Good day and welcome to Kololo’s Ranger Diaries, where the rangers of Kololo will share with you some of their best stories (Lions hunting, Elephants fighting), sightings (porcupine, aardvark) and interesting things that we have discovered on a regular basis…

For fun and adventure make sure you log on to Kololo’s Ranger Diaries on a regular basis. These are the Kololo rangers:

	Richard Oosthuizen		Bok du Preez		Lomarie van Schalkwyk		Jasper Visser

The rangers of Kololo are South Africans, therefore te ranger diaries will be published in English.

Every year we are privileged to be on Kololo when the new borns arrive. From the middle of November to the end of February all the animals on Kololo give birth to tiny little babies. Mating season is in the middle of winter,  that means that the females are pregnant during the dry season.

We provide the animals with salt, leak blocks and some Luzern grass for extra feed during the winter months to insure healthy females when they start giving birth.

The Zebras and The Blesbuck are first to give birth in the middle of November. The Blesbuck babies are completly white and become darker when they become older. The little Zebras look the same as their mother except they have brown hair covering the body, this disappears when they become older. The Eland and Waterbuck follows and then in December all the little Impalas, Blue Wildebeest and Warthog appear.

But one of the most beautiful babies are the Kudus. The gestation period is +/- 210 days before a single baby is born, but you will only start seeing them in January because the females hide them away in the thickets till they are big enough. This can be for up to four weeks before the young come out to join the herd.

When you stay in the bush this is the reason why you are here, it is not about seeing the big five every day it is about the bigger picture LIFE.

Those who are familiar with Welgevonden has ten to one heard or seen of a famous male lion called “Hanglip”. Now firstly the reason for this name is that quite some time ago this handsome young lion took his chances at catching a zebra, needless to say, he wasn’t very successful. Instead of catching the zebra, he managed to get his front teeth kicked out, his incisors bent and his lip is on a permanent droop (thus the name Hanglip) and I do believe his ego took quit some bruising too!

So our story starts with a normal afternoon drive in Welgevonden where we were treated with many beautiful sightings such as rhino and elephant. Nearing our last half hour of the game drive I located some very fresh male lion tracks and decided to follow them. After only a few minutes we managed to locate the owner of the tracks, and wouldn’t u believe it, it was Hanglip. He was lying very close to the car but amongst the rocks, he shortly got up and moved a few meters and started sniffing the ground at some lioness urine. Now when most male animals want to mate, they first do something called flehmen, that’s when they lick a females urine and press it against a special organ in the mouth that analysis it, in doing so they normally stand with a open  mouth and a rather silly grin, so picture this deformed lion standing there with properly the worst smile ever only a few meters away from the vehicle! Myself and the guests could not help but to burst out in laughter at this sight. When the laughter died down to a giggle Hanglip gave us a quick glance (almost as if saying watch this) walked over to one of the bigger rocks, and wouldn’t you know it, a beautiful lioness came from behind it and all lovingly rubbed up against him. Shows you it’s not all about looks!

We had a visit from the owners Ton and Yvonne Jansen. It was nice having them here  but the best part was when they said they are going to buy us nyala’s to stay around Kololo. I was very excited about this new developement.

At Kololo we prepared for them a big boma so that they can get used to the enviroment and settle in here on Kololo. The next morning we left very early to go and collect them. So we lured  them up onto the truck and headed back for their new home, kololo. It all went good, and after a few minutes they where in their new boma

It was my job to feed them and look if they have enough water, soon they started eating out of my hand. After 3 weeks in the boma it was time for them to be free, we opened the gates and off they went. We did go and try to find them, but they where deep in the African bush.

To my surprise one morning as I was walking past their boma I spotted our four Nyalas out the corner of my eye, they where back. The Nyalas are now walking freely around the chalets and eating apples out of my hand every afternoon. They have found their new home between the chalets, they are not always here but we see them more and more. So next time you come to visit kololo you might just see them.

Those who know me know that I absolutely love cheetahs. I was very thrilled and excited on a recent game drive to have not one but two sightings of these beautiful creatures. The first was a young male who managed to catch a baby zebra and eat it about 30 meters away from the vehicle. It was quite funny to see this slender athlete nearly roll away after completely stuffing himself with as much meat as his little stomach could take. He would stop eating, uncomfortably sit up and gasp for air, then fall down and lazily eat again. As nice a sighting as this was it wasn’t nearly as special as what happened only an hour later when we were surprized by a mother cheetah and her two cubs walking only 5 meters past the car. The mother was completely focused on an impala standing in the distance, whilst her cubs decided to lie down in the middle of the road, right in front of us. These youngsters were quite intrigued with the car and the strange clicking sounds (cameras going off at full speed!) that came from it. They moved off into the long grass next to the vehicle, but every few seconds one of them would just quickly poke his head out of the grass and look at us in a strange way and then move off again, this was going on for quite some time until a shrill call from the mother signalled them to move off again. Fortunately in this occasion curiosity did not kill the cat.

In South Africa there are 130 different species of scorpions, some venomous and some not so venomous. On Kololo the scorpions are getting more and more active due to the heat. Today there was a Hadogenes Scorpion in the laundry room, more commonly known as a rock scorpions. They are extremely flat with a very thin tail and large pinchers they only have a small stinger on the end of their tail. They are one of the none venomous scorpions

How do you now if it is venomous?
If it has a small stinger and lager pedipals then it is a non venomous scorpion. It uses its pedipals to catch it’s pray so they do not need to have so much venom. If it has a large stinger and small pedipals you have to watch out it uses it stinger to catch it’s pray so it needs and uses a lot of venom. The rock scorpions are well adapted to life in rock environments their bodies are flat and legs are compressed to allow them to creep into narrow cracks. They can walk up side down on rocks and their feet are adapted so that they can cling to the rocks.  All scorpions are carnivores they love to eat millipedes and crickets.

The one we caught today we are going to release on the farm near some rock vegetation where it will thrive.

Working with wildlife almost all my life, I have come to realize that more often than not it is the smaller animals in life that fascinates me.

A good example would be the lesser bush baby: a few nights ago I was driving on Kololo when I saw a whole group of these furry primates jumping in the trees. I sat with my flashlight for a good 20 minutes just watching them play around. These little guys with their big eyes and long fingers are so agile and home in the trees but on solid ground it is a whole other story.

One of the Bush babies tried to jump from one side of the tree to the other side but just did not have enough momentum, the little guy hit the dirt road with such force that he took a few seconds before he realized where he was.

Shocked and discussed at his mistake, now instead of the quick and effortless movements that I saw in the trees, I was watching a clumsy and unsteady Bush baby, much like a child trying to take its first steps.

It took the Bush baby about 2 minutes to cross four meters, once at the base of the tree it was like someone had pressed the fast forward button and off he was.

I must say for such a little animal, he sure made a huge difference in my evening.

A Puff Adder is one of my favourite snakes not just because they are beautiful but they are masters of camouflage. They can lie in a bundle of leafs and you will not even know it is there, most of your adders are short and stubby and rely on their camouflage to catch their prey. They have front hinge fangs that are folded back within their sheaths against the roof of the mouth the colour of a Puff Adder can also change depending on their habitat. They are common in South Africa and will hiss when they feel threatened. Bites are very painful and the venom is cytotoxic (cell destroying ). Even if a puff adder is fat and short they can swim very well.

After the long winter snakes are more active now hence we had a little incident lately:

It was late in the afternoon when the restaurant manageress ( Lettie ) came running in to the office white as a ghost. She could barley speak all she could say was SSSSNAKE.

Most of the local people are scared of anything that looks like a snake , what she saw was one big fat Puff Adder in the ranger room the room where we keep the bags and blankets for the game drives. All the guys were in the field and of course I love to rescue the puff adder. I got the snake stick and a special bucket, she hissed and made her self even fatter.

It was a really cool experience.   I have never seen such a fat puff adder. We released her far away from the lodge.

What a happy ending for me and the puff adder,  when she disappear into the grass.  Snakes are just misunderstood and that is why they are killed. When you get to learn more about them they are very interesting creatures.

Sunday, the 4^th September, my first game drive on Kololo Game Reserve. I departed from the head office at 10:00 with two very enthusiastic, and well informed guests eager to see and learn more about our beautiful reserve. Minutes after leaving we were treated with zebra's feeding only 15 meters away from the vehicle and were further surprised with a herd of Blue Wildebeest and Impala appearing from our side.

We were all thrilled with the mornings sighting, driving along one of the foothills of the Grootfontein mountains when we stopped in awe at not one but three beautiful Klipspringers that appeared out of the rocky mountain side and gave us a nice long photo opportunity.

My guests were especially amazed to learn the name KOLOLO means Klipspringer in Sotho and because the beautiful antelope share the rocky landscape with the Rock Hyraxs they have become co-dependent by both using identical warning whistles and thus helping each other in return. This means that the predators have to work twice as hard to catch either one of the species!

After more animal sightings and some refreshing coffee and snacks in the bush we returned to the restaurant for a lovely meal and good memories.