African Wildlife - Living with Wildlife

There has been much speculation about the man-eaters of Tsavo with a fair amount of sensationalizing and dramatizing especially in the movie based on the story. "The Ghost and the Darkness" was an entertaining film but definitely a spiced up version. "Tsavo" translates to "Place of Slaughter" which is aptly named if true. Between Lt. Col John Patterson, who was building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River (Kenya) during 1898, who hunted a wide variety of wildlife extensively, and the 2 Tsavo lions that allegedly killed and ate over 130 Indian workers the name certainly fits the bill. During a period of 9 months the Tsavo lions hunted those working on the bridge despite erecting bomas (fences built from thorn tree branches) and burning fires at night in an attempt to keep the lions away from the camp. The attacks came mainly at night when the lions would enter a tent and drag out the unfortunate victim and then proceed to devour him nearby. Work

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)