January 4 , 2010

Dear subscriber,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Glen Afric Country Lodge and all its staff would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.  We are looking forward to seeing you soon.  To make a booking to come and visit us click here www.glenafric.co.za . 

Ranger's Report

Hanna the Elephant

 Happy birthday Hanna! Hanna turned two years old on the 31st of December. She had a fantastic birthday party down at the elephant house where the rangers and elephant handlers sang happy birthday to her. Jono the quarantine manager made her a special birthday cake out of carrots which she thoroughly enjoyed. She was even kind enough to share her cake with her sister Marty!

Lucy the Giraffe

Lucy is pregnant; the gestation of a giraffe is 14-15 months. It could be very soon that we have a new arrival on the reserve so keep an eye out!
 

The Wildebeest

We have now had 5 new calves born on the reserve. Two new born wildebeest have been seen sucking from one mother. It is very rare to have twins but even rarer for a mother to take on another calf. This is another amazing phenomenon of nature that can be explained only with a DNA test.

The Impala

All the impala that where pregnant have had their lambs. This is a survival strategy where the mothers have their lambs within a few days of each other, this safety in numbers prevents predators from picking off the young as the are born. Impala are also able to prolong their gestation period for up to a month to ensure that their offspring are born after the first rains. This also allows them to give their lambs the best chance of survival when the grass is long and lush.

The Lions and a Rock Monitor

Savannah found a rock monitor lizard in her camp and there was a stand off between a 180kg lioness and a 3kg monitor lizard.  A pretty impressive sight to see. Every time Savannah tried to get close to the lizard it tail whipped at her and tried to bite her. Jared and Bainett then called Savannah and Hoby inside their container and locked them up.   They then went into the camp to try and catch the lizard but because of the dense bush it evaded them.  Fortunately it was rescued the next day.

The Zebra

Jack has finally lost his title as head of his harem to another zebra named Justin. Justin has been testing Jack and finally took the opportunity to claim Jack's harem as his own.  He has started to cover all the mares and assert his dominance. It is good for the gene pool as a lot of the mares in the harem are Jack's off spring. Jack is now in Quarantine so he can recover and to keep him safe from Justin; he’s doing very well.

Mopani the Hippo

For some time now Mopani the hippo has been very unhappy and keeping herself quite separate from Mujaji and Mumpoor our other two hippos. As you know from the last ranger's report she even went on a walk about to our neighbours. She did come home and we have moved her to our quarantine station. We have been monitoring her health as her behavior has been so strange.   We are sure you can imagine that it did come as a great surprise to all of us to find out that she was in fact a he! This explains an awful lot as with two males and one female there will be competition for dominance.

Happy New Year to you all and looking forward to taking you out on a game drive, elephant walk or horseback safari soon.
 

The Rangers