Samburu Celebration
Stop Stimulating the Ivory Trade; Just Stop Trade
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/14/stop-stimulating-the-ivory-trade-just-stop-trade/?fb_action_ids=10151408258606350&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151408258606350%22%3A598976433462923%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151408258606350%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
Stop Stimulating the Ivory Trade; Just Stop Trade
This article is succinct and a must read. Endorsed by Mary Rice of the EIA who has dedicated her life to protecting elephants. With increased demand for ivory trinkets, jewellery and art coming from Asia, and given a total ban has worked before, it has to be the only way we can stop the cruel and brutal slaughter of elephants and rhino and the rangers and people who lose their lives trying to protect these helpless animals. Total ban on ivory sales. It has to be. I defy anyone who has seen pictures of bloodied, butchered de-horned rhino and de-tusked elephants, or seen the peculiar, out of character, traumatised behaviour of surviving calfs or elephants who have escaped the hunters to see it any other way. Already this year there have been an alarming number of ivory hauls and elephant/rhino slaughters. Total ban. Please.
Kenya and Tanzania Safari: Xmas 2012
Hopefully this gives a flavour of the wide variety of game we spent time with in the Serengeti, the Mara and Laikipia over Christmas and the New Year. The Big Cats performed well: lots of Lion activity, not just sleeping! Cheetah kills, Wild Dog hunting Dik Dik - we could hear the shrieks and then crunching of bones.... but the terrain was too difficult to keep up with these hunters. Still, we lucked in with seeing Wild Dog puppies though! We nearly saw a Leopard kill but some bad mannered Homo Sapiens messed up the kill, much to the frustration of a number of us who had been respectfully watching her hunt, and of course don't forget the frustration of the poor Leopard who was frightened off, needing to eat and with an empty stomach. More on safari etiquette in a later Blog!
The Northern Serengeti showed us Hyena galore, the Southern Serengeti Wildebeest galore. A Puff Adder (gulp), different species of Zebra and Giraffe in the Kenyan highlands, and not featuring in this video, but some privileged time with Samburu as they celebrated the coming of age of some of their young men.
2013 is shaping up well!
Julie and Adam
January 2013
Interesting Sightings
We were very lucky on our recent safari in Kenya and Tanzania to catch some particularly interesting sightings. These images bring back fond memories. Just before laying out our picnic blankets, Raphael spotted something unusual in the grass, THANKFULLY! A Puff Adder with a bird partly engulfed, its stiff legs of death sticking out and helping to break the camouflage. How interesting. Puff Adders dislocate their jaws in order to swallow their prey. Although we were trying to be careful, a number of lenses pointing down at him spooked him. Thankfully, this chap had to dislocate his jaw again to spit out the bird, buying us all time to shriek, jump in the air a few times, cling to each other and then withdraw back to the vehicle out of his reach. With the benefit of hindsight, we're still laughing about this.
Wild Dogs in the Kenyan Highlands
Happy New Year everyone, we hope most of your dreams are realised this year and that you manage to keep most of your resolutions. One of our resolutions is to be better at keeping this Blog up to date as we have been told by some that they prefer the detail of the Blog to FaceBook. So starting the year with a bang, African Wild Dogs..... We are just back from hanging around a pack of African wild dogs up in the north of Kenya. We stayed at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp, owned and run by Annabelle and Steve who really gave us a great bush experience, and with their fantastic Samburu staff, helped us to spend alot of our time looking for and watching the dogs who continue to den nearby. Why do we love Wild Dogs so much? * Well, they are terrific socialisers and get very excited and affectionate toward each other when they greet, before they go hunting, when they return. * They then morph into efficient killing machines. They are quick, they hunt in small packs, they devour pretty much everything, bones included, within minutes, trying to beat hyenas or anything else wanting to nick their kill. * The adults regurgitate what they have eaten to feed the puppies or other dogs in the pack that haven't eaten. * It's adrenaline filled full-on exhilaration speeding around in an open safari vehicle, clinging to your camera gear with one hand to protect it and clinging to anything solid to protect yourself, as you try to keep up with the dogs as they are hunting. Too much fun! * And Wild Dogs don't grow on trees so whenever we can, we invest the time to get really good sightings of them. If you're interested in Wild Dog behaviour, we highly recommend staying at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya where you will also be very well fed and watered, (possibly the best food in the bush!), and you will enjoy a very genuine, real bush experience as in this part of Kenya you have ranchers collaborating with small safari camps, cooperating with local communities, all on the same land. Quite a different experience.
