Makalali Private Game Reserve: NE South Africa

Makalali Private Game Reserve : February 15 – 28^th,  2011

I recently had the opportunity to volunteer on a wildlife private game reserve in South Africa. The name of the reserve is called Makalali Private Game Reserve and is situated in the NE corner of South Africa. Makalali is within an hours drive from the well-known Kruger National Park, which is one of the largest and most well known game parks in all of Africa. The National park spans over 300 kilometers from the North to the south. Makalali is a private wildlife reserve that opened not all that long ago back in 1996. Makalali is made up of 7 different landowners and the total area of the park is 26,000 SQ Hectares. To the average person this may sound like a large space, but it is actually relatively small in comparison to a lot of other game parks or reserves. Most of the private reserve parks across Africa are either set up for conservation or trophy hunting. An example of trophy hunting is in Zimbabwe, where there was a very large Elephant population and in 2009, the government welcomed people from all over the world to come into their parks and shoot and elephant for a mere $20,000 USD. If there are people mad enough in this world to pay such a price to kill a prized animal like this, you can probably imagine how easily the governments or private game reserves could cash in on this and allow this sort of barbaric activity to go on. Here at Makalali, the reserve is all about wildlife conservation and the 2010 game count inside of this reserve found there to be approximately 74 Elephants, 1373 Impalas, 37 Bushbuck, 527 Zebras, 594 Wildebeests, 116 Waterbuck, 151 Giraffes, 92 Warthogs, 15 resident Leopards, 23 Lions, 7 Cheetahs, 42 Nyala, 275 Kudu, 13 Water Buffalo, 12 Rhinos, 11 Crocodiles, 25 Hippos and approximately 40-50 Hyenas. When keeping animals in a reserve such as this one, it not only helps to ensure their safety but also creates opportunities where researchers and rangers can get close to these animals and track their behaviors over time. The potential problem of having too many animals in one confined space is that a lot of animals are territorial and so you have to be careful not to overload the park with too many of one kind. In areas such as this, you find the animals begin killing off one another in a struggle for power and territory. In this particular reserve, 2 brothers of a lion pride have already killed 2 out of the 5 lions from another pride. In a desperate attempt for survival, the other 3 lions managed to escape from the park approximately 1 week before I arrived. There was fear that these fugitives could end up finding a farm and begin killing the animals there for food like most lions rightfully would. By doing so, farmers would lose their stock and money and would most likely erupt and shoot these trouble lions dead.

Makalali has a magnificent volunteer program set up and relies heavily on volunteers to help in locating and observing the animals and recording findings and sightings each and every day. The data collected is then entered into a large database that is used by organizations and researchers from all over the world. One thing I noticed very quickly was that this particular volunteer project was going to be very involved and quite demanding which would result in very long days. I thought it would be fitting to record the agenda for my first 4 days on the project to help give you; the reader, a better understanding of everything involved in a days work here at Makalali.

 Day 1:

Every week the rangers here at Makalali set up a daily schedule, which also includes afternoon lectures. The best time to view the animals is at dawn and dusk and so each morning, most the volunteers will awake at 5am, have a quick shower, grab some cereal and an apple or banana for a late morning snack and be ready to officially start the day at 5:30 am. It is a 6 day schedule here on the reserve and each morning, we set out of camp with a mission or objective which is posted on the schedule and usually spend the majority of the morning out on game drives, bush walks, or searching high and low for a specific kind of animal. On this day, our first objective was to locate the black rhino. Along the drive, we saw giraffes (including 1 baby), quite a few zebras and wildebeest, 2 elephants, but unfortunately had no luck with the rhinos. As it is the tail end of the rainy season, I was anticipating to receive some downpour during our work and we were treated to just that on this day. Around 10am, the clouds darken and the sky opened up and unleashed a steady flow of rain upon us. It wasn’t long before Barry; our Scottish ranger on the drive, decided to called it a morning and we arrived back at camp around 10:30 and were soaked from head to toe.

Although days are quite long here on the reserve, one fortunate thing that helps break up the day is that we usually will get a 2-3 hour-long lunch break. The reason for this is that the heat becomes too intense during the early afternoon. At 30C+, the heat often sucks the energy out of you and forces you to hide for the shade. Coincidently enough, animals work the same way and will often take a break under some shade during these hours or have a lay down in the grass, which makes them extremely difficult to locate. Even the most feared predators like the lions, cheetahs, and leopards do not hunt in the afternoon, as the heat is just far too intense. On this day, we had free time until 2pm. From 2 -4 pm, we had back-to-back lessons. First one was an introduction lecture to explain conservation and the purpose and benefits of data recording. The second was an introduction into the history and background of Makalali along with some detailed explanation as to what typically goes on in a days work and why its essential for reserves such as this one to be managed.

Our lectures finished right on time and at 4:15 we left camp to search for the lost lion pride that keeps escaping and we received confirmation that they have in fact begun killing farmers cows outside of the reserve. The first 2 hours, we saw large groups of Impalas, zebras, wildebeests, and followed traced a lion’s call and found a male and female couple, which appeared to be in a very relaxed state on the Goronga airport strip. We watched them in amazement for about 30 minutes and got a phone call that the missing lion pack had been spotted but was quite far away and so a plan was made to awake very early and locate the pride. The reason we had to wait until the morning to act is because the veterinarians on call will not tranquilize any animal in the dark, as it is an increased risk of security for himself as well as for others. If we were able to find them the following morning, the plan would be to tranquilize them, bring them back to a more secure area of Makalali that would ensure they could not escape again, and trade them with another reserve as they have been causing far too much disturbance by escaping through the fence. As you can begin to imagine, it was quite an eventful day 1 here on the reserve and am really looking forward to see what tomorrow brings and hopeful that we can relocate the missing lion pride!

Day 2:

The day started once again at 5:30am. If you think that’s early, we were actually the lucky ones as the first group left at 4:45am in hopes of giving themselves some extra time to ensure they would be able to locate the pride of lions. Claudia was our guide for the day and we set off on a bushwalking journey along the riverside. She is the volunteer coordinator as well as a park ranger so she has a lot of knowledge as well as responsibility. She is originally from Germany and her story is inspiring as just over 3 years ago, she too came to Makalali as a volunteer and became so involved with everything that she decided to do the 6 month intensive ranger course shortly after her experience and has been working at Makalai ever since.  There was no point to send two groups to search for the missing lions so our objective for the morning was to be led on a walk through the bush, learn about survival and the plant and tree species, and hopefully run into some interesting animals along the way. We brought a big garbage bag with us as the past to clean up any of the garbage we would find along the way. Over the past few months, there has been a tremendous amount of rains, which often results in disposed garbage being dispersed along the riverbanks. 5:30am was upon us so we loaded up in the Land Rover and drove to our intended destination. Along the way we didn’t see much wildlife but did get to see a few zebras, and a large family of Impalas. Impalas are the most frequented animals in the game reserve and make for a tasty meal for a lot of the animals living here in Makalali or any other Game reserve area. The trick is to catch them and it’s a difficult task at hand as they are extremely fast and coordinated animals. Our bush-walking mission was successful, along with a half garbage bag full of containers and milk cartons. Along the walk, we managed to locate the hippos by following they loud and extremely deep calls. As we got closer to their possible location, I noticed my heart rate begin to speed up and we were advised by Claudia not to speak near them or give them any reason to want to provoke a possible attack on us. We managed to find their local watering hole along the river and watched in awe as 6 full-grown hippos played in the water and as they did so, they kept a very close eye on us. A few times it looked as though they were going to rise out from the water and run towards us but thankfully we kept a safe enough distance from them that they did not feel threatened and that we did not provoke a potential life threatening attack. You may have not heard but hundreds of people die each every year from Hippo attacks and they are one of the most dangerous animals you could ever run into in wilds of Africa.

Once we made it back to our rover, Claudia noticed that one of the tires were getting quite flat and so we had to jack up the car and change the tire before we could continue on our way back to camp. The tire changing went smoothly and we managed to see some more Zebras and Giraffes on the way back to camp. By the time we arrived back at camp, it was noon. We gratefully took the opportunity to make ourselves some lunch and start to prepare dinner so that once we got back from our evening drive; we didn’t have to slave in the kitchen for hours before we got to eat.

That afternoon around 3pm, our group and the other group both set off to try and locate the escaped lions, as the morning attempts were unsuccessful. By this point, the lions had travelled quite a far distance from the park boundaries and the longer they are wandering around, the less likely chance we will ever find them. The other concern of course is that poachers or angry farmers may end up trying to kill them if they see them on their land and have no idea who they belong to.

Once we arrived at our meeting point, we met Ross who is the head warden for the Makalali Reserve and in the back of his truck he had an Impala that was killed with the intention to be used as fresh bait to try and bring the lions in. We drove around for hours that afternoon and searched high and low in the area where the lions were last seen and all we managed to find were fresh tracks. There were 3 vehicles searching for the pride of lions and 1 bushman on foot who was making his best attempt to keep track of them all day. To our disappointment, the sun began to move closer and closer to the horizon, which meant that sundown was lingering upon us. Any hopes of finding the lions before dark were fading quickly and once it starts getting dark out here, there is nothing we can do to capture the lions. Neither the vet who is supposed to tranquilize them nor us could continue once sundown hits as it becomes too dangerous to continue on.

We arrived back home at 8pm, which made for a really long day and all the fresh air and sunshine has made me feel exhausted and ready to crawl into bed. I can only hope that tomorrow will bring us better luck with the lions and some other exciting wildlife sightings along the way.

Day 3:

My alarm went off at 5 am and I hit the snooze button for a much needed 5 minutes more. Once I forced myself out of bed, I quickly jumped into the shower, packed all my belongings, made coffee and grabbed cereal to ensure I was ready by when I need to be. I’m starting to realize that this is in fact just another typical day on the Makalali Game Reserve. 5:30am came all too early today and I could tell the disappointment and frustration of not being able to save the lions had sunken in deep into everyone here at camp. Today, our teams’ duty was to spend the morning clearing bush and shrubs along the trail. Because of all the rain in the past few months, there has been a lot of growth on the reserve and a lot of the bushes and trees have grown quickly which adds obstacles to look out for during the drives. One very interesting thing I’ve been told is that Elephants actually eat some of the bark on certain trees and if they consume all the bark in a ring around the tree, that particular tree will stop growing and eventually die off. To make matters even worse, elephants are so powerful that they often push over trees to display their strength to others around them or push the trees over to be able to get to the leaves at the top. It has become quite a commonplace already to see a lot of the trees along the paths have been pushed over and in most cases, block the road so that it becomes impassable unless the vehicle is able to detour around. Fortunately, our job was not to remove these massive trees, more to trim the bushes and shrubs 2 ft from the edge of the roads along either side. By doing so, it helps eliminate obstruction and allows the rangers and volunteers to be able to locate and view the wildlife a lot better. After about 3 hrs, we finished clearing tracks and Barry went on a drive around the park and we managed to see some wildebeests, zebras, a few giraffe, and the most impressive find was coming across 2 males and 1 female lion that put on quite a show for us and it provided us with an incredible opportunity to make some spectacular photographs.

We arrived back at camp around noon and had about a 2 hr break to grab lunch or get whatever else done that I needed to do.  At 2pm, we had a lecture on snakes, spiders, and scorpions, which was really informative. Claudia; who was the presenter, told us bit of unsettling news. It was that scorpions have been known to live in the walls in between the rooms where we sleep and the other room around camp. I guess this information was relevant as now I can keep my eye out a bit more for possible attacks from these small but lethal critters during my stay. After the talk was over, I managed to have a quick 20-minute power nap to help recharge my batteries to ensure I was ready for the remainder of the day.

At 4pm, we were ready to go again and our teams’ duties were to locate, monitor and observe the activity of a particular mother rhinoceros and her daughter.  The search lasted for about 2 hours but once again the evening outing left us empty handed. Along the search though, we did come across a large group of giraffes that included a young one and there were 13 in total. Not far away from the group of Giraffes we ended up passing 1 lone Giraffe who was kneeling in the tall grass. Our driver explained to us that it was a very rare thing to see so we stopped and watched in awe for a few minutes before we drove off. After our hopes of finding the rhino had diminished, our driver Barry drove around the park area and we got to see a handful of more zebras, wildebeests, hundreds of impalas, 2 Jackals, a few gazelle, a family of bathing hippos, and best of all we found a group of hyenas just hanging out in front of their den and spent at least 45 minutes parked in front just watching them play fighting, feeding, and just being hyenas. It wasn’t long before I realized that they were in fact not near as ferocious as I would have expected them to be. To our amusement, one particular hyena came close enough to our car that we could literally reach out and touch him. It was a very unique experience to see hyenas in the wild and my perception of them as animals has changed completely and is nothing what I intended expected them to be like!

Once we got our fix, we drove back and arrived back at camp around 8:30 so it made for a really long day. I’m hoping tomorrow will be a bit more relaxed and allow me some time to catch up on some sleep as these 3 days have been very long and quite demanding but so worth it!

Day 4:

At this point the mornings seem to come early but my body was definitely beginning to get into routine by now. I decided to wake up at 4:50am instead of 5 so that I had a few more minutes in the morning to get all my belongings ready, drink a hot cup of coffee and eat my 2 pieces of toast. Claudia was our driver for the morning’s trip and our objective was to search and locate the elephant family if we could and observe their behavior. Just as we were pulling out to start the drive, a voice came over the radio and stated that the elephants had been spotted close to the Gorongo airstrip which is where we found the 2 lions on the first day. Claudia is probably one of the most cautious drivers I’ve ever ridden with and tends to take the drives quite slow so it was almost an hour before we arrived in the area which would probably take other drivers 20 or so minutes to get to. Along the way, we saw several giraffe, a couple of Zebras, and some very curious wildebeests that ended up coming right close to our vehicle. The fact that these wildebeests didn’t feel the need to keep their distance surprised Claudia because these animals usually run away and don’t usually approach the vehicles. Once we got closer to the area, Claudia showed us how to do telemetry. A few of the animals here on the reserve are tagged and by using telemetry, it enables us to pick up the frequency of the animals by the tags and helps us to locate their approximate location. In Makalali, there are 4 different herds of Elephants and each of them use their own unique sounds and calls to communicate with one another and to ensure they all keep in a close group. 3 of the herds have been tagged and by using telemetry, we can tune into a specific channel to listen for the frequency. Unfortunately, 1 of the herds have not yet been tagged. We tried using the 3 known herds frequency in hopes of tracking them but we had bad luck and the herd we were hoping to locate was the only heard that had not been categorized by their frequency yet. An hour had passed that we had been driving around the area and to our luck; we ended up getting some strong signals on the telemetry apparatus as we flipped through the unknown channels. It was the elephants that we had in fact tracked and just as we drove around the corner, 1 large female was standing in the middle of the road feeding on the grass and shrubs. We managed to get quite close to the family of 5 and this opportunity made for some more splendid photo opportunities. Claudia got a bit excited and started the car and crept slightly closer to the massive female and as we did so, she became skittish and then fake charged the vehicle to let us know we were getting too close and she and the others quickly took off back into the bushes. One very fascinating thing about such a large animal is how quickly and quietly they can move. As massive as these animals are, they can disappear into the bush and out of sight in a matter of a few seconds if you are not watching carefully. We were all quite excited to see them but it was only a matter of a few minutes before they marched back into the bush and we lost sight of them. We drove around for a while hoping to cross paths with these gorgeous animals again but had no luck. On our way back to camp, we saw dozens of Vultures circling an area in the sky and the closer we paid attention, the more birds we saw. Along with the ones in the air circling, there were dozens more sitting in the trees and even walking down the road path all in the same area. We stopped the vehicle to find out what all the fuss was about and it wasn’t long before we got rift of a very terrible smell and as we peered into the bush, we could see the vultures were in fact indulging on a carcass of a waterfowl that must have just been killed a few hours ago. Whatever predator had made the kill, they had taken all the meat their bellies could handle and left the rest for scavengers like the vultures to clean up the last bit of meat on the bones.

We had an extended afternoon break and because a full moon would grace us with its presence later that evening, we decided to leave a bit later in the afternoon to try to accomplish our objective at hand and also do a night drive. That evening, we made a nice dinner and we headed out at 7:30. Our mission was to locate the Hyenas and monitor their activity. If your not aware, Hyenas are nocturnal predators so the best time to view these animals in the wild is once nightfall arrives. We must have drove around the expected area for at least a few hours and didn’t manage to locate them. The more days I’ve been here, the more I’ve come to realize that the daily goals or objectives are simply just that. In most cases, what we set out to do and what we accomplish in a days work happen to be two very different things. Along our drive we stopped to view some Owls, 2 Chameleons, and managed to see a young porcupine moving in the short grass but besides this, the night safari proved to be not as exciting as one might expect!

Next week I am headed into a bush camp, which is a more remote area in Makalali, and we set up camp in the wild and we will be working with Bethwell, who is one of the best trackers known to the area. He will explain more to us about surviving in the wild, what to eat and not eat, using foot prints and stools to help track the animals on foot and anything else that may be associated with living amongst these majestic wild animals in their domain.