SUMMER'S END 2024

 SUMMER'S END 2024

Gee, my last update included lots and lots of water! Rain and more rain. I even said one must be careful of what one wishes for! Well, since then, there has been almost nothing... nada... bupkis! It looks like El Nino really racked it up against us for the latter half of the summer. So again, as in the previous blog, the rainfall switched completely after I called it. From the end of January till now we've had an average of 190mm precipitation over the estate, which is only 57% of the average of 296mm that has fallen over the last eleven years! And so, it looks like we will have a cold, dry winter. Brrrr!

Little rainfall or not, as you can see in the photo above, taken from the eastern side of Mount Prospect, facing north, the Finsbury grasslands are in fine shape. The beautiful pink flowers in the photo are a Pink Watsonia, a bold plant closely related to Galdioli. The end of summer has been filled with lovely sightings of animals and plants, some of which I managed to capture with my little camera:

I didn't manage to get any photos, though, unfortunately, but for the duration of March and possibly before and after, there were thousands, indeed tens of thousands of bats on the estate, feeding off the sweet, tasty fruits of the Quilted Bluebush, Diospyros lycioides ssp. guerta, which seemed particularly bountiful this summer. After noticing this crowd of bats along the Spekboom river after a night walk, I returned a few times afterwards to try to get a photo of one of them but, alas, it proved to be too much of a challenge because I could never find one that was roosting or resting, and of course, light was very low. But they were there, every night, in their massive numbers! I am sure that they were Egyptian Rousettes (previously Egyptian Fruit Bat), Rousettus aegyptiacus, simply by their large size and numbers.

They spend the day roosting in their thousands in massive colonies in caves and, in our area, abandoned mine shafts, and in the evenings, will fly up to twenty-five kilometers to a food source for the night, only to return to their roosting spot by the following sunrise. They crawl along branches while collecting fruit that they usually eat at a favoured tree or roost. It usually takes no more than one hundred minutes for the fruit to pass through their digestive systems, making them eat more than one-and-a-half times their weight each night. Lots of droppings all over the Spekboom woodland floor! This makes them extremely important seed dispersal agents for the fruits being consumed. They also feed on nectar and are the sole pollinators for the Baobab tree and others (including Queen-of-the-night, an invasive cactus), which have large white flowers that only open at night.

Next season, if they return, I will make a concerted effort to photograph and record more information about them while they are on the estate.

Some of the things I encountered this summer were very small and archaic, like these springtails suspended in the water in the tiny rockpool in my rockery. They are tiny, less than a millimeter long!

It's exciting for me because Springtails are the most abundant of all macroscopic animals and, in suitable habitats, reach densities of one hundred thousand individuals per square meter and, even though I have known this, I had never seen one (and realised it) until now.

Another exciting thing is that, taxonomically, on our Finsbury Animalia list, this adds another Class (think kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species) to the sub-phylum Hexapoda on our list. It may be a bit silly, but I like to record stuff around me, and so I like lists. On our list, Arthropoda is one of the four phyla (singular phylum) in the kingdom Animalia, represented here on the estate. Then, the phylum Arthropoda is split into a further four (just coincidence) sub-phyla of arthropods represented here on Finsbury Estate. They are Myriapoda, which include our millipedes and centipedes; Crustacea, represented here by our Freshwater crabs and woodlice; Chelicerata, which include our spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, solifuges and harvestmen and then the Hexapoda, which, until now, only contained our insects. Now the hexapods on the estate include two classes, the more primitive Collembola (springtails), represented, so far by this single unidentified species from the Podamorpha order, and the class Insecta, of which we have well over three hundred species identified on our Finsbury list so far. The furthest I could get with the identity of these in the photo is the order Podamorpha (Plump springtails) and are easy to identify as such by the long but fat body with six abdominal segments and three thoracic segments. So, yes, it is silly. But taxonomically, for our list, it is very satisfying!

Now I say archaic because springtails are the unequivocal oldest known hexapod, from more than four hundred million years ago in the Devonian. That's a long time ago. When something is that primitive and not extinct means that is perfect for what it does. An example of a more iconic group would be sharks, perfect at what they do. unchanged forever.

The Springtails' common name is derived from the fact that most species have a folded, fork-like appendage (called a furcula) attached and folded beneath the fourth abdominal segment, dorsally. This appendage is held under tension and when danger is near, it is released and flicks the springtail into the air, helping it to escape the danger. The furcula is present only on the springtail species that live on the ground, not those that live underground or in water, like these ones.

They are mostly omnivorous, feeding on fungal spores, bacteria, rotifers, other collembolans, alga, mold and lichens too. they scavenge carcasses, eat detritus and even soil minerals. They also feed on fungal hyphae but are better known to introduce hyphae to the roots of plants, which connects plants to each other! They are fed on by many species of mites, some that specialise on collembolans alone. Also spiders, gastropods, fish and many insect species. 

They mate by a male providing a sperm package (spermatophore) to the female, either by pulling her over it or presenting it to her. They are also capable of parthenogenesis, where a female produces clones of herself, therefore not needing a male. This is a system which favours reproduction to the detriment of genetic diversity, which is risky for a species because there is little tolerance for environmental change, and so extinction is more possible with the introduction of disease or major habitat alteration.

A nice new addition to our list....

Another archaic specimen for our list! So, previously we established that the springtails are the most primitive of the hexapods, well, this is the Rock Bristletail from the Meinertellidae family, and it is the most primitive of all of the insects, which is also a class of the hexapoda, like the collembola (springtails) above. These guys were around before winged insects evolved wings, making them one of only two orders (under class and before family, taxonomically) of insects that do not have, or never have had, wings. 

I featured a Fishmoth (zygentoma order) in my blog of February 2022 and photographed a Firebrat (also zygentoma) not long afterwards, thinking they were the most primitive of the insects. Little did I know that the bristletails were from another, even more primitive order, the Archaeognatha. The name means "ancient jaw", referring to the fact that all arthropods more primitive than insects have a jaw that is attached by a single articulation, as opposed to a double, sturdier articulation. It is believed that the bristletails were the transition, because they have simpler, albeit double, joints on the jaw. 

It is a remarkably beautiful animal. You need to download the photo or find another one that you can zoom into to appreciate the beauty of this creature. It is adorned with long, multi-coloured hanging scales like a sequined dress. Its compound eyes are huge, and its limbs resemble those of a lobster, with spider-like pedipalps. Oh, and like the springtails, they can use their tails (instead of a furcula) to flick their bodies a foot into the air when trying to avoid predators. Love them.

They are herbivores and feed on algae, moss and lichen, in this case mostly lichen because I found it on the Miner's cottage road, on the dry, rocky banks far from the mountain streams. With no wings, permanent water was way too far for this one. The breeding system is similar to the springtails and the more primitive arthropods like spiders, scorpions etcetera, guiding a female over a spermatophore presented or deposited by the male. Eggs are laid in cracks and crevices and when the young hatch, they look like the adults and just moult as they get bigger. Unlike the other more primitive insects, though, the bristletails never stop moulting, even after sexual maturity, which is only attained after about two years. In fact, after sexual maturity, they will mate between each moult until they are about four years old, when they expire.

And just to end this whole ancient thing, as a special treat, I thought I would introduce you to the most primitive land plant in existence, a Liverwort! This one is called a Bonfire Liverwort, Marchantia berteroana, quite widespread on the estate in the moister areas, especially splash spots along the beautiful mountain streams. This photo was taken on the banks of the spring situated at the southern base of Mount Prospect, where the fresh, crystal-clear waters come out from the ground, north and quite high above Rock Solid (unit 22).

Although the oldest Liverwort fossil date back to three hundred and eighty-five million years ago, spores in Argentina are dated at four hundred and seventy million years ago! Once again, very old.

Liverworts have a similar life cycle to mosses, in that they produce spores instead of seeds. In seed-bearing plants, the haploid stage (when there is only one set, either male or female, of chromosomes that needs to pair with another of the opposite sex before reproduction can take place) is very brief, only occurring in the pollen (male gamete) or in the ovule (female gamete). So, the cells in the normal plants you see are diploid, meaning they have two sets (or more), both male and female, chromosomes in their nucleus. In the more primitive spore-bearing plants, the plant body you see (like in the photo above) contains only haploid cells, and they need to produce both male and female gametangia (sex organs), sometimes on the same plant, but in different plants in this case. Looking at the flowery-shaped gametangia on this plant, I would say it is a male.

So, when it is very wet and there is a layer of water covering the plants (even just a film of water), the male sperm from this plants' gametangia will swim in search of the eggs within the female gametangia of another plant. Once located, the sperm will enter the female gametangia and fertilise the eggs. Once fertilised, a diploid sporophyte is produced. This organ produces haploid spores that, once dispersed, will develop into a new haploid plant if the conditions are right and the cycle will begin again.

There we go, a representative of the oldest Hexapod and one of the oldest Insect and one of the oldest land plants all added to our Finsbury lists in one go. Lovely stuff! 

I will need to explain this photo: In the background is my finger which is holding a leaf from a Silvery Sugarbush upside down to expose this Ladybug emerging from its' pupal case, the spiny capsule with its door wide open against my fingertip. Look how shiny are those elytra (solidified forewings common to all beetles, Coleoptera, that close over the folded hind wings, used for flying, when land bound, to protect the wings and abdomen) as they are exposed to the outside world for the very first time!

I was clearing the Rock Kestrel trail and decided to have a break under one of those Sugarbushes that line the path on its descent towards K9. I noticed movement on the underside of the leaf above my head, and wow, this is what I saw!

I managed to narrow down identification to the tribe Chilocorini, which is between family and genus taxonomically, and, besides a bunch of physical differences between these and other ladybugs, the most notable is that these eat mainly scale insects, not aphids, which other Ladybugs are so very fond of.

Of the twenty-eight insect orders that are described, just above half are hemimetabolous, meaning the NYMPH that hatches from the egg resembles the adult and goes through a process of moults as they grow up into an adult. The more advanced other half are holometabolous, meaning the LARVAE that hatches from the egg looks entirely different to the adult and once suitably developed, enters a pupal stage where the larvae metamorphosises into an adult who then emerges from the pupal case as an adult. 

In the latter system, the larvae usually eat completely different foods to the adult, and this system ensures that the young do not compete with the adults and so allows a much larger population of the same species to exist in a smaller area.  

With Coccinellids, this is not the case. The nymphs, which are spiky, crawly little worms, and the adults, eat the same things: Aphids, or in the case of the chilocorini tribe, Scale insects. Perhaps this is because aphids and scales usually occur in massive numbers at the same place, crowded onto affected stems and branches where they suck the juices from their plant prey. This is surely the gardener's best friend!

Below are photos of the five orchid species I found this summer that are new to our Finsbury orchid list, bringing the number of orchid species found on the estate to fifty-four species, so far. How's that? Koel piesangs!

Disa fragrans - I didn't know that yellow and pink could go so well together, until I saw this bright flash of colour peeking out of the grasses just below the table-top of Goudkoppies, close to Nosey Point. Quite exceptional!

Disa saxicola - Found a colony of these clinging to the rocks (saxicola means to live on rocks) high above Serenity sundowner spot, on the most direct route from that spot to the summit of Mount Anderson. I had been searching for them for many years and so, this was especially rewarding for me.

Disperis stenoplectron - This was on our list before, but I had mis-identified it. The ones on our list are Disperis cooperi, and so it is really nice to actually have it on the list for real.

Eulophia leontoglossa - Stumbled across a couple of these bright yellow orchids in the open grassland northeast of Pebble Creek, near the old elephant migration path. The papillae on the upper side of the lip resembles a lion's tongue, with its rough papillae, hence the specific name "leontoglossa" (lion's tongue).

Disa klugei - This was also on our list before, but the photo I had of it was of the incorrect species (D. patula var. transvaalensis is very similar but common and widespread). A special orchid because it is a rare endemic known only from two localities, one of them being this area.

This is a Greater Dwarf Shrew, Suncus lixus, which I found scampering around K33 late one afternoon. It is a small mammal, although it is quite a bit bigger than your average-sized shrew, that resembles a mouse. They are not mice, though, not even rodents, the order to which all mice and rats belong. Before DNA sequencing was used to classify organisms, taxonomists used similar physical attributes in classification, usually skeletal features. Regarding mammals, the tooth structure was mainly used. This was quite an accurate way of doing it because, after subjecting mammals to DNA sequencing, it was found that there were not many changes in mammal taxonomy, meaning they got it right from the beginning (unlike with plants!). 

Rodents all have large incisor teeth that grow continuously, necessitating them to continually gnaw on things to avoid their teeth growing so long, that they would not be able to close their mouths. Lagomorphs, rabbits and hares, also have these teeth but also have a unique digestive system (refer the article at the end of the previous blog: Summertime 2024*), so they have been classified into a different order, with which DNA sequencing agrees.

Shrews, on the other hand, have simple, pointed incisors that do not continuously grow. This dental formula is more suited to animals that eat insects and was used to classify animals from the Insectivora order of Mammals. This order has since been fragmented and Shrews belong to the new order Eulipotyphla, which includes hedgehogs, true moles and shrews, all predominantly insect eaters.

So, even though they resemble mice, they are not very closely related to them at all.

Shrews are also famous for their extra high metabolism, forcing them, like moles, to continuously eat. They can consume as much as twice their body weight in a day, and in winter in temperate areas like Finsbury, they enter a stage of torpor where they lose up to half of their body weight over winter while they are completely inactive.

Shrews are also serious breeders with a female raising up to ten litters of babies a year! That means, after a gestation of less than a month, the mother produces a litter. They are weaned within a month while the mother is pregnant again and within a few days of the previous litter being weaned, the mother gives birth to another litter. Talk about a shrew-making machine! Shame, she does this for her entire two-year life span.               

* An update: To date, we have found no further carcasses of hare on the estate or near it since the article on Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (refer the end of my previous blog), meaning that the hares we found were killed by something else. Very good news, although we must still be vigilant and keep our eyes open. 

This is a photo of a land snail from the Trachysystis genus of the Charopidae family munching happily on the juicy flesh of a Woolly Oyster mushroom, Hohenbuehelia mastrucata, deep within the dark forests of the Upper Steenkamp's gorge. Both are interesting.

The snail is a youngster, only about six millimeters in diameter. I saw a few smaller ones all over these Woolly Oysters, but also a few that were almost double the size of this one, most likely adults.  Like all snails, they are hermaphrodites, meaning each individual has testes and ovaries, and when they mate, they usually transfer sperm to each other's ovaries. Both then lay eggs at their own time and, those eggs hatch into miniscule, little snails, shell and all.  

The Wooly Oysters, though, are quite special in their own way. Not only edible to us (they are very closely related to the culinarily delightful Oyster mushrooms) but they are also carnivorous fungi. They are predators of nematodes.

Nematoda is another phylum in the kingdom Animalia that is not on our Finsbury Animal List. They are like tiny, little worms and feed on bacteria and other small animals and plants, usually within the first fifteen centimeters of the soil surface. They occur here in massive abundance, as they do in almost every habitat globally. It's just that they are too small to see with the naked eye. You may remember from your biology classes that nematodes are responsible for many, many ailments in plants and animals, including us. They are, on the other hand, responsible for contributing many positive things to the ecosystem too.

The oyster mushroom's hyphal "strings" immobilise the nematodes, under the soil surface, with a toxin produced on the tips of specialised hyphal stalks. The stalks lie in wait until a nematode physically touches it, allowing the toxin to take effect. The hyphal tips then grow through the mouth of the subdued nematode and digest the body contents from within. 

Can you believe, a hunting mushroom? 

This is a beautiful Little Bee-eater, Merops pusillus, captured on the estate by Dave DeVos from "The Croft's" (unit 19). Normally, these are not migratory like most other bee-eaters, but are sedentary, remaining in their territories the whole year through. With our high altitude and cold winters, though, the Little bee-eaters move to lower altitudes nearby in the deep of winter and return during the springtime and re-establish their territories here on the estate.

They are usually spotted hawking as a pair, either from the same perch or nearby. Hawking is when a bird sits on a perch, searching for insect prey, either flying or on the ground. Once prey is spotted, the bird dashes from the perch, catches the insect, and then returns to the same perch to swallow their prey before repeating the exercise. Little Bee-eaters choose a low perch, only about a meter off the ground, and concentrate on flying insects, particularly insects with venomous stings, like bees, hornets and wasps. Once the prey has been captured, the bee-eater returns to the perch where it scrapes the sting of the insect off of its body on a branch before consuming it. 

I do know there is a pair's territory on the Zebra trail as it runs alongside the Troutkloof mountain stream, and I've seen a pair close to K33 before. Unlike most bee-eaters, Little bee-eaters do not form clans or extended family groups, they instead remain as a pair and if you see more than two then it is a pair of parents with unweaned young under their care.

They will have a meter deep tunnel or two within the territory to use as nesting holes which will be utilised over and over again, each season, and will be used to successfully raise two or three broods of chicks each season. These deep tunnels in sand banks keep the chicks safe and warm so their success rate is quite high.

One big danger, though, is the Greater Honeyguide, a brood parasite. It is a bird that lays its eggs, like a Cuckoo, in the tunnel nests of the bee-eater. The imposter chick hatches before the bee-eater chicks and kills them violently as they hatch, with a temporary hook-tooth at the point of its beak, which it loses after a few days. The parent bee-eaters just have to accept this and clean the carcasses out from the hole as it all unfolds. To make matters worse, the honeyguide chick stays in the nest long after it has fledged, forcing the parent birds to continually feed it, stopping them from starting on another brood!

I have not yet spotted a Greater Honeyguide here on the estate. Please let me know if you have.  

I was exploring some rocks in the Spekboom valley in one of my night walks and -WOW - I came upon this Net-casting spider from the Menneus genus of the Deinopidae, a spider I remember reading about when I first became interested in spiders in the early nineties. This is the first time I have actually seen one! And when I came upon it, it had the net stretched much wider than that in the photograph. 

The webbed net is certainly very elasticky, and that's what the spider relies on to help subdue its rather large prey items, or victims if you will. The silk is not sticky, though, it is called cribellate silk, and it consists of hundreds of extremely fine silk fibres, loosely surrounding one or two thicker core fibres. When relaxed, the threads loosen and tangle around anything in contact with them.

And so, the spider comes out of hiding at night and, using its incredible night vision, hangs upside-down and stretches its net out in front of it. When an insect approaches, the spider dashes forward and releases the outstretched net over the victim, who becomes entangled in the net for long enough for the spider to bite it and envenomate it. There are also records of this spider catching flying insects in a similar way.

Another photo that may require an explanation. This is a Natal Green snake, Philothamnus natalensis,  that I watched swallow a large, pregnant Common River frog. It was actually quite an exciting experience that shows that snakes are not stupid and certainly know what they are doing.

I was checking some or other plant out on the path that leads past weir M34, just opposite Rainbow Rivers (unit 17), when I noticed movement right there by my boots. It was this snake holding onto a large Common River Frog. My presence caused the snake to release the frog and swim across the river to the other side, a good fifteen meters. The frog, sweating and clearly traumatised, struggled past my foot and stopped off in the slightly thicker bush away from the water's edge.

I saw the snake exit the water on the other side and half climb onto a small bush to give it a bit of elevation, then lie there facing back to me. I decided to freeze in place and just waited. After about four or five minutes (a long time to remain motionless), the snake descended the bush, entered the water, and swam back over to my side. It knew exactly where it was going as it returned to the exact place where it had left the frog, right next to my boot. It then followed the scent trail left by the frog and had no trouble finding it. The frog seemed to have succumbed by this time because it was immobile. 

The snake immediately began to swallow the frog while I tried my best, without moving, to get some photos. I chose the one above because it shows the feet of the frog still extruding from the snake's mouth, with frog eggs all over the snake's face as they came out while the snake was compressing the frog's body into its mouth. It also shows the stretched skin of the snake, exposing the blue skin beneath the scales.

Something is bothering me: I have always been under the impression that Natal Green snakes are venomous, but the venom is harmless to humans. When I check now, all literature says that it has no venom. This means it will have to rely on constriction as the method to kill its prey. This one was not constricting the frog when I saw it, although it may have uncoiled itself due to my interference before I saw it. But the frog was alive, but "sweating" after it moved off from where the snake let it go. When the snake returned, the frog appeared dead. This leads me to believe that the snake must have venom, otherwise, surely, the frog would have got away. I will delve deeper and let you know...

Anyway, it was quite an experience and it showed that the snake knew exactly what it was doing, and how it was not prepared to lose its hard-earned prey just because I interrupted the scene.  

This Diamond-back moth, Plutella xylostella, is so very tiny! The milkweed flower it is on is less that ten millimeters wide, but the moth is quite a significant pest to farmers of cruciferous crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etcetera. In fact, any plants that produce mustard oils, including mustard and horseradish.

The impregnated female moth finds a host plant and lays eggs on it. Within a week, the caterpillars have hatched and are munching away at the leaves. After four instars and only about sixteen days, the caterpillar spins a silken cocoon on the host plant and pupates.

After a mere eight days, the adult moth emerges from the pupa and needs to find a mate within two weeks, its average adult lifespan. The cycle continues, enabling the Diamond-back moth to successfully raise many, many generations in a single season.

They are small, weak fliers and cannot fly very far, but they are also passive migrants who will allow winds to carry them far and wide if they need to spread out in search of new feeding grounds, a cabbage farm!

A tiny insect with a big impact.

Autumn is here while I write this, and we are already getting frost in the mornings. We are expecting a cold, dry winter but it is forecast that the La Nina weather phenomenon may be present again in early spring, hopefully bringing us some nice early spring rains.

When you visit this winter, remember that you can call on me at any time if you want me to take you for a guided adventure on the estate. A slow promenade, a drive, or a proper good hike. On weekends, I may be able to use one of the Finsbury Land Cruisers, if available, for transport for these excursions, but otherwise you will need your own transport, which, of course, needs to be a four-wheel drive with good clearance. Just contact me beforehand by email (jimmy@finsbury.co.za) or Whatsapp (064 523 7058) or contact me on the radio once you arrive on the estate.

Looking forward to seeing you!

 

 

ANIMAL RELEASE

ANIMAL RELEASE IN FINSBURY

We've had a good relationship with the Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre (visit their website www.birdsofprey.co.za) near the lovely little town after which it is named, since the initial Covid lockdown in early twenty-twenty. I'm sure you all know of the place, since most of you drive past it on the way here from the Big Smoke. Many of you have even visited and enjoyed one of their spectacular demonstrations, where you get to see some of our most magnificent raptors up close. 

Our relationship began in late March twenty-twenty, while we were in the first of the COVID-19 lockdowns, David, our staff supervisor, found a wounded Cape Eagle Owl at Cochy-Bundhu (unit 1). We noticed it was wounded but it could still fly, albeit very weakly. After attempts to feed it with trapped rats failed, Don contacted the Dullstroom centre and Magdali Theron, a passionate animal protector, came all the way out here to collect the owl. Unfortunately, the owl was past saving and died two days later. (refer my blog: FINSBURY AUTUMN WILDLIFE, posted 25 April 2020) 

Then, more recently, during last year's winter, the Twiggs' from "the Crofts" (unit 19) found the carcass of a Cape Vulture on the Spekboom river. I recovered the carcass, and because they are such an endangered and iconic species, I contacted the Dullstroom centre to report it. Once again, Magdali came over to Lydenburg where I met her and handed over the carcass for a post-mortem to discover the cause of death. There was a crack on its beak which was characteristic of the wound suffered by these birds after a collision with power lines, which we have running over the Spekboom at the spot where it was found. (refer my blog of WINTER 2023, posted on 17 October 2023)

And so, Magdali contacted Don quite recently and requested that they be allowed to release a pair of Serval and a Cuckoo Hawk on the estate. Don naturally agreed it was a good idea and so, on February thirteenth, Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre arrived here with a young sibling pair of Serval cats and a beautiful Cuckoo Hawk.

Firstly, we met them at the Spekboom parking by the picnic spot, where they released the Cuckoo Hawk, Aviceda cuculoides, which was quite something to witness! While Magdali was introducing her colleagues and we were chit-chatting, the bird rudely reminded us of why we were here by thrashing around impatiently in its cage!

The hawk was brought to the rehab center over a year prior with a broken wing, a sure death sentence to any flying bird. Magdali had spent over a year nursing the bird back to health and had decided it was time to try releasing it. She was worried that the wing was not going to be strong enough.

When she opened the cage, the Cuckoo Hawk did not hesitate and alighted with powerful wingbeats into the clear afternoon. I enjoyed Magdali's jubilation the most of all! I asked her if she was sad, looking for a tear or two, but no, she was over-the-moon. A very selfless person, she is.

In the photo from left is: the Cuckoo Hawk, just as it took off; Magdali; one of her colleagues; and David, our supervisor. Then, in the top photo, if you look center bottom-left, you will see the Cuckoo Hawk gaining height as it begins turning towards "The Crofts" (unit 19).

They are quite secretive and tend to remain still when perched, even if one ventures quite close, which would very quickly chase away other smaller raptors. They spend their time perched in trees and bushes searching for the more cryptic of the prey animals like chameleons, Katydids and grasshoppers, which are all well camouflaged. They are also quite small and resemble a large grey cuckoo in flight, and are therefore easily overlooked.

So, when next fishing and walking along the Spekboom, keep a look out for the Cuckoo Hawk. It would be so good to get to see it a bit. Let us know if you do.

Then we moved on into the depths of Hidden Valley (South/ern Valley), our "wilderness area" of the estate, to the parking for the Rock Kestrel Trail and Olinia waterfall walk. There we were to release the pair of Serval.

The Serval are siblings, a brother and a sister, brought in by concerned folks that found them alone in the bush, around a year previously. This is quite sad because, although the folks were well-intentioned, it was a very bad thing to do, because their mother was probably out hunting and surely did return to where she had stashed her cubs, never to see them again. Magdali says that this sort of thing happens quite regularly, involving many different species.

The estimated week-old sibling cubs were fed with milk bottles for about three weeks until they were ready to be weaned, all this time being kept as far from human contact as possible. They were then released to the care of an enclosed older Serval pair that were permanent residents (previously being too exposed to humans so unreleasable in the wild) so as to avoid human contact while they sharpened their hunting and social skills, until they were old enough to disperse from their mother in a natural situation, which is about a year.

And so, we come to mid-February, after a year, to the release of the cats. As it should be, these Serval were extremely skittish of people, and you can see in the photo, the sister is curious and wants to exit the hokkie, but the bigger brother, at the back, just stares at me.

Finally, the sister cat bolted in the direction she was looking in the photo, which was directly in front of Mike Beaumont, before disappearing into the nearby bracken fern. It took a little more persuasion to get the brother cat out, but when he emerged, he shot off to the same bracken patch and they moved quickly off together towards the Klipdrif stream nearby.

We have many Servals here on the estate, them possibly being the most common large predator here, because it is optimum habitat for them. The release of two youngsters would not disturb the functioning social system
between the cats because they will try entering the system like any other youngsters would, and I hope we can be of similar help in the future.

 

  

SUMMERTIME 23/24

 SUMMERTIME!

Well, that's a wrap! It seems as if twenty-twenty-three shot by like a rocket. But I must say, though, one must be careful what one wishes for. Or, at least, the timing of that wish :) In the previous blog I mentioned how low the river levels were relative to the progression of the season, and how we were worried that the rivers would be a little low for the festive season. Well, it has rained almost every day of the festive season! We had received a mere 230mm of precipitation for half of the rainy season that had passed by the end of November. Now, at the end of January 2024, we've received almost 310mm more, giving us a healthy average of 537mm precipitation (a max of 617mm in the north and a min of 428mm in the west) over the estate, well over the half-way mark for halfway through the season. It was as if the gods were conspiring against us here, because it rained every single time we had something planned, so we landed up doing many an excursion in the rain! 

Above is a photo taken from the helipad looking just north of east during the full moon time, one of the few times we could observe the celestial gem without an overcast sky

It may have rained a lot, but that didn't stop us. I conducted quite a few long and arduous hikes during the rain, and they proved to be very exciting and fulfilling. On one such hike right up to the summit of Mount Anderson was undertaken in a good downpour and half of the members chose minimal clothing, and the other half chose to waterproof up. I was one of the waterproofed ones, knowing how quickly one can lose heat, but it seems that the minimalists were wiser because we were all just wet at the end anyway.

We found a bunch of special flowers in bloom and, on the descent, still not far from the top, the rain stopped and the clouds opened up to reveal the incredible view that is Hidden Valley and everything else looking north-west from there. The one group member, in his late teens or early twenties, said it was the most beautiful place he had ever been in. I looked around, and I must say, I agreed with him. The sight, so clean, fresh and verdant, was to behold!

With the abundance of water all around, there was also an abundance of life in full mid-summer swing. Below is a gallery of some of it:

And so, as mentioned in the introduction, many a mile was hiked during the rain! Here, Charlotte, Gus and Rich, from Jackpot cottage, force their way through a misty thicket in a high-altitude steep-sided gorge, right on the watershed, not too far north of Mount Anderson summit. It was a little harsh on Charlotte and Rich, because they were out visiting South Africa from England, and Charlotte surely wanted to show sunny South Africa off to her new husband! It landed up being quite a hike and we struggled through the mud and up some really steep and slippery mountain slopes, but it sure was worth it because we got to see some special things... 

Like this huge Brown Leatherback Slug, Laevicaulis natalensis, that we discovered high up on the Cycle path from Loop Road to the high-altitude KLF road. Slugs are not rare but are only exposed during wet times because they are prone to desiccate, or dry out and die, otherwise. When it is not raining, they are usually buried under leaves or logs in a moist place. So, we were lucky to find this huge girl / guy sliding along minding his / her own business on a pleasant wet day, affording us a view of his / her strange morphology.

Firstly, I don't say "his / her" because they can choose their own pronoun each morning, I say it because they are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female organs and can mate as males or females! When one slug encounters the slime trail of another, he / she kicks down a gear and follows the other until he / she catches up. Then they mate by twisting around each other and swapping sperm. Then they both go their own way, slowly, until they are ready to dig a hole and deposit between twenty and forty eggs, after which he / she will go her / his own way, slowly again.

And the morphology? A slug is simply a snail without a shell. This one, from the Veronicellidae family, has an internal vestigial shell that has become a gland to store calcium salts that it uses to aid digestion. Then, where a snail's shell would normally be, the Brown Leatherback slug has a mantle made of tough, leathery skin. If a predator approaches, and you can imagine that just about everything around would want to eat it, the slug contracts on the floor, thus gripping the substrate with its contracted foot and body. At the same time, it retracts its two pairs of feelers and its body simply becomes a tough, leathery, slimy blob attached firmly to the floor. Most birds will struggle to get purchase with its beak around this blob and finally give up trying. The slime also has a poor smell and taste, making the slug less palatable. In fact, it is important for humans to cook slugs before eating them because they are carriers of minute nematode parasites that can result in a deadly form of meningitis in humans. This is usually when people eat unrinsed leaf vegetables where slugs may still be hiding.

But then you get the Common Slug-eater, a snake occurring here on the estate that exclusively eats snails and slugs (see blog November 2019). This snake specialises in finding a slime trail and following it until it encounters the slug or snail. Then it simply bites and swallows the slug, or forces its way between the snail and its shell to separate them before swallowing the snail and discarding the shell.

The fleshy stripe along the body in the photo is the foot, protruding from the underside of its body. That foot produces most of the mucus so that it will protect the foot from the substrate while the muscles stretch and contract, pushing the slug forward, albeit slowly. Also, the mucus on the edges of the foot contains excreted fibres that stop it from sliding backwards on its own slime trail while going uphill!

Finally, the two pairs of stalks that can be retracted have sensory organs on them. The top ones have vesicular eyes that are quite advance for arthropods even (never mind primitive gastropods) but still way simple compared to mammals' eyes. These eyes sit on top of the stalks and do not have the muscles our eyes have to focus on objects. Instead, the slug moves the stalks backwards and forwards to focus on things. Also, the eyes can turn from side to side, too, so it doesn't have to swivel its head to look to the side.

The lower pair of stalks have olfactory organs on the end and this sense of smell is used to find and identify suitable foodstuffs in the form of living and dead vegetation of all types like detritus, leaves, flowers, fruit, also mushrooms and lichens.

I was reading in the literature that, up north in the temperate climes where slugs hibernate, that they show agonistic behaviour towards each other when competing for resources, sometimes resulting in one slug attacking another. I just struggle to picture a slug attacking another one, har har har! It must be the slowest fight on the planet!

The very tippy top of the gorge from our hike with the folks from Jackpot cottage referred to above is filled with the most extraordinary plants. Every time I go up there, I seem to find a new species of special plant. The first time I went up there in 2018, I found the newly described Dwarf Pineapple Lily, Eucomis sonnetteana, which I boasted about in my blog of January 2020. It is the delicate little Pineapple flower in the top photo, which I found amongst a whole colony of them this year. Since then and last season, I also found two new species (for our list) of Nodding Violets and this season, I found this gorgeous little milkweed with these tiny, delicate flowers that span only a half-a-centimeter in size. I initially thought it was a dry flower that was dead while the ovary was expanding and the fruit developing. On much closer inspection, though, an extraordinary flower was revealed!

I found this grasshopper climbing around on a Barbeton Groundsel on a rocky shelf on the cliffs above the waterfall that leads to the mountain hatchery, near Morrin Pools. It is a Stinkweed Grasshopper, Phymateus leprosus, in its tenth and final nymph stage before gaining adulthood. I featured an adult of this species in my November and December 2020 blog, and as you will see, the adult looks completely different to this nymph-stage individual. Looking closely at this one, on the fleshy leaves of the Groundsel, I get the impression that the thig is made of moulded plastic. What a beautiful design! 

The Stinkweed grasshopper has ten nymph stages (grows and sheds ten times, changing size and colour each time) which take about a year to complete, the most nymph stages of any grasshopper. The adult stage, where finding a mate is the top priority, lasts for about six months, so a lifespan should encompass two wet seasons. Many of the host plants they consume during the nymph stages are highly toxic but harmless to these grasshoppers. Instead, like the larvae of African Monarch butterflies (check Jolly Season 2018), their bodies separate the poison from the good stuff, assimilate the good stuff and store the poisons and carry these into adulthood as a protection against enemies. This species has a particularly potent cardiotoxin and is responsible for more than one human death after being eaten, so even though grasshoppers are a tremendous source of protein in a survival situation, one needs to be careful.

And so, I decided to delve into the art of gardening, and built me a little south-facing rockery in the garden space on the northern side of my house. I have made it a sort of plant rehabilitation garden. What I've done is follow where a troop of baboons have traversed, or below that, and collected the plants and even the strips of mosses that they have partially eaten, or dislodged in their climbing activities, that were then lying on the floor. These I have planted in my rockery, and I have been amazed at the species that are appearing!

This picture is of the very first flower that was produced by one of my first patients, a Many-flowered Nodding Violet (another common name for the genus is African Primrose), which I found severely damaged, together with three others, in the Upper Majubane gorge, not far from the big waterfall. Two of them didn't make it while a third began to bloom, even with a fraction of a leaf (most Nodding Violets have only a single leaf), but some critter destroyed it on my rockery, a rodent by the looks of the plants remains. This one has survived with less than a half a leaf and has flowered profusely.

But, coming out one morning and seeing this Inch Worm, from the Geometridae family of moths, checking my flower out, made me want to remove it in haste. Then I stopped myself and reminded myself, besides the fact that it is a nice hobby, that I am doing this using only plants found directly on Finsbury Estate, either seeds, cuttings, damaged plants or plants in pathways that will be damaged by the brush cutters. Therefore, I will not try to stop indigenous plant predators from interfering. The plants must fend for themselves in that regard. And so, I left the Inchworm to do what it needed to do.

The following morning I came out expecting the flower to have been devoured, but instead, I found the Inchworm hanging straight down, off the back of the flower's petals, preparing to enter its pupal stage. Silly worm! It obviously doesn't know that the flower only lasts for just over a day before it falls to the ground! I left it alone again and when I return the following time, the flower was on the floor and the worm had disappeared, obviously to find a more permanent place to pupate.

This psychedelic beetle reminds me of that eccentric piano player of yesteryear, Liberace, with the bushy eyebrows and gaudy velvet outfit! It is a Fruit Chafer, Atrichenaphinis nigropunctulata, although that is a bit of a misnomer since this species does not seek out and eat fruit, leading to crop damages, like its cousins in the same subfamily, Cetoniinae. Instead, you would normally find this beetle with its head buried deep into a protea flower with only its behind sticking out up into the air, stuffing itself with pollen and nectar and being a good pollinator when it approaches the next Protea flower with the previous flower's pollen stuck to those long hairs on its face and chin. Here, it is enjoying the pollen and nectar on an Everlasting growing up on the Zebra trail, close to the Troutkloof waterfall.

Wow! How is this for a superb photograph of a Wailing Cisticola, Cisticola lais? I was enjoying an excursion up on the Miner's cottage road with the Twiggs' from The Crofts (unit 19) and we came across this pair of Cisticolas, and while we were trying to figure out which species it was, Kenna Twiggs got this classic shot of one of the pair, in flight over some dried out Sheepsdaisies in the drizzle. Well done Kenna! Now, as you probably know, cisticolas are notoriously difficult to identify. The true LBJs (little brown jobs) in the real sense. And it is one of the five cisticolas that we get on the estate, that I've identified so far, that all look very similar. 

When hiking in the grasslands, particularly on rocky slopes, there is a ubiquitous plaintive whistle that can almost always be heard coming from this little bird, the Wailing Cisticola. The subspecies monticola, that occurs here on the estate (above), is the plainest of them all which makes it even more difficult to tell apart from the other common Cisticola in the estate, the Lazy Cisticola, C. aberrans, which prefers the rank bush along the rivers but also spends time on rocky slopes. The only way to tell these two cisticolas apart without hearing the sound is by the slight streaking on the back of the Wailing Cisticola as opposed to the Lazy Cisticola's plain back. The Lazy Cisticola also likes to cock its tail like that of a  Prinia. But then we get the Drakensberg Prinia, Prinia hypoxantha, that also enjoys a similar habitat! The easiest way to discern the Lazy Cisticola and the Drakensberg Prinia is the presence of streaking on the breast of the Prinia compared to the plain breast of the Cisticolas. 

Then there is a third and fourth species of Cisticola that occur on high-lying, short grasslands, but they are relatively easy to distinguish from the others by their diminutive size, but extremely difficult to tell apart from each other. The Wing-snapping cisticola, C. ayresii, emits clicking sounds in its call and practices wing-snapping when it flies. But, if it is not calling or snapping its wings in flight, it is nary impossible to distinguish it from the other high-altitude, short grassland species, the Cloud Cisticola, C. textrix, And they're both tiny!

Finally, not too long ago, I saw an LBJ, most likely a cisticola, around the rank bush at K33. I heard the call and didn't recognise it, but had my birding application with me on my field tablet, and viola! It was a Levaillant's Cisticola, C. tinniens, and besides having a slightly bolder back than the others, looks veeeeery similar! 

 

I accompanied the Andersons from Kingfisher Lodge (unit 6) to the Steenkamps' waterfalls on one of the rare sunny days and Amy Anderson pointed these tiny (biggest one 5mm) creatures attached to the rocks just beneath the clear, fast-flowing waters on that lovely stretch from the forest path to the waterfalls. Embarrassingly, I did not have a clue, even though I had noticed them many a time in the past. I removed one of the bigger ones, turned it upside down, and the photo above is what I saw.

The six suckers, clearly visible on the underside of the creature in the photo, made it rather easy to identify because the suckers are unique amongst insects to only one family in the Diptera (order of flies), the Blephariceridae, or Net-winged Midges. Next, I discovered that only one genus of Net-winged midges occurs in Southern Africa, and that that genus, Elporia, is endemic, meaning it is unique to Southern Africa and found nowhere else. Next, I found that only three species occur in this area and the most common by far, is Elporia marieps. So, I'm going to go with that for the mean time: It's a Net-winged Mountain Midge larva, probably in its fourth and final instar before it enters the pupal stage.

When it is ready to pupate, it attaches itself, with adhesive pads, to a rock beneath shallow, fast-flowing water, with the insect's head pointing downstream, and enters the pupal stage. They breathe through a pair of breathing horns, which are made up of successive vertical plates that trap air bubbles. Once the adult is ready to emerge from the pupal case, it perforates the case and uses the current to help it escape into the water. The pupa reaches a very advanced state, and the adult emerges with its wings fully developed and folded tightly, resulting in creased wings when they open which is the origin of the common name. With fully developed wings, the adult can unfold them and take off from the fast-flowing mountain streams they inhabited for the bulk of their lives.

The adult only lives for two to three weeks, and so must get on with it. Their mandibles are undeveloped so it is believed that they do not eat as adults, or if they do, they may subsist on a liquid diet of nectar from streamside flowers. In many species, the males form swarms and dance, like mayflies and non-biting midges (see blogs: Winter 2022 - non-biting midge; September 2020 - mayfly) and the females fly into this swarm and, well, let's just say she does not struggle to find a mate. Once ready, she lays her eggs singly in cracks in rocks, usually in the spray of rapids.

The egg usually develops overwinter and the nymphs hatch in spring when the water-flow picks up after the first rains. The nymphs endure four stages of growth and shedding before the pupal stage and they attach themselves to the rocks, beneath the rushing water with those suckers. When they want to move, they release them in succession while moving forward in search of diatoms and other micro algae and mosses on which they feed.

They cannot tolerate any pollution, silt or slowing of the water (they require well-oxygenated water, ie fast-flowing) and are therefore used in Environmental impact assessments as an indicator species. 

Nice one! Thank you, Amy Anderson.  

A good hike barely went by without us stumbling upon a Berg Adder, Bitis atropos, which I have featured in many blogs before this one. But look at that grumpy face! I just can't help it. This one was only about a hundred-and-fifty millimeters long but, as usual put up a great huff and puff when we found it. It was a hike to the summit of Mount Anderson, directly up from the Sundowner spot in Hidden Valley* and we got to see three different Berg Adders in the first kilometer!

This photo is nice and close-up, so it will be easy to put some simple characteristics of adders on the table. Our adders all belong to the Viperinae subfamily of vipers. All the other subfamilies of vipers have these fundamental characteristics, plus and / or minus a few, but this subfamily is from where they all sprout:

• They have a visible neck, meaning the head is distinctive from the body. This is because the massive venom glands, the swollen cheeks in the photo, create a diamond shape to the head.
• They have cat-like eyes which allows them to be active during the day and night, allowing them a wider niche to exploit.
• They have keeled scales, which means the scales have a ridge running longitudinally along its length, giving a rough matt look to the snake, making them less shiny and better camouflaged. Their locomotion and hunting strategy require camouflage more than the ability to slide quickly through the undergrowth, which would benefit a smooth-scaled, fast-moving snake.
• The body is massive, with much muscle, allowing them to coil and spring at remarkable speeds, benefitting a strategy of ambush predator. Hide, wait, and strike with speed and violence!
• The fangs are extremely long, curved, and hinged so that they can be folded back into the mouth. This enables the snake to inject venom deep into the musculature of its victim. The venom is mostly protease, an enzyme that starts the digestion process. Because of the volume of venom, remember those massive venom glands making fat cheeks in the photo. This massive breakdown of bodily proteins subdues the victim over some time, and the snake needs to follow the victim, with the aid of smell, until it finds it. Now, this is where this one particular species, the Berg Adder, differs from the rest. Instead of having this protease-filled filled cytotoxin, like all other viperids, it has a much bigger mix of neurotoxins, which is the nerve-affecting venom found in elapids, like mambas and cobras, the deadliest of our snakes. Neurotoxins are much quicker acting, and it is believed that this need to subdue the prey immediately is required because, being rocky and mountainous, prey items can fall and would be more difficult to trace through smell, the longer the venom took to be effective.
• Internally, they are ovoviviparous, which means they retain their eggs within the body, until they hatch there. The mother then gives birth to live young. And get this: the bigger the mother is, doesn't mean she lays more eggs, but means that she lays bigger eggs (remember they hatch inside her) and the resultant young are bigger than their peers, giving a distinct advantage.

These are the easier-to-understand characteristics of these fine snakes, which are very common up in the grasslands. They're just very small but, getting up close, they sure can frown!

* Trish Myburgh from Vakatsha, better known as K9 Cafe (unit 9), once accidentally called the sundowner spot at the end of Hidden Valley (South/ern Valley), or old site 26, "SERENITY". What a lovely and suitable name for the spot. So, if you hear me referring to Serenity, then you know where I mean.

I was so excited, whilst searching for a Christmas tree close to The Crofts, just within Highland Run, to come upon this Dark Sheetwebber spider web filled with jolly little spiderlings! Wow! They are perfect replicas of the adult (check out my blog of Late Summer 2023) and will soon begin to disperse.

The Dark Sheetwebber, Euprosthenops pulchella, belongs in the Nursery-web and water spider family, the Pisauridae. But, as there is always an exception to the rule, they are not wandering spiders like the rest of the family, with the Nursery-web spiders resembling and behaving very similarly to the common wolf spiders (blogs September 2019 and January 2022), who do not use a web to capture prey but instead wander around actively hunting their prey, and thus, the female carries her ball-like egg sac with her while the eggs incubate (the Wolf spider carries her egg sac by her spinnerets on her abdomen while the nursery-web spider carries hers with her jaws). The Water spiders have very similar habits but most of it takes place on the waters surface, using the water's surface tension to stay dry.

The Sheetwebber, by exception, builds a horizontal, sheet-like web like a Funnel-web spider (blog of February 2020) does, also with a tunnel-like retreat to escape danger. The eggs are laid and incubate within the retreat, so she doesn't have to carry them with her like the other members of the family. If an insect lands on, or walks on to her sheet-like web, she darts out of her tunnel and subdues the victim with a potent venom that is common among wandering spiders, because they don't use silk to help subdue their prey like web bound spiders.

When they feel ready, these tiny spiderlings will climb to an elevated spot above the web, release a long strand of silk into the wind, and let the wind carry them away. This is called "ballooning", and it is how most spiderlings disperse before establishing their own web as an adult.

It looks like we may have a new kid on the block. The first photo was taken at K24 with the Rivett-Carnac trophy camera in early December, while the second photo was taken by Trent Sinclair, our neighbour and the long-time manager of Mount Anderson Ranch, in the middle of January.

The new boy is the subject of the first photo, and he is the one facing the camera in the second shot, being approached by China-eyes, our current dominant male which I know many of you have seen because he is relaxed with vehicles.

Now, male leopards are extremely territorial, like the female, except his territory is much bigger than a females', and encompasses two to five females' territories within his boundaries. Often, if a dominant male finds another male within his territorial boundaries, he will chase him away or fight him, with death being the outcome for the loser. Mostly, though, they will dominate the newcomer and drive him off, like what happened when the second photo was taken up on Mount Anderson Ranch.

Territory size is about twenty-five square kilometers and one-hundred-and-thirty square kilometers for a female and male territory consecutively, in the Kruger Park area. I have not been able to find an average territory size for this area but suspect it is a lot larger because prey densities are much lower up here, which will explain why the dominant male here, was less aggressive to a newcomer. Take note that animal behaviour is dynamic and will change with circumstances, for example: In areas, like deserts, where prey animals are few and far between, leopards may not even be territorial, simply because it would take too much effort to mark and defend such a large area, and the chances of encountering another leopard very small. This area would be in between a high-density prey area (like the KNP) and a low-density area (like a desert), and so, although the leopards are still territorial, they are more tolerant of strangers and rovers.

This new young boy will not go away easily. He will try to silently and secretly survive in the area until the dominant male dies, or he becomes big and bold enough to challenge China-eyes for the area. Thereafter, if successful, China-eyes will become an old rogue male that will have to silently, and secretly, survive until he is too old to hunt anymore, while the new guy gets all the mating opportunities.

The biggest killer of leopards in our area is roadkill and hunting. Due to the large territory sizes, the males frequently cross roads and fences. As you know, cats are notorious for being killed by cars on roads and leopards are no different. Also, most land bordering our reserve are plots or farms and, as you know, maplottes and farmers are also notorious for shooting leopards on their properties, permit or not. And so, it is highly unlikely that China-eyes will become an old rogue, and more likely that he will be shot or killed on the road.

Exciting stuff! Let us hope that the new guy also becomes quite relaxed with vehicles so that we will be able to get to see him, like old China-eyes who has been in charge here for about three or four years now....

To end off on a more worrying note: We have been asked by the MTPA (Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency) to be on the lookout for rabbit carcasses in our area, and if found, to report it immediately to them.

Towards the end of twenty-twenty-two, the RABBIT HAEMORRHAGIC DISEASE VIRUS (2) was discovered for the first time in South Africa. It was discovered in the Northern Cape province, which is very underpopulated, and has since spread to four of our provinces, including Mpumalanga.

It is an extremely contagious virus that is carried by a large number of mammals but only affects Lagomorphs (Rabbits and Hares), with about an eighty percent mortality rate. It attacks the liver and causes bleeding sores there which rapidly kill its host. If a scavenger eats, or even just touches, the carcass, it will carry the virus indefinitely and if it comes into contact with other mammals, will spread it to them so that they can carry it indefinitely until it maybe comes into contact with a Lagomorph. The virus can adhere to clothes and even spread by the wind, it is so contagious.

And so, if we find a carcass, like the above Hewitt's Red Rock Hare, Pronolagus saundersii, the only Lagomorph that occurs here (except possibly feral rabbits which I saw frequently at the Mount Anderson Reserve gate in the old days), the instructions are to cover the carcass with a box, so that it is not scavenged or touched, and immediately call MTPA who will notify the state vet, who will come out here and collect the carcass for tests. We have been requested not to handle the carcass in any way.

This photo was taken by Nickie Shales from Kingfisher Lodge (unit 6) and the carcass was on the roadside alongside K12. I went to investigate and only found some fur and a pompom tail. It was scavenged in the four hours from when the photo was taken, the carcass reported, and me investigating! I did report it, and was told that, if it was killed by RHDV2, there would more than likely be a lot of carcasses found in the near future, with such a high mortality rate expected. Fortunately, this occurred one week before writing this and no more carcasses have been found, yet.

So please, if you encounter a rabbit carcass, please contact the office with the exact location of it as quickly as possible. Remember not to touch it, even with your shoe. Not because it is harmful to us, it is completely harmless, but because you will become a carrier, and if you come into contact with any other rabbits or hares, you will be the death of them.

Well, that's it folks. Please come and visit, especially while the estate is so lush and verdant. If you do, remember you can ask me to take you on a guided hike, walk or drive anytime. Just contact me, Jimmy, on the radio or email me at jimmy@finsbury.co.za, or better yet, Whatsapp me at 064 523 7058. Cool bananas, see you soon.