After taking a wildlife conservation holiday in Hoedspruit, I decided to stop off at Moholoholo and visit my good-friend, Ditch. Ditch is one of the most interesting animals that I know and she has an incredible story that I thought I’d share with you.
While Ditch was hunting on a game reserve close to Moholoholo her left, back leg was caught in a snare. The wire cut all the way through her skin and into her bone and she describes the moment as sheer agony. Ditch was then darted and rushed to the animal treatment centre at Moholoholo for treatment. Six weeks later the ranger decided that Ditch was ready to be returned to her pride.
She was placed in a holding cage near to the part of the reserve that her pride regularly frequent. Ditch told me how meat was placed near to her cage, so that her pride could be encouraged to come closer. The rangers thought that this would give them the chance to become used to her once again. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way, the territorial male did not take kindly to her eating so closely to him and he lunged in attack.
This time they tried a different tactic and darted the territorial male. With him out of the scene it was thought that the pride would accept Ditch. Again Ditch was placed in a holding cage and a carcass was strategically placed half inside the cage and half outside the cage. The idea was that the lionesses could eat with Ditch next to them as if she was a part of their pride.
However, once again things didn’t turn out as expected and poor old Ditch was attacked again. Colin, the ranger on duty at the time chased the pride away and with heavy hearts the team at Moholoholo resigned themselves to the fact that Ditch would never be accepted by her pride.
However, this is only half of Ditch’s story and I’ll tell you the rest next week. As you are probably well aware, Ditch and I have a lot of catching up to do…
Zazu Visits the Hoedspruit Cheetahs
Posted by Zazu Oxpecker - October 20th, 2009I love my home at Shamwari Game Reserve but sometimes there’s nothing quite like a change of scene so I decided to book myself a wildlife conservation holiday to Hoedspruit and see what the students there were up to. Hoedspruit is located near Moholoholo, so I’m planning on dropping in on the way back and visiting my friend Thabo, and the lioness, Ditch who has a truly incredible story that I will share you with you someday. Hoedspruit is one of the best places in the world to see cheetahs and has been instrumental in breeding the endangered king cheetah. …
The Shamwari Game Reserve Students Take the Plunge
Posted by Zazu Oxpecker - October 12th, 2009It’s usually pretty quiet in Shamwari Game Reserve at the weekends, this is because the students have from Friday night to Monday morning free from their duties and use this spare time to visit the rest of South Africa, or to visit other nearby reserves such as Amkhala and the nearby Addo Elephant Reserve. This weekend the students had decided to head to Bloukrans Bridge and attempt the world’s highest bungee jump. With no plans of my own I decided to follow them, after all I may not like the idea of jumping but at least I can claim to …
Isipho AIDS project
Posted by Zazu Oxpecker - October 6th, 2009On Fridays the students take a break from Wildlife Conservation and visit projects in the local community. Today they visited the AIDS orphanage in Paterson to teach the children ball skills and help them practice their English. All of the children were delighted to see the volunteers and as soon as the jeep pulled up outside the school, the children ran up to the vehicle pulling at the legs and arms of the nearest volunteer. Some children recognised a friend from the week before and were ecstatic to see them again, pulling at their hair and leading them to a …
Wildlife Conservation and Animal Disease
Posted by Zazu Oxpecker - October 5th, 2009The students at Shamwari are also here to learn about wildlife conservation , and yesterday they spent the entire morning in the lecture theatre. One of the rangers was due to give a very important lecture on animal diseases at a wildlife conference in Port Elizabeth and wanted to run his speech past the students first to check that it flowed right, and that all the important elements of animal illness had been covered. The first part of the lesson was on anthrax and, as I peeked through the window at the slides, I couldn’t help be put off my …
