Fire at Sondela.

On Thursday (19/08/10) afternoon as most of our students were working on either our files or blogs when suddenly the fire alarm ( A high pitched screetching noise) went off right next door to the Academy.

Previously having gone through a fire drill we all clambered down the stairs to the workshop where they keep the saftey masks ect ect. Upon arrival we were notified that there actually was a fire and that this wasnt a joke. Due to us being students we're not allowed to fight in an actual fire, but some of us like myself were sent to the wildlife centre to help out as they readied the feeding if something was to happen. Luckily we were prepared for the news that the fire/ wind direction has changed and was heading straight for the W.L.C. All animals were put into either cages or bhoma's which naturally placed in fire saftey spots. Luckily the wind changed direction away from the W.L.C and the animals were taken back to their cages and bhoma's. Fortunatly no one was hurt, and the students on duty the next day went to back sure that the smouldering tree's and bushes were killed so that we could prevent a new fire from starting.

Serval Release!

This Morning we Released a young male Serval that was caught on a nearby Resort. He was the brought to Sondela Nature Reserve to join the rest of our wide variety of felines on Sondela.

Description: The Serval is a medium sized feline with black spots on a golden orange coat. Much like the Cheetah, Servals also have "tear-marks" on their faces. Males are much larger than females though the most common size for them would be 59-92 cm. Females weight in at about 7-12kg's and the males at 9-18kgs. Servals have the longest legs of all cats, which is interesting because of their short slender bodies.

They have many Subspecies which include:
-Leptailurus Serval Serval, Cape Province.
-Leptailurus Serval Beirae, Mozambique
-Leptailurus Serval Brachyurus, East Africa, Ethiopia and Sahel.
-Leptailurus Serval Hindei, Tanzania

Hunting and Diet: Servals are Nocturnal and thus hunt mostly at night unless disturbed by humans or larger nocturnal predators. Although the Serval is designed to mostly catch Rodents it can also hunt Lizards, Birds, Hyena's, Gazelle, Springbok and Hares.

After we had a quick lesson on Servals and their behaviour we released the animal back into the wild and like a gunshot he took off into the direction of the Resort of where he origionally came from. After much excitment and pictures we returned back to the Academy to continue with our work.

Cultural Heritage Resource Managment.

Today we went up to one of the many 'Koppies' on Sondela where we found many artifacts from the early stone age right up to the late Iron Age which was very intresting and unique to experience.

In the picture to the right is my speciman identity form in which I took a picture of the piece of Flint I found and the general information that I gathered from the site. Today I learned that large rounded stones were from the early Stone Age which were used to either break and crack open things such as nuts, eggs, skulls (;D) ect ect. Then those instruments developed into sharper accurate tools which indicated that the earlier beings whom visited Waterkop Punt were already into the middle stone age.

After a few more minutes of searching we found evidence that those who lived in the middle stone age developed into the Iron age- Phew! It proved to be a very enlightening lesson, I could feel my very roots reaching to that exact shady spot where I found my stone under a very comfortable looking patch of grass.

Combating Invading (Alien) Plants.

Combating Aliens Plants.

And no, it isn't some sort or new computer game. In fact, its the process of removing problem plants such as 'Cestrum Laevigatum' or the Cigarette plant which was killing off our livestock and potentially deadly to both humans and wildlife.

Excitedly, we first searched for information on this plant ( Cetrum Laevigatum) from various sites before we started with our practical work.

Description: It is a many brunched plant, which grows from 6-12 meters in length when in coastal regions. But in places such as Limpop or the freestate they grow up to 3 Meters.
Dark- Light greenish colour with yellow tube-like flowers which are quite sweet smelling. Later (Spring-Summer) Greenish berries will appear which to most animals is an open invatation.

Distribution: Mostly in Cattle, especially in winter when there is less to eat. Cattle arent very peticular about what they eat thus are prone to eating anything that they can find.

Prevention: Now most sites said for us to remove our cattle from the "infected" grazing area but preferably we decided to manually cut down near the bottom of the stems then dose them in poison.

Toxic Principle: Diterpenoid.

Clinical Signs: Hollow eyes, salivating, swollen hooves, abdominal pain , muscle tremors, staggering gait, aggression, Groaning, constipation and weakness. Are some of the syptoms.

Now exactly as I explained in "Prevention". Armed with gloves, goggles and poison we bravely dabbed the plants at the base of their open stems. Also, oddly enough the biggest bushes were found in the sun, and the lesser bushes were in the shade. Victoriously the lesson ended with no major casualties.

Over and Out.
=)

Giraffe Capture.

Giraffe Capture.
In the image to your right there are four Sondela students including myself. Infront of us is a stillborn giraffe calf that caused the female some distress.

After catching her, and darting her with a tranqulizer we got her to lie down and had to get a few students to hold her head steady. Luckily the Vet was there to help, he bravely stuck his hand inside of the female to help guide the little one out. If you zoom into the picture you'll see the eye of the young calf is white and milky in colour which is a sign that he has been dead for over eight hours- luckily we found the female before any damage was done.

Afterwards we gave the Giraffe female her shots to protect her from any infection. The baby nicknamed "Happy face" was quickly taken to the vulture resturant.

Bring and Braai

Bring and Braai with the Northern folks from Ireland!

After a hard day of miking the cows and mingling with the guests, I heard news that myself and my friend Pg had to work bring and braai. Now obviously, being who I am I internally went "Whoop Whoop" but on the outside I put on the usual scowl so many young people wear on their faces.

After straightening my uniform, brushing my and picking twigs and bugs from my teeth I walked to the Bhoma section behind the resturant. After lighting the candles, and carrying out dishes of various salads I heard a commotion to my left and noticed a whole group of young women talking loudly to themselves in hat seemed to be gibberish. Excitedly I walked up to them and greeted them the Sondela way (Uhem, with a smile and bright eyes) .

Despite the cold weather the vibe was exciting yet chilled. The girls from Northern Ireland got to "Braai" for the first time and decided that "Wors" means cool. So in all, to say the least I got a cultural experience that will make me laugh for the rest of my life.

Compost at Sondela!

Compost.

Compost is composed of organic matter which is rich in minerals and nutrients. Which is good for Gardens and even Farmlands, because of its high aerobic decompostion many living organisms live and enrich the soil (Compost). Now if you think of Compost you think of rotting food and waste products that cause quite a stink, but in actual fact it doesnt. If you have a "Healthy" Compost it should smell very earthy and wet, but when its "Unhealthy" a putrid or eggish smell would be your largest indication.

Compost heaps dont just include rotting food and dying plant matter but also rotting wood and wood shavings to add an almost bulk like weight to it. Without wood or shavings to it the compost will only be furtile in nutrients for a few days.

Game Capture- Not for the faint hearted!

Game Capture!
In other words, run like hell and grow a thick second skin because you will fall. A lot.

Dont get me wrong, it was very educational and not to mention entertaining! I was stationed at the second curtain which meant if I did something wrong, and my timing was wrong I could ruin everything. Wow, the pressure didnt kill me? Now when the helicopter flew over our field and started the alarm ( Double Whoops for the first curtain) my heart sat in my throat and did double thumps. Then when the second alarm sounded, I had to run with the South African lightning in my steps, pulling the thick canvas curtain to trap the Kudu in the little camp.

The next step would be for the experienced worker to chase the animal into the next camp, which also proved hilarious! Sometimes the Kudu Bull will follow our orders and go to the next camp, but other times he will do as he pleases which had my friend and myself nearly jumping out of our skins!
If I had to choose between staying in class or doing Game capturing, I would vote for the Game Capturing!

Loving something-other than yourself!

The definition of love is : "Strong postive emotionof regard and affection"

And I strongly agree to that statement.
On monday morning I helped out at the Wildlife centre where we had to herd two young giraffe's into a pen so that they could get their mid-morning feed.

After ducking from numerous wild kicks that would make even Bruce Lee jealous we finally got the youngest of the two to calm down enough so we could give him his bottle. And my job was to keep Matilda (The eldest of the two) from draining the baby's bottle as fast as she had her own- which proved more difficult than it may sound. After that I retreated to wash my hand from the milk and dribble, only to pass the two Rhino's ; Safrina and Dina. Whom I had previously fell in love with.

Many comments may have been made of Safrina (Above, the one with the horn, not the glasses) about her fiery temper. But that is one of the reasons why I love her. After many affectionate grunts and pats I said a brief goodbye so that I could help prepare her and Dina's food which consists of rice and milk mixture that then gets a few cups of water added to-to give it that watery taste that they love. Though, because Safrina is weaned, she only gets a light powdering of the milk whilst little Dina get two-three cups of it. Which Safrina steals in the end.

Once you have to start caring about not only yourself, your whole perspective on life changes. And I am happy to say that I have fallen in love with a young female Rhino with the name of Saffrina.

Human Resources.

Human Resources.

Today I spent my day entertaining and keeping a watchfull eye on a group of playfull and frisky children from the farm school on campus.

Lots of dancing, playing, roughhousing and the usual air of fun that you would expect from a group of children. I couldnt even stop myself from being taught how to bounce a soccer ball on my head from a smiling eight year old. We played a friendly game of soccer whilst half of the other students went on an educational gamedrive.

Many goodbyes were said with the posing for pictures and hugs from the kiddies, today I had learnt that having fun does not need a language to make itself heard.

Welcoming of the Guests.

Also known as "Torture in the sun"

Standing with my friends around a little table handing out Pancake vouchers was... a very intersting and educational activity to get through which proved to actually have some perks.
Waving, smiling, greeting and basically being as sweet and helpfull as ever was fun, believe it or not.

Waiting for my friends at the main gate to radio in that a guest with a White Silver BMW was about to arrive or any other colour proved to make me almost giddy due to the whole puppy dog effect. Smile, wag your tail and try and be helpfull. Every other, Frikkie Viljoen, or Bertie Aswagen would crack a smile back and make an almost witty response to our "Enjoy your Pancake, Sir"-Which was funny at times.

To round up the afternoon of "Hello'ing and Enjoy your Day'ing" a few of us (Leaving two of our men behind to man our table) we sneaked a few leftover pancakes. Succsess

Welcoming of the Guests.

My first day at Sondela's "Wildlife Centre"

"Bright Eyed and Busy Tailed"

That is how I would describe this young Nyala bull whom charasmaticly flashed me a buck-toothed (No Pun intended) grin just as the flash went off.

He is one of many Orphaned/Ill/Adopted young animals that can be found at Sondela's Wildlife Centre. I luckily got to spend my very first day there, where I got to meet many tame and not so tame animals. We also released a Water Mongoose who was causing havoc on a neighbouring farmers cattle who he then trapped and sent to us to release.We drove with the little guy to a green marshland type of field and tried to release him. But Mr. Mongoose decided he wasn't about to be pushed about by a group of simple humans, so hissing and spitting he stayed in his crate.

After various pushes and taps on the crate, this huge fuzzy cat-like creature sped out making us all jump and one or two of us yelp. The fuzzy little mongoose I had in mind turned out to be a huge growling animal who has found himself a great home with many friends. After that Episode we all drove back to the Centre to get the feed ready for the animals. Twenty-five minutes later I found myself hacking up bits of Warthog for the cheetahs and other wild cats. Bottles were made, meat was weighed and jobs were given out.
My next mission was to feed a mother Rhino and her not so little baby, I tried to play the distraction by thumping on an empty food crate as my friend ran in to grab the empty feeding buckets. But, instead of attracting the Rhonos as I had planned to, I had Cheeky and Layla the two tame Zebra's follow me, eager for a snack.

Trying to stop them from eating my jumper, and attracting the Rhino's proved to me futile so we gave up and bravely and calmly rounded up the buckets.
After bottle feeding the young buck and Zebra we tossed large chunks of meat to the cats, who just before dinner made their hunger known by spitting, hissing and performing jumps that would make a trapeez artist blush. Then the cleaning, wiping and scrubbing began. Everything has to be in prestine condition because these animals deserve the best.

And so ended my busy and exciting day of feeding, petting and fending off the Ostrich who decided that she wanted to eat my cell-phone. So, all in all my day was fantastic.