ZOO LIFE SUMMER 2023 CONSERVATION

COMMUNITY & PROJECT MEETINGS

During this first quarter of the year, we have spent time with the local communities bordering on UmPhafa, we learnt who the indunas were (chiefs) for the local communities and have since had several meetings concerning Leopards in the community as well as discussing options for us to introduce Cheetah and Buffalo to UmPhafa. We have also had several meetings about a new satellite tracking system we are hoping to introduce later in the year for our priority species.

Busy Field Rangers

With the start of the New Year, we were expecting an increase in poaching incidences but these were down on last year which was great for the reserve, despite this though we still had 16 incursions, but only 5 animals were taken, whereas in the fourth quarter of 2022, we lost 20 animals.

We had 30 metres of fence stolen in 2 incidents. In total the rangers patrolled over 5,000 km of the reserve, keeping our animals safe.