I received an interesting call a couple of days ago. A lady called saying that they discovered a python in the roof of an outbuilding that was being demolished, and could I please come and get the python out.
And, she added, the python had, by the look of it, had a substantial meal recently, not allowing the snake to get out of the roof on it’s own.

I enlisted the help of my son Matt and his friend Tim, as I new I would need some additional muscle with this size snake.Upon our arrival on the scene, we saw the 2m python wrapped precariously on a termite weakened wooden beam. Due to the height of the ceiling, a fall would most definitely have caused the snake some injury.

We tried to maneuver the snake with gentle prodding with a long stick, to get the head on the same side of the beam and the bulge containing it’s recent meal.
This was needed, as said bulge could not fit between the roof and the beam.
We soon discovered that it was no simple task to get a 2m, solid muscle python to cooperate with our rescue efforts.

We decided to lift the corrugated iron roofing to try and give us more room.
This seemed to do the trick and I was able to grab the snake behind the head. Matt and Tim then supported the body while I made my way down the ladder, keeping the business end of the snake pointing in a safe direction.
We carried the snake to my car and deposited it in the boot of my bakkie (utility vehicle), as the bucket I usually use for this purpose was hopelessly inadequate for this size snake.

The Lionspruit reserve, just to the south of the residential area was chosen as the release site.
We picked a dam in this reserve as a prime location and proceeded to pull the snake out of the car and place it on the ground near the water.

At this point, I think the snake had had enough of all this attention and handling and proceeded to regurgitate it’s meal.

Pythons often do this in a stressful situation to give themselves the needed mobility for a quick escape.

To our surprise, the meal that was ejected for our inspection turned out to be a large rock monitor (lizard), which was smelling rather ripe at this stage.

The snake was very well behaved throughout the rescue and release effort and did not try to bit us at all. It’s sole intent was to escape, which it proceeded to do once the movement limiting meal had been ejected.

African Rock Pythons are a protected species in South Africa, and we were glad that we could play our part in ensuring the survival of this particular individual.
And it provided us with another adventure story to be told around the fire in the African bush!

Victor or Vanquished?

I snapped this picture of a male white rhino while on safari in Kruger Park, South Africa.
His bloody visage is evidence of a territorial battle with another male rhino.
The dominant male in an area will defend his territory against other males that enter his area and try and mate with the females.
Dominant males mark their territory by means of dung deposits called middens, placed at strategic areas around their territory and by urine spraying,
which is done in much the same manner as a cat would spray it’s urine for the same purpose.

Although these wounds look bloody and gruesome, they are usually superficial and would heal rapidly. The fights can sometimes escalate to the point where one animal is mortally wounded.
The other male involved in this altercation was nowhere to be seen.

The rhino is one of the famed big 5 animals that you can see in Kruger National Park, the others being the elephant, lion, leopard and buffalo.
The two rhino species in South Africa, the black and white rhino, although still on the threatened species list, are a conservation success story.
Careful conservation and protection measures have brought these two magnificent species back from the brink of extinction. Poaching is still a problem, even in protected areas. The current loss due to poaching, to date for 2010, in the whole of South Africa is 115 rhinos.
The primary reason for poaching is for the horn which, when powdered and consumed, is considered to cure male sexual dysfunction. It is in demand by traditional medicine practitioners in Asian and Far Eastern countries. But they may as well chew their fingernails because rhino horn is made of the same material!

Hyena with a stolen carcass

Early one morning on a safari during June 2010, we came across a large, lone, spotted hyena on the left side of a gravel road. The hyena seemed less interested in us than something it had noticed in the bush on the opposite side of the road.
We stopped our vehicle and switched off the engine to see what this hyena was up to. After a few minutes of peering intently into the bush on the opposite side of the road, the hyena made a dash across the road and a scuffle ensued in the bushes on the right of the road.
We could not see what was going on as our view was obscured by thick bush. The next thing, our hyena appeared once again dragging an impala carcass.
The carcass was dragged back across the road behind our vehicle and into the bushes on the left of the road.
We surmised that the carcass had been stolen, probably from a leopard. Our attention moved from the hyena, who had now disappeared, and we investigated the area where the carcass had been stolen from. After a short wait, we were rewarded with a glimpse of a young leopard. The leopard was small enough to have been bullied and robbed of it’s meal by the large spotted hyena. Due to the leopard being still relatively small, it was probably not able to drag the carcass of the adult male impala into the safety of a tree, which is the normal way leopards protect their hard earned meals.
Although hyenas are not fussy where their meals come from, they are not only pirates, but also accomplished hunters in their own right. But hey, if someone else is going to do all the hard work, they aren’t going to complain!

Whew! Back home again…. after a twelve day long tour with a group from America. We started off visiting Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center and the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. These visits were very educational and interesting. It was great to see the dedication these people have to saving our endangered and injured wildlife. They also have breeding programs to try and maintain breeding populations of these animals.

After a visiting these important programs, we moved on into the Kruger national park. We entered at the Phalaborwa gate and drove up to the Mopani camp. This area of Kruger is dominated by short mopani growth which creates a landscape quite different from the southern Kruger Park large tree landscape that we are more familiar with. (more…)

Article from the Corridor Gazette Thursday 24th September 2009

MARLOTH PARK – A 2.5m python came up through the toilet bowl of the gate guard house in Lionspruit Reserve last week. The snake got into the septic tank through a missing manhole cover and travelled up the pipe into the toilet bowl in the guard house! The guard called the municipal rangers who cut open the pipe outside the guard house and the snake duly departed overnight. (more…)

I got back from the Kruger yesterday after a 4 day tour. It was quite an eventful trip, what with being charged by a large bull elephant while we were on foot. The elephant initially woke me up at 2:00am in the morning with cracking and crashing as he demolished a tree outside my tented room (canvas is not very thick with an elephant outside!). After getting up at 4:30am to start work, I noticed that the ele had made his way right into the camp and was standing outside one of the guests chalets. I eased past him to get to the main building to start prep for the day, and he turned and gave me the beady eye from about 10m away.
At 5:30am we woke the guests, but they could not come down to the reception area as the ele was still blocking their way. (more…)