Apologies for the quiet over the Christmas break, it is harder to work effectively with children at home. We have been concentrating on other aspects of the site, which we are hoping will be able to go live soon.
For those who have browsed around the site, you are aware that the aim of the site is to simplify wild travel, and make sure that wild travel benefits the wild and those living in it.
To that end, one of the things I wanted to do was to create a wildlife sightings board. When you visit somewhere wild it is common to hire a guide. This is partly due to the need for a big high car, and partly due to the need for localized knowledge. However, in some parks such as Kruger, much of the park is passable in a normal car.
These sightings boards will allow you to note where you saw animals, both for future visitors knowledge, but also to allow you to be able to look at your sightings over your visit. This is likely to give you insight into behavior and habits of various animals.
We have focused on the ecotourism big 7, as well as smaller predators. We have added to these rarely seen nocturnal animals- while these may be rarely seen, a pattern to sightings may become clear. We have also added a selection of the least numerous antelope in each park- these are often highly particular about where they live, so having them on the sightings map will help people look in the right place.
We are hoping to go live with these sightings boards this evening, though further problems may occur. We have also written a simple android app for noting these sightings. While signal in the bush may not allow instant sending, it will be able to save for broadcast from the camp after your game drive.
I hope they are useful, and we can all return to travelling in the near future. Unfortunately for many wildernesses, they rely on tourists to make them financially viable. Do continue to look at the wild places list, we are continuing to add more. The in the shadow of mankind list (areas where land isnt set aside for explicit wildlife use) is also growing and we hope to add many more destinations over the next month or two.
Tim Welby
