A Change of Guard

Above is a picture of Allimo Mahanuke. She is a Shangaan lady from the village of Dixie and will be stepping in for Siphiwe whilst she is on maternity leave. Allimo is married to Pete Marimane who is a well known guide in the area and in fact has guided at Djuma a few years a go. Together they have two children, both little girls. One is called Trudy and is four years old and the other is Tildah who is only eight months. Allimo has bought them in to the WildEarth camp and much to the delight of our crew Trudy often walks around with Tildah tied with a towel on her back - in the true African way.

Allimo is perfect for the job of WildEarth Zoomie as she has a diploma in computing and also loves animals. WE are sure that she will be as calm as Siphiwe when the computers go down and there is panic all around. Good luck Allimo and WElcome to the team.

Siphiwe is just about ready to pop and is very tired these days. Her last day will be Saturday 14th November and WE wish her all the best with the birth of her third child. Siphiwe will join us again next year around March time. Below is a picture of her looking beautiful and glowing.

News from Operation Migration

As of this morning Operation Migration are on Day 21 of the southward migration and they have already covered 94.4 airmiles. Only 1190.6 miles to go! It really is a mission.

They are planning to do another leg today. If they manage it weather wise (which looks really possible) they'll be ahead of last year by 3 days.Today's leg will put the team in Illinois, and just 55 miles shy of a milestone of 10,000 miles. That's 10,000 miles guiding Whooping Cranes South to their new winter terminus. What an amazing achievement.

After a rocky start when the birds seemed reluctant to follow the trikes, the last two flights have seen all 20 young Whooping cranes eagerly following, and the last migration leg had all of them lined up beautifully behind one ultralight.

As most of you have probably seen the broadcast is intermittent on www.wildearth.tv. This is because they are not broadcasting when the trike is not in the air. However, the weather has improved greatly and the flights are becoming more frequent so keep your eyes on this channel as when it does pop up it is spectacular.

News from Pennsylvania

As you probably know by now Pix Controller have installed a 3rd motion-activated remote camera which is currently setup over an active whitetail scrape. A whitetail scrape is an area a whitetail buck will create by scraping a patch of ground under a small tree usually in a funnel area where other bucks will see it. These act as a way bucks will communicate to each other during the mating season or the rut as it is known. A buck will scent the area by licking the branches above the scrape and urinate in the scrape. Many different bucks will typically visit a scrape site which is a great opportunity to video mature bucks.

The camera they have setup over an active scrape has not produced much to date other that this one hotspot:

http://www.wildearth.tv/web/pix-wpa-01?streamId=pix-wpa-01/2009/10/19/2009-10-19-18-10_pix-wpa-01.flv&bspId=32852&start=515

However, not too far from this site they did capture this action on one of our motion-activated DVR systems this past week:

http://www.youtube.com/pixcontroller#p/a/u/0/XwGhbQI6Auo

Pix Controller believe this is the first time an active scrape has been broadcast over the Internet LIVE. They have the ability to move this 3rd remote camera to another scrape site in hopes to see some better action before this phase of the mating season ends in about 3 weeks.

Another rather interesting find on their camera was two sightings of a whitetail doe with deformed hooves.Her hooves are unusually long which is caused by too much protein in her diet. Bill says that he has never seen this before, but has seen photos of this on the Internet. She has made two appearances to the main camera. They were able to capture some great footage and zoom the camera in for a better look at her hooves. (see attached photo)

http://www.wildearth.tv/web/pix-wpa-01?streamId=pix-wpa-01/2009/10/25/2009-10-25-23-06_pix-wpa-01.flv&bspId=34355&start=1

Lastly, they have viewed some interesting groundhog behavior on the main camera. They witnessed groundhogs feeding at night last year, but when they were able to capture a hotspot and show a local wildlife expert he was amazed to see this. Groundhogs are not known to be nocturnal since they do not have eyes which can see in the dark very well. However, what we are seeing appears to be groundhogs feeding as much as they can before hibernation. Here is one of the video clips captured:

http://www.wildearth.tv/web/pix-wpa-01?streamId=pix-wpa-01/2009/10/11/2009-10-11-22-40_pix-wpa-01.flv&bspId=30950&start=307

They also captured a couple clips of groundhog fighting over food area. This appears to be several groundhogs defending their territory.

Operation Migration - The Dreaded Weather

Everything was going so well. There was an extended period of perfect flying conditions and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Once the three groups of birds have learned to fly they are then brought together to make one flock. Once together they must organise themselves into a hierarchy before they can carry on. This entails a lot of pecking and bullying but finally each bird finds its place and the flock is ready. However this year, the heavens opened during the mixing of the last cohort. They need a lot of good weather and flight practicing before there is unity in the air and this year they have not flown for what seems like weeks due to rain and heavy winds.

The bad weather has forced the team to look at a variety of difficult decisions. The birds are fast becoming sedentary and reluctant to leave the pen. When they go out to practice the winds are so strong that the aircraft cannot slow down to wait for the bird and often birds turn back for the pen. They just want the comfort of the wet pen with lots of food. The team now have to work out whether they should carry on this negative training in bad weather or risk crating them to the first stop over. Crating can be dangerous for the birds and will also make them wary of the men dressed in white who pack them into the crates. After avidly watching the forecast and seeing no break in this terrible weather they decided to box eight of the birds and send them to the refuge.

The next question is whether to box the birds that they think will turn back and therefore disrupt the flock and box them to stopover two? This will at least ensure that the ones who are likely to make it will have the best chances and they can start to rebuild the flock. However, as mentioned crating is dangerous and is it worth doing damage to the birds who are already reluctant to follow the aircraft?

It is such a disappointing start to a very long and challenging journey. However, the bad weather can't last forever and WE are rooting for their success. Keep watching www.wildearth.tv for their broadcasts. They are few and far between at the moment which is why they do not show up on the portal. However, the camera is on the trike and when they are in the air the shots are fantastic.

Update on the Pix Controller Wildlife Webcam

The PixController wildlife webcam recently has been updated with Hotspots. This has been a great addition to the camera as it allows people to view videos clips of action they missed during the day. This coupled with the addition of an upgraded and better PTZ camera they've been able to capture some amazing fall action in Western Pennsylvania. Some of the video clips captured include several nice whitetail bucks and does as well as groundhogs, mourning doves, various song birds, and raccoons. With the new PTZ camera they are able to zoom in and follow the animals around like you have seen on the African cameras.

Here is a red fox licking the salt lick.

http://www.wildearth.tv/web/pix-wpa-01?streamId=pix-wpa-01%2F2009%2F10%2F04%2F2009-10-04-08-00_pix-wpa-01.flv&start=560

Here is a red fox peeing on the salt block at night.

http://www.zaplive.tv/web/pix-wpa-01?streamId=pix-wpa-01%2F2009%2F10%2F05%2F2009-10-05-19-40_pix-wpa-01.flv&start=306

Some of the more interesting clips include two small whitetail bucks sparring and one 2 1/2 year old whitetail buck chasing doe around in the morning. These are signs of the whitetail mating season which is just getting underway. Another interesting clip captured was a groundhog feeding at night, which they typically do not do. Groundhogs will only feed at night as winter approaches in order to prepare for hibernation. Last year was the first time they saw this behavior since groundhog have very small eyes which are not meant for nocturnal use. The interesting thing about this video clip was watching the groundhog feed with the raccoons. There was a little spat between the two species and the groundhog puffed himself up and stood his ground against this predator.

They also are pleased to announce the addition of yet another remote motion-activated camera which will come on-line very soon. This is in addition to the remote motion-activated carcass camera due to come on-line in about a month. This next remote camera will be placed on an active whitetail scraping site, which is used during the rut or mating season. Scraping sites are typically found under small trees and are 2' to 4' in diameter which a whitetail buck will create during this time period. Bill Powers from Pix Controller has been filming scraping sites for about 8 years now with their motion-activated video systems. What they've seen is that much of what has been written about scraping sites does not follow with what they have captured on video. These sites present a wonderful opportunity to see some very mature whitetail bucks which typically are very elusive throughout the year. Being able to broadcast this action live over the Internet will be a first of it's kind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-duGuq-fA0

Whooping Crane Migration

There are 21 cranes in the class of 2009 and group dynamics have been very interesting. The pecking order on the ground is often very different than in the air with the roles of dominance swapping around. 924 has been the biggest bully of the group this year and 925 the meekest and most timid. This has been the largest group that they have ever attempted to migrate in nine years of migrations.

The migration itself is an incredibly hard mission to make. It is 1285 miles and covers seven states of America. They will be using four ultralight aircraft each weighing 365 pounds. There will be five pilots and altogether fourteen people in the migration team from the US and Canada. It is important to note that they are at the mercy of mother nature, they need ideal conditions to fly. There needs to be moderate wind, no rain and ideally cold air. Birds fly much better in cooler air. They will use the network of as many as 26 stop overs pre -established along the migration route. This year Operation Migration will log their 10000th air mile. WE and Operation Migration invite you to give a WHOOP and help us celebrate this incredible achievement. http://www.operationmigration.org/GAWlandingpage.html

Also for the first time ever this year there will be a camera on the aircraft. This will bring views never before been seen of these beautiful birds in flight as they guide them to their new winter home and survival of the species. CraneCam will provide LIVE views from the ground and you can watch it on www.wildearth.tv.

The migration will take off very soon so keep your eyes on the Operation Migration Channel so that you can join them.

The circle of life.

Perhaps the deepest, greatest part of life is the celebration of birth and, hopefully, the celebration of a full life lived. The celebration of death. It is sad and perhaps even something we as humans fear, but there is a peacefulness in death, found surely by the one who's life it was.
It is with this feeling and understanding, that I can write these words. It brings me peace to say that this elephant cow, this matriarch, mother, and grand mother, passed away at a ripe old age, surrounded by all those close to her. Her herd would have known her their whole lives, as she would have known them, just as she would have known her own mother and family that went before her.
The medical details are not important, the fact that she lived a full life, a rich life and died of old age, is. That experience; to have shared life, and in the end, death, is an important one for every elephant in her herd; just as it was for her over the years. It is how we learn and share the circle of our lives.
From the tracks the morning she was found, it was clear that the herd had been around her as and after she passed away. From what I have seen over the years in the bush, I think humans are perhaps the only mammals that sometimes fear death. I dare say, even to the point of keeping us from living sometimes. In the wild I have seen many battles to live, and always animals will fight and hold on to life with a tenacity and instinct we can well appreciate, but never have I perceived fear of death in wild, free animals.
Were it not for those around us, to observe, "us" would not even exist. In the end, it is those we share our lives with, share experiences and moments with, that give meaning to  life, and every moment we can do so enriches that experience. Every moment.
Written by Pieter Pretorius


(Note: WE would like to thank Djuma Game Reserve, the Sabi Sands and Jurie and Pippa Moolman for fighting so hard for the rights of wild animals to be wild, and always allowing us to share this with you. Also, WE would like to thank Chitwa Chitwa and Charl Brink for giving us the opportunity to visit this cow on their land. Finally, WE would like to thank you. Because it is your wisdom, willingness to learn and trust in those of us that value and protect the rights of wild animals to live lives as unaffected by humans as possible, that makes it all possible. She has gone, but her life lives on. Her calf will grow, and one day she may be the matriach. The circle of life is perfect. WE are happy it happened like this.)