Kgalagadi Journey Steve Bailey: Day 6

A day with an incident

Woke up several times during the night to hear noises of the African night, long distance jackal, lion and hyaena.
Another very early start from Mata Mata tented camp, for our final full day in the park. A depressing thought.

As like yesterday we travelled south. We came across two separate sightings of African Wild Cat, less than a kilometer of camp, two within 500 metres of each other. Light still not perfect

Further south, this golden light sighting of Springbok, two Males mock fighting in the dust at 06.25, as can be seen. Some of the best sightings can be expected in the first few hours of the morning

Above is a view of the Auob River bed road; dust caused by the vehicle in front of us, very moody but it makes a hell of a mess of your lenses !!!!  Photographers need to take precautions due to Kalahari dust; it’s very fine and ends up coating all your kit. Nightly cleaning is a must.

Bat Eared Fox,  found in the 13^th Waterhole loop road, 07.00 in the morning

A slow cruise around the loop, no sign of Lion today, but we did find two more Springbok having a jousting session just off the road.

Two female Kudu near the actual waterhole, these animals tend to be skittish. It was a surprise to find them in the open with an obvious male to accompany them.

Met up with the Owner of OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY SOUTH AFRICA SHOP and web site, Hedrus van der Merwe .

Sat for a while talking and finding out about their sightings on their trip, a pattern. Seems November this year was a quiet one for sightings.

As we drove, we saw the normal Gemsbok, Wildebeest, more Springbok and the odd Jackal.

The hyaena den was to be the focus once again of today’s activity, we stayed with the hyaena for a while, and then returned to camp for lunch. On our afternoon drive we decided to go straight to the den.

We were lucky this afternoon; we had the den to ourselves for about 30 minutes, great photo opportunities. The cubs came onto the road and all around my vehicle, the parents, relaxed in the shade as the cubs played with each other, bit the tree stumps and tried to investigate my tyres.

BUT

Around 17.00 I noticed a white Toyota vehicle driving from the north at speed, clouds of dust, a certain indication that the driver is driving over the parks speed limits. I put on my hazard lights and waved them down, normally under these circumstances etiquette is that the vehicle stops some distance away and then SLOWLY moves towards your car to ensure that your photography is not disturbed. Not this Cowboy. He drove straight up and between me and the hyaena, the cubs scattering in all directions. Curse under my breath as the occupants take cell phone photographs of the hyaena parents and THEN I NOTICED they were feeding the Hyaena with dried meat (biltong as it is called in South Africa). Totally illegal, illegal and stupid. As I shouted at them, words similar to “what the hell are you doing” they drove off in a cloud of dust.

Here is my report I wrote to the Management of the Park,

Dear Rey

Thank you for your response to the SANP Forum complaint about Hyaena feeding by a contractor in the KTP.

Date November 10^th Time 17.08

Place 5.7 Km’s North of the Urikaruus turn off, Hyeana den

I was parked taking photographs of the Hyaena at the den and in the road. I looked in my mirror to view a vehicle driving at speed south from Mata Mata at speed (speed unknown but clouds of dust from the back)

As the Hyaena cubs were on the road at the time I put my hazard lights on to flash and indicated to the vehicle with hand signals to slow down to avoid the Hyaena (Not the first time I witnessed speeding by their vehicles on the Mata Mata road)

The vehicle stopped in front of me (between me and the Hyena) and the passenger started to take photographs with his cell phone of the Hyena family. The car moved forward slightly as they took more photographs.

The driver then started to “throw” items out of his window towards the Hyeana. The car moved forward and it was only then that I realized the driver was “feeding” the Hyeana with pieces of biltong. The female adult took at least 5 pieces. I took the photographs of the number plate and the side of the vehicle. As is plainly seen that the vehicle belongs to XXXXXXX ENGINEERING CC

I shouted at the driver, who moved off at speed.

My digital photographs all carry exif data with dates and times.

I complained the following day to the SANP Manager at Mata Mata  who indicated I should complain at Twee Rivieren. I tried to do this on leaving the park but the duty ranger was out in the field

I originally posted the photographs on the SANP web site forums as I was disgusted at the behavior of the XXXXXX staff. Before the thread was deleted a “person” by the name of XXXXXX logged onto the forums and proceeded to swear and insult me and in fact threaten me for having posted photographs of his vehicle

This was followed by a phone call on Thursday 19^th November at plus minus 13.30 from a cell phone number XXXXXXXXXX. This person proceeded to shout abuse at me, swearing saying he was going to f…ck me up because I had f..cked up his business with the SANP. He admitted the offence and mocked me saying it was not five pieces of biltong but 7. When I asked him did he realize feeding the Hyaena could be a death warrant to them he threw the phone down

I wish formally to complain about the above incident and I am willing to swear on oath at the nearest Police station

I trust the above is of interest to your organization, should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on my phone numbers listed below

This report was sent on my return to Cape Town after posting on the SANP Forums, my first entries that indicated the offence were deleted by the forum Moderators, reasons unknown, but it would seem my word and photographs were not enough evidence, several forum postings actually seemed to support the “feeder”. Example Quote :

The alleged offence was a person feeding a piece of biltong to a hyaena. Even though he was close enough to photograph the alleged offenders number plate and company name on the vehicle door, SB  was apparently not close enough to photograph the piece of biltong or the hyaena

On the flimsy evidence of those two pictures, and without hearing both sides of this story, most of you Mites posting on this thread have gone out of you way to trash what could be an innocent mans reputation, his business and maybe even his future wellbeing….

The Park Management followed up with:

Steve hi,

Yes the matter will be finalized with the next contractors meeting as there are other issues that also require attention. The envisaged meeting will be on 24 January 2010, I will however keep you informed as to the penalty. The process was delayed due to the unavailability of the contractor and also the festive season.

Kind regards

TOURISM MANAGER
KGALAGADI TRANSFRONTIER PARK

As yet I have not heard the result of the meeting, I intend to follow up as often as it takes to find out what happened to this gent. Respect for the wildlife in the parks is paramount, hooligan driving; throwing waste and litter, lack of respect for fellow visitors is totally unacceptable.

We were joined by two friends at the sighting , Mybs and his wife  from Cape Town and Joey from Port  Elizabeth. ( Joey,a female photographer  spends her trips to the Kgalagadi alone, preferring the peace ) The Kalahari even though it is so large an area, friends tend to congregate when a good sighting is had

Beautiful sightings of a White Faced Owl on the way back

At the Graig Lockhart  waterhole we came across this Lioness, The Kgalagadi  Lions have picked up a very serious virus “dog distemper “ that has killed several Lions over the last six months. Contact with domestic animals “through the fence” is believed to be the cause. This Lioness was in a very poor weak condition, we believe she died over night. The next morning, she was nowhere to be seen

After such a sad sighting we slowly drove back to camp, our last night in the park, some beautiful landscapes to ease the mood. Our mood did improve a little when the braai was started, the first cork lifted. Tomorrow our last drive as we leave the park