i hate birds too; or more like i hate birders who force all of us to stop just for some damn bird far far away! the birders never give their birds names, family history and the birds’ background. not can they tell the birds of the same species apart unlike the land predators like lions. as we see, you give lions in your areas names. and you can relate to them.

it looks like you need some hungry and healthy caracals or servals. i know i misspell these two species; but i am sure you know what i am talking about. these two or even african wild cats are so good to eat birds like guinea fowl.

I’m afraid I have to confess to being a birder in my spare time.
We give the animals names because it makes it easier when we are tracking or discussing the animals to use a memorable name. All the animals also have a code for our database that gives details on it, but these are far too unwieldy to work with. For example, one male cheetah is in my database as CHVLM010308, which instantly tells me it is a male cheetah first identified on Venetia (the reserve where I work), that it is the first one, and was first identifed in march of this year. He needs a name though as CHVLM010308 is just not going to cut it when it comes to talking over the radio!
Your spelling of both Caracal and Serval was perfect. We have plenty of Caracals but this is not really a serval area. Where it is this dry, caracals tend to do rather better.

I love birds!

Yes we all love birds (including my friend Sauwah!). Rox, can you get a hold of a recording of the mighty Crowned Eagles’s cries? Perhaps it could be played intermittently, that might scare these “burdens” off. BTW, next time you see a caracal, please, snap a photo and post it. I believe this would be the first photo of a caracal on any WD blog, you’d be making history!

yes i love birds. you see i am chinese. so we used to have birds in cages though. I just hate birders who do force all of us ( safari junkies ) to sit there and wait for the birders to talk and talk about some bird either we have seen a million times or is so small or so far away that I often consider it a ufo! we had to make stop for every single bird! while we sped pass many other animals including even lions and cheetahs with cubs. and yes, birds are not impressed by any rare and endangred species unless is birds.
they should have their own safari while average tourists like me can have a smooth ride with fewer stops ( under the hot african sun ).

those genuine fowls are not too smart, are they? you would think the caracals can eat them all and leave your research alone.

Sauwah, you are too funny…but you do make some valid points.

I dont think birders and mammal watchers should ever go out on the same drive. One or both parties always ends up unhappy. Where I worked before we had both types of visitor and we kept them seperate. I did one morning drive with a gourp of birders and in 4 1/2 hours we went less than 400m from the lodge. “Safari junkies” as Sauwah calls them would have been pulling their hair out. There was one occasion where a group of birders watched a pair of Verreaux’s Eagles dive bombing a leopard with a cub, and were not the slightest bit interested in the cats. I can sympathise with both parties, as a birder being forced to leave a lifer must be just as frustrating as a junkie having to leave cheetahs or something similar. Separation is the only way!

i will never understand the birders since we, the human race are mammals with legs and do not fly! we have teeth and fingers like claws with cats ( big or small ) , hoofers and even snakes. because we are land animals and we can relate to each other.

i can tell ( sort of ) one mammal’s personality if i look at it hard enough. but birds are far away up there like those ufo people. any way too many birders are so hostile against cats now days and blame cats for the disappearance on birds.

feral or stray cats hunt birds because they are hungry. I would too if i would hungry and close to starve to death. yet too many so called bird lovers want to kill or hunt stray cats for the death of their beloved ones with wings. animals are animals. we should treat them equally! when cats hunt because their selfish owners dump them or discard them like trash onto our parks and high ways or even trash cans.

so birders should hate cat owners or any pet owners that are this hateful or selfish. i am sure if dogs can catch birds, they would eat them too. the real reason for the decline of song birds in america is the disappearance of predators like cougars, bears and wolves for these predators keep hoovers like deer’s number down. now without cougars, fewer bears and no wolves, deer are eating every thing green including branches which birds need to nest. and human invasion and destruction like development also are just as guilty for the decline of wild birds.

so here we goes again. during the dark ages, the catholic church and all those old men who wished to rid of their old wives with properties tortured and killed cats which the pope then declared cats as the witches’ maidens. now cats are the evil killers of birds.

i feel for all predators especially the solidatary ones who must eat meat to exist like all felines. why? their lives are hell lot harder than wolves, wild dogs or hyenas.

as i said before,if i were a wild animal, i rather be a big bird! no fence can hold me in! free as a bird as they say.

any way, i am going back to botswana this coming tuesday. i can’t wait. and i pray that noone in my group is one of those bird people.