Category: Uncategorized

The pangolin is a creature that until a few years ago was known by next to no one in the world. Although found in a surprisingly large range of habitats they are often nocturnal and so in many parts of their habitats seen rarely. Many of the wildlife guides in the Kruger have never seen one and a sighting is something to be savoured. Indeed recently when when a doctoral student went out to study pangolins it took more than six months for them to see the first one.

Belgium appears to have its own permanent wolf population as the French and the German wolf population recombine for the first time in over a century

The spread of wolves across Europe is something that has been championed by many over the last couple of decades. Having spread read back into Western Europe after the Iron Curtain came down they have established populations in almost every country.

The orange bellied parrot great between the mainland of Australia and the Tasmanian southwest each year to breed

This year only 23 parrots arrive to breed, but after 6-months 118 birds have been counted. Not all of this are young birds as the authorities had release 34 Birds bred in captivity to Bolster the 23 that arrived. These two groups combined and had 37 fledglings, and had a further 47 captive bred fledglings added to their number.

The migration and winter are hard, so it’s possible that only half of these will return next year. Even so this is an impressive increased from around about 3 mature females in 2017.

While this is impressive work it is definitely necessary to deal with the underlying cause of the reduction in numbers. Too many species do not have conservation is to work on bringing them back from the brink and they disappear largely unnoticed.

Last weekend on a walk with my family we heard a cuckoo calling. Being birds that migrate between the UK and Africa each year I always find it uplifting to start hearing them.

I’m never entirely sure why humans are so keen on them, giving their habit of abandoning their eggs in other birds’ nests and leaving these are the birds to raise their young (their young will usually kill all of their adoptive parents’ genetic young).

We have only moved to our current house a year ago, so I was particularly delighted later in the day to hear a Cuckoo close to our house. I have no idea if this will become a common sound in the evenings, but it is still nice to hear.

For those who visit regularly you will have noticed that we have finally started to add places to go and see wild animals. The purpose of the website is to simplify wild travel as much as I can manage.

As such these reserves are hopefully the first of many, but we are starting with some of the best. Singita- the organisation that runs all these lodges, is a group who is working to protect vast areas of Africa for future generations, and to that end they manage around 10 wilderness areas, each bordering a national park. These are extraordinarily luxurious and have prices to match, however they compare favourably to other lodges in the area. Given their incredible conservation success, these are good places to visit as you can be sure profits are being used to protect what you see.

Do click any of the links on the main page, or the menu item ‘see animals now’ to browse through all we have on offer. We hope to add to these over the next few years.