Limpopo Valley Carnivores

Category: Snoopy and Barclay | Date: Aug 06 2009 | By: limpopocarnivores

By the very nature of his job sniffing out Cheetah scats, there is always a chance that Snoopy and I will come across wildlife that may be intimidating. Snoopy is a bush dog, born and bred, and is used to the sights and smells of many game animals, but I try to make sure that nothing will surprise him in the bush. I have taken him deliberately to see elephants, rhinos, lions and cheetah, to teach him that he must stay calm and certainly not bark on these occasions. He takes this all in his stride, and gets on with the job in hand. On one occasion we even disturbed a large male leopard in the bush, and Snoopy kept his cool. The leopard stopped to watch us from about 100m away, then slunk off into the bush.

The photo shows Snoopy as a youngster, the very first time he saw a live Cheetah. As you can see, he is alert, but not disturbed, and being “bushwise” like this really helps him in his work.

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Category: Cheetah, Lions, Wild Dogs | Date: Aug 06 2009 | By: limpopocarnivores

It seems as though we are about to enter a carnivore baby boom, and we are waiting with much excitement! Stellar, the alpha female of the Wild Dog pack looks as though she will go to ground and produce her second litter of pups on Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve sometime either over the weekend or at the beginning of next week. The Wild Dogs have had a hard time over the past couple of years and we are hoping that a successful breeding season will see them bounce back to their former strength. Despite the pressure from lions taking their numbers down to only a few individuals, they are wonderfully resilient and look set to make a comeback. We cant wait!

A little later on, we are expecting cubs from Joan, our female cheetah who we reported fitting with a radio-collar by the end of August. We are not sure where she will hide her cubs, but photographic records show that she has been on the reserve since she was a youngster herself, and so we are confident she knows the lay of the land well enough to pick a safe refuge for her babies.

Our final expected arrival is to Pikkanin, one of the Lionesses, who is also due within the next couple of weeks, according to the dates she was seen mating with Blade, the dominant male lion on the reserve.

It is extremely exciting to wait for these new arrivals, and we hope that they will contribute to the continued persistence of these charasmatic species in this area around the Greater-Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area. I will post news as soon as I have it!

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