Spotting the Elusive Tilo

Over the course of the past five weeks of our conservation focused expedition, I have seen all of Karongwe’s focus animals numerous times and have had amazing sightings of each of them, with the exception of one individual – Tilo. Tilo is a collared female leopard (Panthera pantus) and, while telemetry is fairly straightforward for the other animals, she is very good at being a leopard – meaning if she doesn’t want to be seen, you won’t see her. I can’t count the number of times I have had her on the strongest signal possible yet was unable to actually find her. Seeing Tilo became an obsession for many of the volunteers, including myself.

Finally, this week, on my last attempt, I caught a glimpse of one of the most beautiful creatures on earth. Her signal was narrowed down to a specific area and we stopped to fine tune the direction next to a huge tree that we had already past a couple times on the drive. Simultaneously, we all looked at the tree and thought ‘This would make an excellent leopard tree.’ All of a sudden, there was movement on one of the middle branches. ‘There she is!’ It was Tilo. All of our attention focused on this tree had spooked her and she quickly descended from her perch but not before pausing (while vertical, head first going down the trunk of the tree, mind you) to stare at us and then continue down to disappear into the bush. It was over quickly but those few seconds demonstrated all that is known about leopards – their grace and agility, their strength and power, as well as their timidity. Although it didn’t last long, the last word heard as Tilo disappeared summed up the entire experience: “Awesome.”

Bess Wayburn, Volunteer, USA

Spotting the Elusive Tilo

Research Amidst Beauty

As we got out of the truck outside our mountain home for the week we all turned around and with a collective smile looked at our view- it was incredible! You can see out either side of the Mariepskop mountain range and the panorama is stunning! The cottage itself is very cute and cosy, and (with what was now a novelty to us) hot water and electricity! During our mountain week the main aim was to collect research data on small mammals from 3 different sites. Our sites were cut pine, high altitude grassland, and the fynbos (which means fine grass), which was at the very top of the mountain range- about 1,800m high. At each site we had 20 humane Sherman traps arranged over 2 lines, and we checked them every morning and evening to see what we’d caught and collect data. Our conservation study was centred on studying the biodiversity of different species returning to natural environments after the land had been reclaimed from agricultural use.

Over the week we caught mainly striped field mice, which were gorgeous, and a few shrews, which were slightly less gorgeous- and slightly smellier! It wasn’t all work though, one morning we also went for a 5 hr mountain hike around the edge of one of the peaks of the mountain, and were walking literally on the very edge of the mountain, with huge drops around every corner. It definitely got the adrenaline going, and the views were unbelievable. The bush itself almost felt subtropical, with creepers and vines covering everything, and huge black millipedes with bright red legs popping up everywhere! Without doubt though the 2 highlights of my week were when we went swimming in the waterhole (with its ‘harder-than-it-looks’ rope swing), and our sundowners, where we watched the sun go down over the mountains from a hidden rock ledge right on the tip on the mountains overlooking the Blyde River Reservoir and the entire mountain range. They were definitely moments I will never forget- and not just because of the thousands of photos I took!

Madeleine Wass, Volunteer, UK

Research Amidst Beauty

The Training Experience

“Oh my God I’m in South Africa!!” This has been the phrase I’ve been repeating to myself all week; when I’ve had the chance to actually sit and catch up with myself that is. So much has happened it doesn’t seem possible that we’ve only been here one week! It’s really hard to explain and even harder to condense it into a short story but here goes.

People that up until 7 days ago I’d never met are now great friends that I can see myself being in touch with for a long time. We’ve learnt so many new species, skills and techniques such as reading tracks, first aid, and telemetry – not to mention the new vocabulary that is quickly becoming second nature, Skankank (meaning Cheetah) being my personal favourite. What have I missed? Oh yeah – THE ANIMALS! We’ve already had some amazing sightings which for me is a completely new experience to see them as wild animals in the reserve. The first time you hear Zero (our dominant male Lion) roar just meters away from the truck as you look on whilst he lets the almost fully grown cubs know who is boss will send you rushes of emotions and stick in your mind for sure!
I’m so excited for the coming weeks and as we learn more and more about the animals the more special the encounters will become. The hectic training week ended with the whole group relaxing in the middle of the bush enjoying a camp out. As I sat by the fire, sipping a cider looking up at the stars it hit me again – My God I am in South Africa, wow!

Tara Devine, Volunteer, UK

The Training Experience

An unusual internship

GVI offer a number of unpaid staff positions, or wildlife internships, to the pick of our volunteers that have completed the ten week wildife research expedition. Regularly, successful applicants can be awarded a base internship at either of our Karongwe or Venetia research bases, or a position helping out with the biodiversity survey at Mariepskop Mountain in the Blyde River Canyon. Finally, we also sometimes offer a position helping out with the Venetia satellite camp at Lesheba Wilderness in the beautiful Soutpansberg Mountains.

From time to time though, we come up with some different and once-off type jobs that an intern can get involved with, thereby gaining more experience, seeing a different part of this lovely and diverse country and simply extending your stay and having more fun with us.


Brigette Clark-Carmichael (seen embracing the sunset while on the Mariepskop biodiversity survey above), has just completed such an internship, tagging on an extra 10 days with us at the end of her 10 weeks on the expedition- helping hugely by sorting through, filing and labelling the best of our photo library from the last 3 years or so. She worked hard but also enjoyed some lovely walks, and got to see some of the stunning countryside in the Magoebaskloof area of Limpopo Province. Thereafter she jetted off to Cape Town with the chance of helping out for a while with the community projects that GVI runs down there. Thanks for everything Brigette and good luck in the fairest cape!

An unusual internship

Students experience the Bush

Every week a group of volunteers jumped on the truck and headed to Diputhi Primary School in township community near Karongwe Private Game Reserve. They spent the next 2 hours of teaching a small group of local students English and computer skills. The school was small and dusty with lines of classrooms packed with little eager faces waving frantically to us as we arrived every week. The place was never shy of smiling kids and staring little eyes filled with curiosity. The twelve children attended three classes thru the second, third and fourth weeks of the expedition as part of an outreach program by GVI to help with community development. In the fourth week, after a short presentation by the students, the volunteers selected the students who had grown most in their reading and writing skills over the preceding three weeks. On the fifth week of the expedition, one staff member collected the students who had presented best at the school and brought them to Karongwe.

The students arrived on the reserve for their game drive on our last Wednesday of the expedition. They were all excited and dressed in their most formal uniforms, blazers and jerseys. The poor things must have been boiling hot as it was no less than 35 degrees Celsius. We packed up the truck with sandwiches and drinks, 5 students and 3 Expedition Members in the back for an hour game drive around Karongwe Private Game Reserve. Our game drive started out well with a few pointers on how to avoid bouncing off the seat and how to dodge Acacia trees and overhanging branches laden with thorns. This proved to be interesting with 4 students packed into the back seat and not much room for dodging. The day was hot and we saw nothing off the start but open dry shrub lands. To our relief the animals finally started showing themselves about 10 minutes into the drive. We drove past Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsicero), Impala and Warthog, all the while telling the kids about the animals. They were shy and did not say much but we soon got them talking and they could no longer hide their excitement when we went to see Shiloweni, our leopard (Panthera pardus). Shiloweni wasn’t keen to play the game and stayed relatively hidden with only the top of his head and ears showing out of the cool cement water pond. The students did not seem to mind and loved seeing a leopard in the flesh. We also saw a large male Giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) on the side of the road. It was amazing seeing the students stare in awe, pointing with mouths open at this animal and it made me realize how we had begun to take for granted seeing these animals everyday. We saw Crocodile, Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) and Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) and it was probably one of the better drives we had for animal sightings on the whole trip. We stopped for sandwiches and drinks by the dam and asked the students how they enjoyed their drive. They seemed happy and went away with new stories and smiles on their faces.

Nicola-Anne Jack, Volunteer, NZ

Students experience the Bush

My Affair with the Lions

Early on one Saturday morning the GVI research team helped to locate two adult lions (Panthera leo) living on Karongwe Private Game Reserve. Zero the dominant male and Maggie a mature female had to be found for a darting to re-collar them with new radio collars. Karongwe’s two research focus lions are huge animals. While sedated and lying at rest, Zero took up the entire length and width of a pick-up truck bed, his shoulder stands over a meter in height and he weighs in at 230 kilos, just less than 450 pounds. We helped to pour and rub cool water over his coat to keep his body temperature down while the veterinarian monitored his vital signs. Another wildlife veterinarian set out to dart Maggie, who arrived later in another pick-up on a huge mattress with handles. The volunteers helped unload Maggie from the truck and gently position her in the shade so her health could be quickly checked and she could be re-collared before her sedative wore off.
Zero and Maggie are gorgeous and spectacular animals when awake, it is so amazing to look into their golden eyes as they stare you down at close range, but to rub and touch them while they were sedated was amazing. Zero’s whole body is solid, magnificently contoured muscle, covered by a sleek coat of shiny fur that is more course and short than I would have imagined. My favorite were his paws; each front paw is literally bigger than my face, but looks exactly like that of a house cat, right down to the rough pads made for silent stalking and retractable claws set on their bony knuckles.

I felt elated and amazed to be present and have the chance to get so close to an animal I’ve been admiring for the past four weeks of my expedition. My excitement was only matched by the joy I felt at seeing Zero and Maggie the next morning, less than 24 hours after awaking from their re-collaring. They and the rest of the pride had taken down a large female Kudu and by the time we found them in the morning sun just before 8:00am, they had consumed about 50% of their most recent meal. Zero was dragging the heavy carcass through the tall golden grass into the shade of an Acacia tree to finish off his breakfast.

Amber Herzog Lyman, Volunteer, USA

My Affair with the Lions

Elephant Curiosity

The Morning of the Elephant focus began slightly different from the majority of our monitoring drives on Karongwe Game Reserve. The reason for the focus was to identify all the individuals in the group and compile an I.D kit for each elephant. Normally we would be following an ever increasingly confusing ‘beep’ from our telemetry aerial leading us to a collared animal, however as none of Karongwe’s Elephants (Loxodonta africana) have an active collar we had to do it the old fashioned way and look for them. Finding a herd of elephants is considerably more difficult than you may think!

After around 90 minutes of driving around following tell tale signs of elephants (a trail of destroyed trees and fresh dung) we came across a 4 year old male and a 2 year old male. The tiny two year old had already won everyone on the trip over by simply being a baby elephant but when he decided it was his duty to defend his family and charged our truck he cemented his place as one of the favourite animals we had seen so far on Karongwe. When he flared his ears, pointed his trunk and ran towards the truck trumpeting at us, barely able to see over the trucks bonnet, we wondered for a second why he was feeling so brave, then Duma his mother appeared from the bush as if she had never been there. It was easy to see why the young male had felt so brave when his enormous mother had been watching us all along. One more quick high pitched trumpet and he ran off to stand bravely by his mothers side.
After a few minutes Duma and her two calves wandered off, disappearing back into the bush so we decided to drive around to see if we could find a better view. After waiting a few minutes something spectacular happened. The entire breeding herd and 2 adult bulls walked from the bush and surrounded our truck as they fed, at least 12 elephants meandered past us, largely ignoring our presence as they went about their daily business. It gave us a good photo oppurtunity. This lasted for a few minutes before they continued their journey through the african bush. Despite the short duration of the event, it is something which will last in the memory of everyone present for a long time.

John Pemberton, Volunteer, UK

Elephant Curiosity

Day off at bird hide makes for spectacular viewing!!

What to do on a day off.........Friday 21st August 2009

Relaxing would be the first thought when offered a day off here at GVI Base: Venetia, breaking from the research drives that take place every day. However, it could mean spending a day at the Manoutswa bird hide in the Mapungubwe National Park, taking in the sights, sounds and sometimes smells of the huge variety of wildlife that collect daily around this mini oasis.

So it was.........under the expert guidance of Jon (GVI staff member), five Venetia volunteers, Anna, Matt, Glyn, Luca and myself decided that they hadn’t seen enough wildlife. They chose not to do the weekly “town trip” at Musina or mull around camp. Instead, they packed the usual tuna and cheese sandwiches and set out to “relax”.

To say you are within touching distance of zebra (Equus burchelli), impala (Aepyceros melampus), kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), baboon (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) and the ever comical warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) being ridden, jockey style by red billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhyncyus), would be an understatement, but what these keen conservationists really wanted to see close-up were elephants (Loxodonta africana)...........and eventually, they turned up in amazing style!

Between viewings Jon took us on a mini safari around the surrounding area, where we saw banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), bush-buck (Tragelaphus scriptus), some beautiful trees and even more elephants
So the next time you get offered a day off, grab the opportunity to explore, whether it be at home or in distance lands.....time is precious!!

Donald Bird, Volunteer, UK

Day off at bird hide makes for spectacular viewing!!

Hyena Side Rescue

Throughout my volunteering, I’ve never before had the opportunity to consider the smell of a Hyena (Crocuta crocuta), but after experiencing it first-hand I can confirm that it is far from pleasant. The reward for enduring this olfactory assault reminiscent of long-rotting meat was that following a lone female hyena was worth it. We were continuing our conservation research by following one of our focus animals, known here as Tiya. After a brief nap in the sandy road (taking a few minutes respite from her mothering duties), Tiya led us to a den she shares with two other females and four pups. At dusk the curious pups emerged from the mouth of the den one by one as our vehicle stopped nearby, then made their way to investigate us by smell, sight and touch as they carefully paced around the vehicle, alternating between sniffing, staring into our faces and biting the tires. We watched their behavior as they wrestled and played for over an hour, chewing on one another’s ears, tugging at opposite ends of a piece of dried animal hide, and engaging in general puppy-like silliness. We were so wrapped up in their antics that we managed to totally drain the truck battery with our spotlight, leaving us in need of a bush rescue. This only added to the fun of the evening, giving us an extra half hour to watch the pups at play and the amazing stars of the moonless southern sky while we waited for our fresh battery to arrive. By that time, we were so enjoying our time with the hyena clan that we forgot to even notice the smell.


Amber Herzog Lyman, Volunteer, UK

Hyena Side Rescue

Unusual cheetah behaviour leads to two collarings!

Extract from 092 GVI Expedition Science Report: Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve

"For the past year, researchers on the reserve have been trying to catch a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) [using conventional trapping methods] in order to fit one with a radio collar. In the 092 expedition, two unusual events led to the collaring of two cheetahs - one a male, part of a two male coalition, and the other a young female.

The male was collared on 23 May 2009 having responded to a call up at night. [This was unexpected in that cheetahs do not normally respond to call ups due to their vulnerability and low ranking within the carnivore hierarchy.]

The female was collared following a bizarre turn of events in which she was contained in the boma while a wild dog (Lycaon pictus) was being released. She was then fitted with a collar on 23 June 2009 and released from the boma."

Since their collaring, the volunteers have been tracking the males and habituating them to GVI vehicles. Our hard work has paid off as we are getting more and better visuals of them every time we track them down. Unfortunately, the female cheetah's collar appears to have stopped transmitting only weeks after it was fitted and thus we have had less success with her.

Chris Joubert, Base Manager, Venetia

Unusual cheetah behaviour leads to two collarings!