GAME CENSUS SAFARI ON HORSEBACK

by Lara Snyman  (Bhejane Imvelo)

Lara is one of the Bhejane Imvelo students, currently completing her 3rd Year. She is a specialist horse guide and found employment for her practical year, at Ant's Hill in the Waterberg.  Below is her account of a recent game capture operation that took place on the reserve. Well done Lara. 

All you can hear is gallopping horses, wild shouting on the radios and helicopter noises.

You immediately know this is not a normal Safari!

This year during the beginning of July Ant Africa Safaris had its annual Game Census and Capture week.

About 30 Guests stayed at Ants Hill and Ants Nest Lodge in the Waterberg, where they had an experience of a lifetime. Each morning the guests and guides swinged themselves into the saddle at about 6 am, after a energy-giving bacon and egg sandwich.

Each day of the week was unique and action-packed.

During the first two days we split up into smaller groups with about 3 guests per guide and seperated into different zones on the beautiful private game reserve.

In each zone we counted all animal species we could encounter. We also made notes of their sexes and condition.

This annual count is vital in order to know if the animals are in good health and striving. It also helps to establish if animals need to be taken off in order to sustain a healthy habitat.

All guests loved the count and we were quite lucky in our sightings: Roan antelope, Sable, Kudu, Eland, Rhino, Buffalo and even some of the nocturnal bushpigs came out!

The second day was a little more adventorous: It was time for some young Sable calves to leave the breeding camp and to be relocated.

A troop of about 25 riders went into the breeding camp, where Dr. John, the vet, Anthony Baber, the owner, and a group of strong staff members waited by a game truck.

All riding guests were positioned with a guide in various stragetic posts.

Once the dart went in, everyone kept dead quiet and luckily the sables only ran for a short distance before being out from the tranquilizing drug.

Dr. John did a quick dipping treatment before letting them wake up again in the truck.

 The third and fourth day were filled with buffalo capture.

Ant Baber owns about 40 disease free buffalo, which have great genetics.

Due to the drought and therefore grazing issues, he bought a neighbouring piece of land, which was fixed up to be a new buffalo and kudu breeding camp.

We set out early in the morning and cantered on long sandy roads towads the suspected buffalo herd. Dr. John and Ant were ready to dart- unfortunately a little to quick- as most riders werent quite in position just yet.

The dart went in, the cow ran, and- we lost sight of her.

Stress and panic started, but Ants calm instructions made everyone focused and organized once again. We all splitted up, riding through thick bush and lon grass, in hope of finding the sedated cow. This is a game against time, and as 15 minutes went by, we almost lost hope she would still be alive.

Luckily, the Ant collection has amazing guides which were able to track the cow down. She was laying behind a termite mount in a thicket- almost invisible.

The cow was loaded by 17 strong young men and brought into the new breeding camp.

Afterwards we darted another 2 buffalo, this time with everybody ready and organized.

On the last day of game capture it was time for a magnificent giraffe bull to be sold to a farm in the region.

All guests were really excited, as this is the most tricky of all game captures.

Long legs, and a sensetive blood circulation system makes it incredibly hard for giraffes to be safely tranquilized and transported.

The giraffe bull was quickly found and the dart went in. Unfortunately it didnt seem to be strong enough for the big animal.

The bull kept running, and all riders were trying their best to stay with him through a long wild run. Another dart went in, and this time the bull started behaving sedated.

Everyone went onto their allocated positions with ropes to bring the giraffe into a controlled fall.

Due tot he good explanation and demonstration beforehand it all went well.

On the last night of this amazing week, all staff and guests had an amazing „dress into your worst outfit“ party around the fire.

Industry newsIndaba 2016

by Amy Upton (Bhejane Nsele)

INDABA kicked off with an early morning start at 8 am where all embodiment's of the industry game together under a few roofs; with exhibitors from 18 countries all over Southern Africa.

It is the place to be for those who want to make a difference. 

 Why is Inaba worthwhile and relevant?

It is worth while because it creates a warm and welcoming environment in which business relations can begin to grow its roots with meaningful interactions with people from all over Africa.

Derek Hanekom said “INDABA gives us a sense of belonging. It is where we can come together to share knowledge and create partnerships” which is extremely true. INDABA shows you what is out there in the big bad world; it also shows you the reality of the industry as well as the endless possibilities to work in making it all worthwhile.

Although INDABA was busy and there was talk of meetings left, right and centre. The people of INDABA always had a smile on their face and a welcoming hand shake ready to hear what you had to say. This is one memory I will take away from INDABA is that these are ‘my people’ and they want to hear about who I am and what I do because there is always the opportunity for me to make their company better; and the thought of that makes myself and I am positive makes many other people feel significant in such a huge industry.

INDABA was incredible and eye opening and definitely a good way to be introduced into the industry and is definitely an event that must be attended. Thank you Bhejane Nature Training for the opportunity.

“Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better”- Albert Einstein

Ex- Student: Casper Bester Career Update

By: Casper Bester

I studied at Bhejane Nature Training from Feb 2012 to June 2012 were I did my FAGASA level 1 as well as my Trails guiding course.

In 2011 I decided I want to change careers. It was time to follow my heart. Like most boys I always wanted to be a ‘Game Ranger’ and now finally I have the opportunity to go and do it. I found out about Bhejane via a friend’s daughter who studied there, so I drove up to Ethaltini bush camp to check it out. After talking to Dylan and Christa and seeing the camp, I knew I was on the right track. At first it was really scary to leave my job at the hospital, but when I look back now, I know I made the right decision to become a field guide.

I had an awesome time doing FGASA Level 1 as well as my Trails guiding course. I made so many new friends and met some amazing people. Bhejane was a excellent start to my new beginning.

When I look back at my time in the Bhejane camp today, the moments that really sticks out for me is our first aid training, it was so well done and all the practical work felt so real, thanks Andrew!! Another think that I won’t forget is that first time on our ARH practical when I shot with the .458 ruger. Wow, what a rifle!!!! 

The courses at Bhejane that I did, really provided me with not only the necessary field knowledge, but also the life skills that is needed to be a excellent guide and to really make it far in the industry. I also did my HP course, a snake handling course with Johan Marais and Jonathan Leeming’s scorpion course.

Today I am working at Makhasa Game reserve and Lodge, 15km north of Bhejane in Northern KZN, as a guide and assistant manager.

Let me tell you about my favorite sighting at Bhejane.

We were walking trails at Amakhozi Game lodge in September 2012. The morning of the 18th at about 9 o’clock, we were on top of one of the many hills at Amakhozi. I was walking lead and we just started descending from the top, when I spotted some buffalos at the foot of the hill. They were about 300m away and we estimated that the breading herd was more or less 50 in count. We were walking on the dirt road, as it was the only way down and I realized that this road is leading us straight into the herd. We continued very cautiously and when we were about 100m away from the herd they became aware of our presence. We stopped and watched them for 5min. I then walked ahead to see where this road was leading and luckily right at the bottom of the hill, the road turned to the left, away from the herd. We carried on walking, but when we reached the bottom of the hill, I realized the herd of buffalos is now about 65m away and they are following us. We stopped to see what they were up to and they also stopped. Now almost the whole herd was looking at the 5 of us and one by one the young buffalo bulls were coming closer and closer, 2 steps at a time. By now they were about 50m away from us and my hart is pounding like crazy. We walked on for another 10 paces, stopped and the buffalos were still closing in on us. We stopped and stood our ground. The young bulls are still out in front creeping closer. We stood our ground and had a “stare down” for about 15 min before the herd finally moved off and my heartbeat returned to normal. Sjoe……

Well, I don’t know where the bush will take me in the next years, but I would like to still be at Makhasa, but maybe as manager, with a Level 3 and SKS DG to follow.


Thanks Bhejane!! You guys rock!!

Casper next to the Mkuze River in Flood while on Trails

                                  

One Week at uMkhuze

By Tom and Olly

No electricity, no hot showers, no worries. Our week at Mkhuze was basic to say the least but absolutely fantastic.

Three students including ourselves and Arlo set off for Mkhuze earlier than the rest of our group to set up camp. After finishing we headed to the pool for a much needed rest, on our way back Paul our training assistant treated us to a brief game drive to see the observation point, little did we know we were going to be further rewarded with an awesome leopard sighting. We managed to catch him/her resting in the shade resting from the heat of the days and he/she posed beautifully for our eager camera lenses. We also spotted a large male white Rhino on reaching the observation point after a brief detour to retrieve Olly’s forgotten camera so he could take photos of the leopard.

We slept well that night despite the calls of Spotted Hyaena echoing round the camp. Blissfully in the morning we awoke to find a lack of mosquito bites on ourselves, we soon realised we hadn’t seen a single one and had stumbled upon a safe haven from these blood sucking manifestations of Satan.

The camp came to life Monday morning when the rest of the Amakentshane group arrived on the game viewers to a 5 star reception. We showed off our leopard pictures but little did we know that other members of our group would be treated to an even better sighting later in the week.

After catching up with the rest of the group we headed out on a game drive, the sheer amount of information thrown our way by the guides (or as we refer to them “walking encyclopaedias”) was enormous. What seemed like thousands of names of birds/trees and bugs brought about the realisation that one day we would hopefully be able to guide like them, albeit a long time away!

In the evening we quickly mastered the use of flashlights as without lights it got dark very quickly, and the odds of walking into trees or taking the wrong path to your hut multiplied tenfold.

On the second day we rose with the sun, and headed out of camp by 5:00am much to the shock of several members of our group. The morning drive was quiet and we found ourselves at Kumasinga hide at around 8:00 for breakfast. Once the cereal was inhaled we entered the hide and had several good sightings of birds to add to our ever growing species lists.

We returned to the environmental camp and spent an evening around the fire eating up a stew made by the student duty team. The darkness made it a lot easier to eat! We were also welcomed to the camp by a resident genet that watched over our fire from the branches of a Lembombo Wattle.

 Day three was fantastic however, throughout the morning game drive several acacias were brutally attacked by our guides cutting off branches with their Leatherman’s. It didn’t take Sherlock holmes to figure out what was coming our way, was less than desirable. However we were offered some light entertainment by Wanroe’s odd bird identification, especially his stringy call on a “knob backed lark”. We spent the afternoon identifying those damn saplings. General moaning about how the branches weren’t in the book, or the fact they all looked the same were occasionally punctuated with shouts of pain as people (mainly Brett) stabbed themselves on sharp thorns and spines. This was only the beginning of the hard work….

Day four and so the students take over. This was the first of many days in the Hotseat, as it became to be known. While there we were required to take over guiding duties and show the rest of the vehicle what we had learnt. So we threw in all the information we had gained on birding, trees, mammals, tracks, the park itself and the vehicle we were riding in. We were such good guides we even managed to track down the elusive black rhino in thick bush and show it off to our guides, this is when the student surpassed the master for a few brief seconds.

Later on that day we were taken to the observation point to have a night time astronomy lecture. This was particularly awesome, as there is nothing that can really compete with staring up the stars on a clear night with hyaena serenading us in the background. Nick held us captive with his stories of the heavens and the various mythologies behind them.

Day five marked the end of the week and the resident nicotine addicts in the group could stop thinking about rolling up various types of animal scat into a cigarette and look forward to a proper one when they returned to camp. We had a morning game drive which was mostly uneventful except for a close encounter of the horned kind. One of the guide vehicles was charged by a male white rhino trying to protect his female. They rewarded us afterwards with some stunning photo opportunities. 

Many of us weren’t too keen to head back as we were very happy to have no electricity over mosquitoes any day.

It was a nice feeling to know that when we next returned we would be on our assessment drives for our FGASA level one qualification and would definitely know tonnes more than what we currently do.

All in all we squeezed every last drop of information and experience that we possibly could out of the week. We would like to give a big thanks to our guides, Paul, Nick and Pieter for blackmailing our tired and weary minds into work for a refreshing pool session at the main camp.

Advanced Nature Guiding and Wildlife Conservation Course

Nature Guiding as a professional career, has evolved steadily over the last two decades, and today is a much sought after career.

The national qualifications that are available for nature guiding are set at relatively low levels when compared to Conservation or Tourism programs, in order to be accessible to more potential students. The working environment, in which these skills are delivered however, is one that requires guides to be confidant, knowledgeable, responsible and well-educated leaders. A guide working at a prestigious 5 star Game Lodge has got an enormous amount of responsibility and very high expectations from both his or her employer and paying guests.

The guides that are currently being produced through shorter training programs, fall short of this requirement and are not viewed as employable by many employers. It is for this reason that many prestigious lodges and reserves put their guides through considerable further internal training programs to ensure that the right skills and values are transferred before allowing them to start working. There is a clear gap between the requirements of the industry and the ability of current programs to produce suitably qualified, mature and responsible nature guides and it is this gap that we hope to bridge with this new industry orientated program.

The Bhejane Nature Training Advanced Nature Guiding and Wildlife Conservation program is a unique and comprehensive 3 year program that is the first of a new generation of industry orientated learning programs. This program combines the intimately related fields of Professional Nature Guiding, Conservation/Wildlife Management, Monitoring and Research, and Tourism and Hospitality. This enables the student to get a quality academic qualification whilst at the same time living and training in the bush as opposed to attending a short informal bush course with little value, or a lengthy academic program that still leaves them unemployable.

Many Nature Conservation graduates are aware of the difficulty in finding employment without also having FGASA guiding qualifications, and this often leads to further time and expense on getting all the necessary qualifications to become employable. Bhejane is in the unique position of being able to offer a 3 year program that will ensure that the student can now do all of this in one place, gain valuable practical experience and qualify for an industry placement at the same time.

In addition to the benefits stated above, this is the only program of its kind that prepares the student to work in both terrestrial and marine protected areas.

The college base camp is situated in Northern Zululand and borders the Isimangaliso Wetlands Park. Widely recognized as an area of unrivalled biodiversity, this offers the opportunity to live, study and work in one of the most diverse natural environments in Southern Africa.

The program is suitable for anyone that is interested in working in Wildlife Tourism and Conservation, either as a Professional Nature Guide, Wildlife Monitor, Research Assistant, Conservation Volunteer Coordinator, Wildlife Manager, or Marine Guide, will benefit from this course. The course caters specifically for students that want more than just an entry-level guiding qualification, and is looking for a more practical training approach than what is available through traditional academic qualifications.

Bhejane Nature Training is a fully endorsed FGASA Training Provider. (Field Guides Association of Southern Africa)


Join us today, to become a part of the Zululand Conservation Legacy . . .


For more information contact Bhejane Nature Training at info@bhejanenaturetraining.com or go to our website, www.bhejanenaturetraining.com

Creating Awareness Through Wilderness.....