Posted October 13, 2025 in All
Top Reserve News This Quarter
This quarter we continue with the cheetah theme but unfortunately, it was not good news. In August we lost Tswalu, he passed away in the Boma just 3 days before his release. Despite a post mortem being done, there was no cause identified. However, Duma was released as planned into the reserve and he is doing very well. Circumnavigating the whole fence line, he continues to improve his hunting skills. He has not yet met up with female, Ashia, but we are hopeful he will bump into her soon.
Duma 
Tswalu
In September a young cheetah male called Balula joined us. He was from a nearby reserve but had broken his toes on his left foot. We agreed to take him in and try to rehabilitate him back into the wild. So far so good, his toe injury has healed nicely now, he just needs to strengthen his muscles in his foot to ensure he can survive on the reserve.
Animals of UmPhafa
We continue to see leopard almost every day; despite removing a female and cub off the reserve, we are continuing to try and trap a few males. We did trap one in August but by the time the vet got to the reserve he had escaped! The trap has been reengineered so any further leopard trapped, hopefully won’t be able to get out. The leopard male is now known locally as Houdini!
The spotted eagle owl that had babies last year is back again this year and we are monitoring her to see if she has any chicks this year.
Busy Field Rangers
This quarter the Field Rangers were pleased with the completion of our new outpost – we did have a tent on one of our highest hills but now the Field Rangers are in a small house with running hot water, which will be cosy in the winter when the wind is howling over the hills.
We continued with our air patrols this quarter which may be a reason why poaching and incursions has reduced significantly, however with school holidays just around the corner we do expect to see an increase in Quarter 4. The good news is that we have completed our runway on the reserve so it’s easier for the pilot to collect the field rangers to do an air patrol.
The field rangers, as well as flying and doing vehicle patrols have walked over 4608km this quarter, keeping our animals safe. We lost a field ranger in July who is hoping to change his career focus and move closer to his family.
Two field rangers passed their security exams and firearm tests whilst Anthony and Mark also passed their Security B Grading exam. This means that we can now apply for our licence for the field rangers to be armed.
Caring for the Reserve
We completed our 44km perimeter burns and once we had received 20mm of rain, we proceeded to do some block burns totalling 1503HA, which is a large part of the reserve where we have removed moribund etc. giving a chance for the vegetation to improve. This quarter was all about fixing the roads and so far, we have repaired 4.5km, fixed 71m drains and put in 67 new ones to try and stem the erosion of our roads. As well as repairing 840m of fence line that was also affected by erosion.
Other maintenance completed was clearing an area for the security plane to land and take off, completion of the new ranger outpost building, weather-proofing the roofs ready for the Q4 rain as well as building a small laundry on to one of the buildings.
Community and Project Meetings
Richard from Project Rhino visited again to judge the results and continue the promotion of the rhino conservation artwork. The best student’s artwork was rewarded with a certificate and finally after lots of singing and dancing Richard left.
We were joined by the Ezemvelo Honorary Officers for their 6 monthly meeting and it was great for us to be a part of their ongoing work at the local state-owned reserves. This group of people do an amazing job and give up their free time to help and assist where needed on the state reserves.
Intern Program & Researchers
We hosted our last university group of the year as well as several individual interns this quarter – we kept them busy with daily cheetah monitoring as well as checking on the two released cheetah on the reserve weekly. Maintenance, bio-diversity surveys, plaster casting of tracks, patrols with the field rangers, night drives, tracks and trails etc. has been a busy quarter.
We were also joined by Jade a South African student who came to do work experience for just 3 days to see if this was the career for her. She has now decided this is definitely what she wants to do with her life.
We also said goodbye to Ethan our student co-ordinator who joined us for 9 months to complete the practical part of his Nature Diploma certificate. We wish him the best of luck.
Getting Social
We continue to see an increase in Instagram followers and our most popular posts were all about the cheetahs of course, as well as the leopard in the managers garden trying to get into the hot tub!
