Posted July 8, 2025 in All
Top reserve news this quarter
In May we finally received our new Cheetah arriving at 10:30 on a Saturday night, we couldn’t contain our excitement as they were released from their travelling crates into our freshly prepared Bomas with a small snack awaiting them. In June we decided to try and bond them and so far, so good – see previous news update. There is no timescale on bonding them – it’s just about observation and assessing their behaviours before making that decision.
Animals of UmPhafa
We recorded 2 new bat species with the help of the Durban Museum who stayed with us for a few days whilst doing research on a Protected area nearby – they are very cute and identified as the Little free-tailed bat (Chaerephon pumilus) and Egyptian free-tailed bats (Tadarida aegyptiaca).
Following on from our news last quarter we finally got the opportunity to capture a female leopard and her son which were then relocated to another Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. This is the first time UmPhafa has done this and it went very well. We were sad to see her go as she has been one of the leopard favourites on the Reserve and so relaxed.
Game capture started in June with a total of 166 animals including Wildebeest, Zebra, Kudu bulls and a Waterbuck bull being moved to new homes
We have seen potentially 2 new Buffalo babies but the herd can be quite skittish and are hiding them very well!
The Interns staying at our Intern accommodation got to meet new residents Patrick & Patricia the Baboon spiders who have decided to make their home in one of the pipes in the shower room. As a protected species we will leave them there to keep warm during the winter months.
Busy Field Rangers
We were delighted to be informed by Project Rhino that they will be donating a pilot and his small plane to help us in the fight against wildlife crime. Our first aerial flight was in April, Zweli our assistant Head ranger got to be the first to go up and fly the entire Reserve looking for anything out of the ordinary, since then we have done a further 5 flights.
We had 35 fence standards stolen this quarter which left a section of the Reserve with the fence down for a while, luckily no animals escaped.
We recruited 2 new Field Rangers to join the team and they are doing very well
The porcupine poacher we alluded to in last quarters update finally had his case heard and received a 6-month sentence or a R2000 fine.
We have also started to build a new Field Ranger outpost on one of our highest hills so that we can base them there for weeks at a time. It will give the Field Rangers much needed protection from the weather.
Caring for the Reserve
We have continued to clear Accacia Karoo as well as Lantana – clearing 49HA for this quarter – we still have a long way to go though, but it is vital for the Reserve that we remove these encroachers and alien plants to protect the animals.
With the arrival of the Cheetah boys, we did some much-needed maintenance on our Boma as well as prepping the Reserve perimeter ready to start burning the firebreaks. It is still a little to green but we are hoping to start burning fire breaks in July. So far we have completed only one burn section.
We have also started using our new rake and hay baler to make some small bales ready for the animals to eat mid-winter – hopefully they will find enough to sustain them but we have these as our back up.
Community & Project Meetings
We were joined by Richard from Project Rhino who visited 4 local schools in the area to promote Rhino conservation through art – they have handed out posters for the children to colour in and Richard will be back to judge the entries later in the year.
East Coast college also joined us for 2 weeks and did a conservation education day at a local school including fun activities that was enjoyed by the children as well as handing out 600 donuts.
Intern program / Researchers
We hosted 2 university / college groups as well as some individual Interns this quarter – they all did some exciting activities including game capture, cheetah bonding and feeding, game count plus much more.
We were also joined by 2 researchers – Theo who joined us to study erosion on UmPhafa for his PHD as well as the Durban Museum – doing research on the small critters in the area.
Getting Social
We continue to see an increase in Instagram followers and our most popular posts were all about the Cheetah’s – which is such a massive story for us.
