, the volunteers set about cleaning up invasive plants from the reserve. During the day, there was a heat-wave so tackling overgrown Acacia bushes proved to be quite strenuous work. However, the volunteers were able to relax in the evening with a cold beer, whilst watching the spectacular sunset, and all of them agreed that there was no better way in which to unwind at the end of a long day.

It was back to work on Wednesday and, with a game count organized, the volunteers were early to rise. As it turned out skipping a snooze proved to be worth it, as the students managed to spot loads of wildlife out on the plains from kudu and springbok, to a jackal out with her cubs. With a successful count, the results were submitted to Kareiga’s Conservation Department, where they would be analysed.

Tomorrow the students are going to make the most of the warm weather and head to Kenton where a beach ecology session will give them the chance to take a dip in the Indian Ocean. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes...

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I’m afraid that I have some rather upsetting news to report. On Friday 5 February, Themba, the baby elephant sadly passed away.

You may remember Themba from a blog post  that I wrote a while ago. He had featured in newspapers from all over the world due to his strange relationship with a sheep named Albert. For wildlife conservation volunteers staying at the Shamwari Game Reserve one of the highlights of the trip was the chance to babysit the baby elephant over night and feed him formula from a bottle every three hours. As Themba was quite boisterous this needed to be done in groups of two and whilst it was an amazing experience, I think it’s fair to say that when on Themba duty none of the volunteers got much sleep.

Themba became so popular with visitors to Shamwari that he gained his own Facebook fan page and since news of his death broke tributes have come flooding in from all over the world. Jem from Leeds wrote “:'( even though you pushed me over you were still the cuteset little baby ever and i loved you like loads. I hope albert is ok even though he hated me. Aww man this just sucks :'( x” Whilst, Huriye reminisces about the time that she was almost trampled by the excitable elephant.

Themba’s keeper noticed that he was acting strangely a few days before his death and instantly reported his behaviour to a resident veterinarian. Upon examination Themba showed signs of severe colic and, unfortunately, although the treatment appeared to be working, Themba later slipped into a coma and died. What makes it even more upsetting was that it was intended for Themba to be introduced back into the wild later this month. Steps had been taken for him to be reunited with his family back in Sanbona, before tragedy stuck. 

The news is sure to devastate many former wildlife conservation volunteers at Shamwari, as well as those that just passed through the reserve on an excursion from their Cape Town holidays. However, no one is going to be more heartbroken then his best friend, Albert the Sheep; we just hope that he is able to cope without his best friend by his side.  

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Yesterday, while visiting the ORCA Marine Conservationists in Plettenberg Bay I caught them all huddled around a laptop watching this funny take on shark conservation. The song is sung from the Great White Shark’s point of view and contains classic lines such as “If I was a Great White, I wouldn’t bite you, but I’d swim right next to you and ask you how you do”. If you do want to purchase a set containing a CD, T-Shirt and window sticker then all proceeds go towards shark conservation at the White Shark Trust. Although first we recommend you watch the classic video.

So relax, kick back, it’s only a great white shark attack....

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A couple of months ago, the wildlife conservation volunteers at Shamwari rescued a baby mountain zebra. The infant had unfortunately been abandoned by her mother and she was so weak and malnourished that they were surprised to find her umbilical cord still attached.

The Cape Mountain Zebra sits firmly in the list of vulnerable animals after the animal was hunted to near extinction in the 1930s. Now the species can be found in the various areas of South Africa including Table Mountain National Park and in game reserves like Shamwari and Amakhala. They differ from regular zebras in that their bodies are stockier and they have a dewlap of skin on their throat.

The weak zebra was rushed straight to the animal hospital at Shamwari where keeping her nourished and fed was, and still is, a huge priority. The volunteers named the zebra Kalhua and, when she first arrived at the hospital, she needed expert care from both the Shamwari vet and the veterinary students staying at Shamwari as part of their Vets Go Wild program. Gradually Kalhua recovered but still needed bottle-feeding every three hours. Luckily Kalhua was in the right place and had a whole host of volunteers that saw feeding a baby mountain zebra as a once in a lifetime experience that they simply had to take advantage of.

The wildlife conservation volunteers stayed at the animal hospital in groups of two and were told to pack their sleeping bags, warm clothes, and if they felt like it a collection of snacks, to keep them going throughout the night. Kalhua needed to be fed a bottle of formula every three hours so the volunteers set off their alarm clocks and together took it in turns to bottle feed the formula to the baby zebra. One of the volunteers, Alun Goodwin, summed up the experience perfectly by saying “Being able to say I bottle fed a baby Cape Mountain Zebra, one of the most endangered animals in Southern Africa, is something that I share with but a few”.

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After sampling all those delicious South African wines, the game ranger students were tempted to head to the nearest bar and show off their knowledge. Unfortunately, they’d have to wait as the senior rangers had something else planned for them, a night of star-gazing under the South African skies.

As well as being versed in matters of wildlife conservation, game rangers need to know about astronomy and how to guide using the stars. The star that they use to navigate in South Africa is the Southern Cross which can only be seen in the Southern hemisphere, and is instantly recognisable at the constellation hat features on the Australian and New Zealand flags. The four brightest stars in this constellation form a cross pattern that sailors have been using for centuries to navigate by.

The students were shown how to use this point to find due south. A lone bright star near the constellation was pointed out and the students learnt that was named Achernar. They were then shown two stars called the pointers and asked to extend an imaginary line from Archernar to these two smaller stars. They were then told that the South Celestial Pole was at the halfway point between this line and that by dropping vertically down to the horizon they would find south. As the majority of game ranger students were from the Northern Hemisphere learning to navigate south was a novel concept as most had been taught to navigate using the Northern Pole star. The game rangers also learnt that whilst some constellations such as the plough aren’t visible in the Southern Hemisphere, the south has its own unique constellations that can’t be seen in the north. They were introduced to the Jewel Box and the Coal Sack before retreating to their tents to enjoy their first night spent sleeping under the stars.

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In the afternoon, the game ranger students took a break from animal conservation work and took the jeep to the exclusive Shamwari Lodge. Hospitality is just one of the areas that future game rangers have to be versed in and in this instance the students were going to learn about the best of South Africa’s wine. South Africa’s wine country is located in the Western Cape, with Shamwari Game Reserve located in the Eastern.

A table had been set up for the students and a number of bottles of wine stood open on the side. The sommelier explained to the rangers that the wine had been opened for a few hours and in the case of red wine is was important that the wine aired before opening. South Africa is better known for its white wine, which accounts for 80% of the vineyards. However, the area makes a delicious cabernet sauvignon and the students were able to sample a number of different glasses of this wine. They all noted that those produced in the Stellenbosch region appeared to be a lot more full bodied than their counterparts in Constantia, which had herbal undertones.  The students were shown the correct way to taste the wine, which first involved swilling it around the glass to check on its viscosity, then smelling it order to get an idea of the flavour.  A piton was provided for the students to spit into after they had swilled the wine around in their mouths and passed it through their teeth in order to get both a taste of the flavour and the acidity of the wine.
 
The area is best known for its Sauvignon Blanc varieties which produce a beautiful crisp white wine. After sampling the amazing white wine many of the students were reluctant to spit out the wine and were already taking notes on what to buy next time they were at the bar. However, they would have to wait for that as the rangers already had plans for them that night....      

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Yesterday morning saw a new arrival of students at the Shamwari Game Reserve, here to carry out animal conservation work .This large group of visitors had decided that the best possible start to the New Year was learning a new skill. So, they had signed up to the reserve’s popular Game Ranger Training Course. Those that successfully complete this course receive their FGASA stage one certificate, the first step to becoming a qualified ranger in a South African Game Reserve.

Of course, not everyone who studies for their FGASA qualification decides to become a ranger. Returning to England with a rather unusual skill on their CV puts many people ahead of the competition in the job market, although many people do it strictly for themselves.

I decided to follow the game rangers around for a day and see if I could pick up any useful skills, and what a day it was! 

At 11.00am, I perched onto the class-room window where the students were all crowded around a plastic dummy learning basic mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The method was fairly simple and the students were given a mnemonic to remember the technique ‘DR ABC’. This mnemonic stands for danger, response, airways, breathing and circulation.

Firstly, students would need to check that their patient was free from danger, which involved removing them from oncoming traffic, or areas of the park where they were particularly likely to be targeted by wild animals. For response, students were encouraged to get down low and speak to the patient to ascertain whether or not he or she is able to respond to your voice. A is for checking the airways for blockages and if possible removing them. The students were given the example of a patient choking on a small boiled sweet and how this sweet could be removed without causing danger. In the instance that there was nothing obstructing the airways, the students were shown how to position the head so that the airways were clear. The next two stages were breathing and circulation and the students were taught how to check that the patient was breathing and the best place on the body to look for a pulse.

Everyone left the class clued up on First Aid and looking forward to their next session where they would be shown the best way to treat wild animal bites.

I’ll be in touch next week to let you know what the rangers got up to in the afternoon.

See you then,

Zazu

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Voorspoedige Nuwe Jaar!

That’s Afrikaans for Happy New Year and I hope that for all of you 2010 is a good one. The week before New Years is for me a time to get contemplative and look back on the past year remembering both the good times and the bad times. Whilst sitting on my favourite Baobab branch stuffed full of Christmas rice and peas, I started looking back on the past year trying to find my favourite memory of 2009 to share with all of you. 2009 saw me starting this blog and catching up with old friends like Ditch, it also saw new friends arriving on the scene, the little rhino Thabo amongst others. It also saw plenty of students, some new, some returning getting involved in wildlife conservation.

However, if I had to share my most memorable moment of 2009 I would have to take you back to July and the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre. This story involves a little boy called Menno who had a big dream. Menno was from Holland and suffered from a rare bone and lung cancer. However, Menno had a lifelong passion for cheetah and his dream was to actually be able to stroke one. As you can imagine, there are not many places in the world where you are able to close enough to a cheetah to stroke it and certainly not that many tame cheetah!

The staff at Moholoho were contacted by the Make a Wish Foundation and they knew instantly that this was the place that Menno could achieve his dream. When Menno arrived he was taken on a tour of the centre and introduced to vultures, rhinos, servals, lions and even given the opportunity to cuddle up close to a dassie.

Then it was time for Menno’s magic moment, he was taken to the resident cheetah ‘Shinandi’ who has an amazingly sweet disposition. Menno was greeted with a resounding purr and with a ranger standing nearby Menno managed to achieve his dream of stroking a cheetah. Shinandi reciprocated to his affection by licking him on the hand, showing as much an interest in Menno as he was in her.

To be able to give someone that much joy was an amazing experience and when Menno exclaimed that this was the ‘happiest day of his life’, I wasn’t the only one that was moved to tears. Menno’s story shows us just how rewarding it is to follow your dreams and so may 2010 be the year that you all follow yours.

Happy New Year,

Zazu xx 

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I’ve heard from some British birds that parts of England are currently under snow and the Brits are furtively wishing for a white Christmas. Here in South Africa we’re currently in the heat of our summer and have started celebrating Christmas the traditional South African way. An old group of students left us on Monday and we’ve received a small gathering in time for Christmas and the New Year. As most of the students left on Monday we hosted our traditional Christmas party on Sunday afternoon.

A traditional South African Christmas involves a braai (the local term for barbecue) and to make the most of the warm weather, we hosted this outside on the patio. One of the rangers was in charge of keeping the braai alight and cooked a mixture of turkey and roast beef, which looked delicious. This was served with a mixture of yellow rice with raisins and seasonal vegetables. I made sure I had a good old peck at the leftovers, once the students had left to sing carols. The desert was also festive and the students gobbled down a mixture of plum pudding and mince pies, although some of the students admitted that it felt slightly strange eating them in the hot African climate.

Later on the students all made their way over to the pool, where those that weren’t too full joined in on a game of water polo. The day was a great success and I can’t wait to watch the real event with the remaining students on Friday.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Zazu xx