White backed Vulture in Flight, Masai Mara Kenya
Lets face it Vultures are not really on peoples favorite animal or bird list, but primarily because they are very miss-understood birds, who play a very important and vital role in our environment and not just here in Africa but also in the rest of the world.
The Pan-African Ornithological Congress was recently held in Arusha from the 14th-21st October 2012, http://www.paoc-africa.org/about-us/ it is held in different parts of Africa every 4 years. One of the days was mainly dedicated to raptors and Vultures in general. It was fascinating but also utterly scary to listen about Vultures and in how much trouble they are in and that their numbers have plummeted dramatically, it is also here were one realizes how important Vultures are to have around.
Two of the speakers Darcy Ogada and Munir Virani spoke about serious declines in Vulture numbers in Africa and in South Asia, both are involved in Vulture/Raptor research and conservation together with, The Peregrine Fund, you can check out the website here. You can also read Darcy's article Dropping Dead: causes and consequences of vulture population declines worldwide here as well as some other articles. You can also read some notes from the field by Munir Virani here.
The situation in Africa is just as critical, but unlike Asia gets very little attention from authorities, government and the media. The vultures in Africa face many threats, habitat loss, killings for witchcraft, lack of food, high voltage/power lines, wind farms and harassment but the two main reasons are poisoning and human persecution.
In North Africa vultures are pretty much non existent, in West Africa the problem is killings for the use of vulture parts in witchcraft and they have experienced a 95% decline in large vulture numbers, and Uganda has experienced a 65% decline. In East Africa the killings of vultures are due to the poisoning of carcasses with the pesticide poison called Furadan. Carcasses are poisoned with the intention to kill and get rid of cattle killing predators like Hyenas and Lions, but vultures feed on these carcasses as well and they can kill hundreds of vultures in one sitting, In September this year a report came out of Zimbabwe, where an Elephant carcass was poisoned and lead to the single killing of 183 vultures. The direct poisoning and killing of vultures will also have a huge affect on the success of future breeding of vultures as they have some of the lowest reproduction rates among birds and so their populations are extremely vulnerable to high mortality rates.
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Everything Guiding
Everything Guiding is a blogsite where all Asilia Lodges and Camps guides can log onto to get all kinds of interesting info on guiding and environmental issues. Guides can also get all their interesting sightings posted on this blog, and can see what everyone else in the other camps are seeing. The blog will be updated with new posts daily, weekly, monthly or whenever any interesting topics are found. It is a blog to boost your learning and increase your knowledge.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Vulture Crisis in Africa and the World
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Wild Flowers of Kogatende
Kogatende in the Northern Serengeti has some beautiful wild flowers, especially in November when the grass is super short and green from the rains and the Wildebeest Migration has already left the area.
Many of the beautiful flowers however is very hard to identify and partly because it is very difficult to get a well illustrated field guide to help. Guests also always notice them because they are so pretty, normally very brightly colored and you cant miss them, so naturally they want to know what they are called.
A few months back we started making a photo library of all the wild flowers we could see (thanks Nathoo) and in May this year we had a great opportunity to identify some of these flowers. Annie Powys a tree and plant fundi from Kenya joined us in the May guide training in Kogatende as one of the trainers and she helped Id some of the flowers for us, have a look below.
Kalanchoe sp. |
Ruellia patula |
Thunbergia alata |
Jasminum aethiopica |
Commelina sp. |
Hibiscus aethiopica |
Kleinia abyssinica |
Crossandra subacaulis |
Cycnium tubulosum |
Ipomea cairicia |
Stathmostelma racoides |
Hypoxis obtusa |
Blepheris sp. |
Hibiscus lunarifolius |
Striga asiatica |
Scadoxus multiflorus |
Ammocharis tinneana |
Gloriosa superba |
Hibiscus lunarifolius |
Solanum incanum |
Friday, August 10, 2012
Exceptional Birding Sayari Camp!!
Hi All
In May this year we did some great guide training in the Northern Serengeti at Sayari Camp with 29 Asilia Guides. Four topics were covered, namely Geology with Dr Abigail Church, Botany and Id of plants with Annie Powys, insects with Dino Martins and finally birding with Clint Shipper. These were the trainers for the 2 weeks of training and the guides divided into four groups and had three days with each trainer.
I wanted to share the amazing bird list that we got in the two weeks at Sayari Camp a whopping 215 species. See below for the finished and completed list.
In May this year we did some great guide training in the Northern Serengeti at Sayari Camp with 29 Asilia Guides. Four topics were covered, namely Geology with Dr Abigail Church, Botany and Id of plants with Annie Powys, insects with Dino Martins and finally birding with Clint Shipper. These were the trainers for the 2 weeks of training and the guides divided into four groups and had three days with each trainer.
I wanted to share the amazing bird list that we got in the two weeks at Sayari Camp a whopping 215 species. See below for the finished and completed list.
Species | Locality | Square | Day | Month | Year |
African Black Swift | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Black-headed Oriole | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Crake | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Golden-breasted Bunting | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Green Pigeon | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Grey Flycatcher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Hoopoe | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Moustached Warbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Paradise Flycatcher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Pied Wagtail | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Quailfinch | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
African Wattled Lapwing | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Arrow-marked Babbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Ashy Flycatcher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Banded Martin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Banded Parisoma | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Bare-faced Go-away Bird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Barn Swallow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Bateleur | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Bearded Woodpecker | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black and White Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black Coucal | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black Crake | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black Cuckoo-shrike | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black Saw-wing | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-backed Puffback | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-bellied Bustard | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-chested Snake Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-crowned Tchagra | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-headed Heron | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-headed Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-lored Babbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Black-shouldered Kite | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Blue-naped Mousebird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Bronze Maniken | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Brown Parrot | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Brown Snake-eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Brown-crowned Tchagra | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Brubru | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Buff-bellied Warbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Cardinal Quelea | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Cardinal Woodpecker | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Cattle Egret | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Chin-spot Batis | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Cinnamon-breasted Rock Bunting | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Common Bulbul | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Common Button Quail | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Common Fiscal | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Common Scimitarbill | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Common Waxbill | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Coqui Francolin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Crested Francolin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Croaking Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Crowned Lapwing | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Dark Chanting Goshawk | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Diederic Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Dwarf Bittern | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Egyptian Goose | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Emerald-spotted Wood Dove | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
European Bee-eater | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
European Honey Buzzard | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Fan-tailed Widowbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Fish Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Flappet Lark | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Fork-tailed Drongo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Freckled Nightjar | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Gabar Goshawk | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Goliath Heron | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grassland Pipit | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Great Spotted Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Greater Blue-eared Starling | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Greater Honeyguide | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Green Wood-hoopoe | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Green-capped Eromela | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Crowned Crane | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Cuckooshrike | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Heron | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Hornbill | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Kestrel | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey Wren-Warbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-backed Camaroptera | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-backed Fiscal | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-capped Social Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-capped Warbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-headed Bush-shrike | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-headed Kingfisher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Grey-headed Sparrow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Gymnogene | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Hamerkop | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Harlequin Quail | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Helmeted Guineafowl | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Heuglin's Courser | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Hildebrandt's Starling | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Holub's Golden Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Hooded Vulture | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Horus Swift | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
House Sparrow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Klaas Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Knob-billed Duck | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lappet-faced Vulture | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Laughing Dove | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lesser Honeyguide | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lesser Masked Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lesser Spotted Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lesser Striped Swallow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Lilac-breasted Roller | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Little Bee-eater | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Little Rush Warbler | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Little Stint | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Little Swift | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Little Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Long-crested Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Long-tailed Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Madagascar Bee-eater | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Magpie Shrike | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Malachite Kingfisher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Marabou Stork | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Martial Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Meyer's Parrot | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Mosque Swallow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Northern Black Flycatcher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Northern White-crowned Shrike | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Nubian Woodpecker | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Ostrich | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Parasitic Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Pearl-spotted Owlet | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Pectoral-patch Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Pin-tailed Whydah | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Plain Martin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Plain-backed Pipit | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Purple Grenadier | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Purple-banded Sunbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Pygmy Falcon | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rattling Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-billed Firefinch | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-billed Oxpecker | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-billed Quelea | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-billed Teal | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-cheeked Cordonbleu | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-chested Cuckoo | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-eyed Dove | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-faced Crombec | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-fronted Barbet | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-headed Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-necked Spurfowl | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Red-throated Tit | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Ring-necked Dove | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rock Martin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rock-loving Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rosy-breasted Longclaw | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rufous-naped Lark | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Rufous-tailed Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Ruppell's Griffon Vulture | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Ruppell's Long-tailed Starling | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Sacred Ibis | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Sand Martin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Scarlet-chested Sunbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Schalow's Turaco | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Secretary Bird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Silverbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Slate-coloured Boubou | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Sooty Chat | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Speckle-fronted Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Speckled Mousebird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Spekes Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Spotted Eagle Owl | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Spotted Thicknee | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Spur-winged Lapwing | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Stout Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Straited Heron | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Striped Kingfisher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Superb Starling | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Tawny Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Tawny-flanked Prinia | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Temminck's Courser | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Three-banded Plover | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Trilling Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Tropical Boubou | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Usambiro Barbet | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Verreaux's Eagle-owl | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Village Indigobird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Violet-backed Starling | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Wahlberg's Eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Water Thick-knee | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Western Banded Snake-eagle | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White Stork | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-backed Vulture | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-bellied Bustard | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-bellied Tit | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-browed Coucal | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-browed Robin-chat | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-browed Scrub Robin | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-faced Whistling-Duck | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-headed Barbet | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-headed Buffalo Weaver | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-headed Sawing | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-headed Vulture | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-rumped Swift | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-tailed Lark | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
White-winged Widowbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Winding Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Wire-tailed Swallow | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Woodland Kingfisher | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow Bishop | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-billed Oxpecker | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-billed Stork | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-breasted Apalis | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-fronted Canary | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-mantled Widowbird | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-spotted Petronia | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-throated Longclaw | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Yellow-vented Bulbul | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 | |
Zitting Cisticola | Kogatende, Serengeti | 14 | 5 | 2012 |
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Guide Selection Course
So the 2011/12 season has come to an end and what a season it has been. Busy camps, safaris, happy guests and many wonderful wildlife sightings. This is the time of the year when everybody takes a well deserved break until the next season starts again in early June. This is also the time of the year when we do allot of staff training.
In the next two months there will be some very good guide training taking place and we have just finished selecting 10 new trainee guides to send on such a course and hopefully one day become one of our resident camp safari guides. The selection process started some three weeks ago with Myself and Emannuel Chagamba (one of our Olakira Camp guides) interviewing round about 150 people. Cv's where collected and personal interviews where done with each applicant, together with a driving test.
From all the almost 150 plus interviews we selected 30 people to come back and do a three day selection course at Asilia base office out of which we would choose the final 10. It was a fun filled three days getting to know everyone better and playing some really fun team building games with them, teaching them some valuable skills.
Blindfolded, make a even sided triangle and point it to Mt Meru |
Crossing a "river" and having to build a perfect tower of tins on a float! |
Pure Concentration!! |
Leeding your blinded partner through a mine field |
At the end of day three 10 people where chosen (a very tough decision) to join Ethan Kinsey on a 6 week guide training course in the bush, followed by written and practical guiding exams and future employment. A big congratulations goes to Calson, Oredi, Erasto, Elia, Benson, Leonard, John Elias, Nathan, Samwel and Makubi for making the final ten and best of luck to all of you!!
The final ten, In the back L-R, Oredi, Erasto, Nathan, Leonard and Benson In the front, L-R, Elia, John, Makubi and Calson, absent Samwel. |
Thanks to everyone who came to the interviews and also those who joined us on the selection course, for those who did not make it this time, keep believing in yourself and you are all very welcome again to come and try next season, Karibu Sana !!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Battle In Zambia
Hi All
I thought I would share the following series of photographs that show a battle that took place in Zambia's Luangwa River in Luangwa National Park. This was send to me via email and by now has been send all over the world I'm sure, but for those who have not seen it yet, pretty amazing !!
These dramatic pictures show a clash of the titans as a protective elephant mum and a ferocious crocodile get in an epic tug of war in Zambia. The female elephant and her baby were drinking from the Luangwa River in the South Luangwa National Park when they were attacked. Leaping out of the murky waters a vicious crocodile bit down on the female's trunk.
I thought I would share the following series of photographs that show a battle that took place in Zambia's Luangwa River in Luangwa National Park. This was send to me via email and by now has been send all over the world I'm sure, but for those who have not seen it yet, pretty amazing !!
These dramatic pictures show a clash of the titans as a protective elephant mum and a ferocious crocodile get in an epic tug of war in Zambia. The female elephant and her baby were drinking from the Luangwa River in the South Luangwa National Park when they were attacked. Leaping out of the murky waters a vicious crocodile bit down on the female's trunk.
Attack: The crocodile sprung from the water as a baby elephant and its mum were having a drink from the river
The baby elephant went to hide behind mum as the croc attacked
The elephant was brought to her knees as the crocodile thrashed around
Brought down on her hind legs, the elephant didn't give up and turned away from the water, despite the predator clamped down on her trunk.
Using incredible strength the female managed to shake off the croc after walking away from the water.
She survived the attack along with her baby, despite a second scare when the baby tripped as the pair ran away.
The elephant managed to turn away from the water even the croc was trying to pull her in
With her baby safely on the far side, the mum stepped away from the water with the croc still clamped on
The mighty elephant dragged the crocodile all the way out of the water as she walked away
They were seen feeding from the river later in the day.
South Luangwa National Park is well-known for its mighty elephant herds of up to 70 individuals.
Measuring 9000 square kilometers, the park has 60 animal species including baboons, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, leopards, lions and hippopotamus.
Despite the unwanted appendage, she and her baby broke into a run
FREE: Water gushes from the mum's trunk as she finally shakes the croc, with her baby momentarily tripping over the predator before the pair made off safely.
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