African Wildlife - Living with Wildlife

Judd, orphaned shortly after his birth with Marcelle, her boerboel Luca, and Mouse the jack russell all enjoying the sun. Judd a few months on, much stronger, naughty with horns growing at an unbelivable rate. Judd was kept separate from the older hand reared Gem until he was big enough to able to walk about freely on the farm with her. Gem the older Gemsbok getting a water bottle from my mother... and then finally Gem and Judd free to walk together on the farm - and still return twice a day for game pellets!

Wow last night I was outside at about 10.30pm and I saw a white faced owl glide into a thorn tree near the house. I surmise it was "Scooter", one of the owls I rescued, hand raised and released. Three fuzzy baby owls fells out of their nest during a very windy day here on the farm, and I was lucky enough to find them before a raptor spotted them, or they died of starvation. What followed was months of sheer entertainment and joy... not to mention the gruesome task of grinding up dead day old chicks and hand feeding it to the 3 by hand, or the pellets they vomit up. The 3 owls were living with me in my house, generally wreaking havoc and flying around at night because I didn't want to put them in a cage. Each day I would encourage them to sit on my finger and gently put them in a box I used to transport them up to my office. Once there I would let them out and they usuallysat sleeping perched on a wreath I won at an off road race (oh and had great fun pulling it to pieces)

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The Story of "Buzz" Guess what I rescued from the side of the road yesterday. I was driving along and saw a raptor standing in the grass on the other side of the road. That's not normal behaviour for a bird of prey not to fly off when cars are driving past so I did a u-turn and went back for another look. I saw an injured bird of prey hopping and limping across the road. A big beautiful Steppe Buzzard... he couldn't fly but was so beautiful and proud and wild!! I chased after him and when got close he flipped on his back and offered me his claws and a big beak... smiling... all I had was a soft sunshield screen and a rag... so I very slowly and carefully managed to get his eyes covered and gently take a wing and roll him over so he couldn't claw me with those impressive talons or peck me (like peck describes what that beak would do.... BITE rather). Put him in my owl transporter (leftover from the 3 baby white faced owls I rescued, hand raised and released) and le

Have you ever wondered what the Group Name is for an animal? Antelope: herd, cluster, tribe Apes: shrewdness, troop Badgers: cete, colony Cats (Wild): destruction, dowt, dout Cheetah: coalition Elephant: parade, herd Giraffe: tower, corps, journey, group Hedgehogs: array, prickle Hippo: raft, pod, bloat, thunder, school Hyaena: clan Impala: rank Jackal: skulk Leopard: leap, lepe Lion: pride, sault, sowse Monkeys: shrewdness, cartload, troop, troup Mongoose: business Pigs (Wild): sounder Rhino: crash, stubbornness, herd Wild Dog: pack Wildebeest: implausibility, herd Zebra: dazzle, zeal, cohort Very interesting!!

Wonder where some of our wildlife go their names from? Aardvark: Afrikaans word translation “earth pig” as ears and nose resemble those of a pig, also burrows a lot. Bat-eared Fox: Refers to the big ears resembling those of egyptian slit-faced bat Blesbok: Afrikaans word translation “bald buck” referring to the white blaze on the face Bushbaby: Lives in the “bush” and their call sounds like that of a crying baby Caracal: From the Turkish name “garah-gulak” meaning black ear, with reference to the black ear tufts Cheetah: Hindu word “chita” meaning “spotted one” Duiker: Afrikaans meaning “diver” from the action of the antelope when running away Eland: Dutch word for elk, thought to be related or similar Elephant: Greek word “elphas” and latin word “elephantus” for the species Gemsbok: Dutch word “gems” meaning chamois in reference to colour Genet: Name of area in Spain the species inhabited in the 18th century Giraffe: Arabic word “xirapha” meaning “one who walks swiftly” Har