Tag: killed

African Savannah Elephant

African Savannah Elephant

There are three species of elephant, the African savanna elephant, African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. 

With the African species, Forest elephants have declined 86% between 1986 and 2015, African Bush elephants declined 60% 1965 and 2015 leaving just over 400,000. 

One of the other issues with poaching is that elephants are very intelligent, and can communicate over long distances. As a result if for instance an elephant is killed in the north of the Kruger, elephants hundreds of miles south will become far more aggressive towards humans and cars. This in turn reduces the number of tourists that are willing to visit the reserve.

Perhaps one encouraging fact, is that the African savannah elephant has enough space for a far larger population if only poaching can come to an end. It is also a simple fact, that any reserve with elephants (like lions) can attract visitors- provided it is well run.

Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
Greater Serengeti

July 18, 2023 No Comments

World maps: explore This website aims to make it easy for those living with wildlife, and those who would like to see it, to find

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Cheetah

Cheetah

Cheetahs are the undisputed king of speed – at least over the relatively small distances. They are stunning animals, and any sighting is a memory to be treasured.

Cheetah numbered as much as 100,000 wild members just one century ago. Now there is just 7000-8000. What happened? Well a large part of their decline is down to habitat loss. Unlike other cats, cheetah thrive outside protected reserves. This is not because cheetah never get killed by farmers – there are certainly problems, and some will be killed, however compared to the problems that the cheetah have when pushed into small reserves which dont allow enough space to get away from lions and leopards. In South Africa, as much as half of the cheetah population (which is about 1000) live on farm land. Despite the fact that they kill very little livestock, and indeed can actually benefit farmers by eating vermin that might eat crops.

Generally, cheetah live at low densities (except in the best reserves- places like the Serengeti, where their sprint ability is so useful) for instance, the Kruger which is the size of Wales, tends to only have a 100-200 cheetah in the whole area.

This makes them hard to see in the wild. On the other hand, one of the benefits is that Cheetah tend to hunt in the day (they hunt by site) and as such, if you go out in after lunch when most wildlife are lying in the shade.

All this means, that there is definitely a possibility to greatly improve their wild numbers, through a combination of removing poaching, and reintroducing them to places where they existed in the past.              

This is a cheetah that we encountered on a kill, on our last trip to the Kruger

There are currently 5 recognized subspecies of the cheetah, 4 in Africa, and the last few remaining in Iran. 

  • The northwestern africa cheetah is close to extinction (200 maximum – also known as the Saharan cheetah) is only seen occasionally and so is not one tourists go to see.
  • The north-east cheetah lives in South Sudan and Ethiopia and numbers between 1000-4000 (its status in Sudan, Eritria, Doubouti and Somalia is unknown.
  • The only remaining habitat of the Asiatic cheetah is in Iran where it is thought only 12 animals remain. It was lost from India 70 years ago.
The other two subspecies – are both well protected and well studied. These are represented in many of the reserves that we have listed (We hope to add reserves that cover the other subspecies as well, but these will be far harder to find the animal). 
  • Southern African Cheetah 
  • East African Cheetah                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Some of the biggest and most well protected Cheetah populations – to go and see them for yourself. We are eager to list any place with cheetah (in protected land or on other land). Click on list your wild place (on the home page) or click here

     

      • Kruger -400 with the south African population being around 1300

      • Serengeti massai mara ecosystem up to 1000

      • Namibia – reserves and free roaming, account for up to 3500 ( that high may be lower)

    Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
    Greater Serengeti

    It should be noted that adding up these estimates already exceed the African cheetah population, but this is the case with plenty of reserves – an overestimate in the number of the species in an area often makes people more willing to visit. Possibly as this website grows we might be able to help in correcting this.

    The Saharan cheetah roams a large area around the fringes of the Saharan desert, and only has around 100 wild members at the current time.

    Other species in the Cheetah lineage (it shares its clade with nothing else) include the Jaguarundi and the Mountain Lion

    Alternatively, to visit the rest of the cat family click here.

    Review of Kruger National Park

    January 6, 2018 No Comments

    Size [usr 4.5] Facilities [usr 5] Range of animals [usr 5] Road quality [usr 4.5] Wildness [usr 3.5] Kruger is one of the few national parks in the world that

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    Posted on

    How can California be so stupid?

    California is known for its forward thinking views on climate change. They have taken some of the biggest steps towards decarbonising, and being a country that receives a great deal of sun have the potential to make more electricity than they need, completely from green sources.

    1.3 million houses already have solar. The California Public Utilities Commission is considering taxing everyone $8 per month per kilowatt of solar installed. Nothing else would change – for people with large arrays, they could have to pay $1000 dollars a year.

    This has been a main aim for utilities for years. It is quite understandable. If for 5-10 thousand dollars you can create a solar array on your roof, which means that you become close to self sustaining the utility companies loose their market share. Furthermore, if they are required to pay for exported solar, then that eats into their profits. This of course is despite the fact that this solar exported is clean energy so is good for the planet.

    The argument is that this money will go for upkeep of the grid, and that the customers are getting free use of the grid. Now there are several issues with this.

    Firstly, this move is likely to push many people with batteries to go further off grid. This will hit utilities hard. Now not only will they not get cheap electricity but they will also not be able to supply night time power. However there is another issue. A connection to the grid once there does not cost a lot to maintain – also, whether exporting 1kw or 10kw the same wires is used. Therefore, the pricing if one was needed should be flat ($8 flat per month seems far more reasonable- $8 per kwh suggests the states are giving utilities the means to squash small energy suppliers.

    Are big power companies going to be charged this as well? because if you are going to go to this system they must be. The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is 2256megawatt output, if we were to charge the same thing then they would have to pay slightly over $18 million a year. This is something that even on a large nuclear plant would threaten their future finances.

    There is still a coal powered station in California, and 41mw of gas powerplant.

    Powerplants which are still using fossil fuels should be forced out of business – this foolish move will likely greatly reduce the rollout of solar in the country, which would lead to problems. Indeed, this state is aiming for 100% green electricity by 2045, which means that they need all the solar they can get.

    This is a foolish move and is likely to either damage California’s future, or will be reversed in the future. I feel that it is extremely similar allowing petrol stations to charge electric cars for their lost business.

    Another thing that should be recognized, is that as the grid improves more and more power will be consumed locally. For most houses with solar panels, any power they export are used by their neighbours. In other words, Solar panel owners, use a few hundred meters of cabling, while the utility companies are sending power over thousands of miles.

    Posted on

    Asiatic lions are found in only one place, yet local government authorities refuse to move any

    The asiatic lion only continues to exist in the Gir national park. When this area was first protected, the lion population had fallen very low, some saying a matter of only a couple of dozen remaining members. In the 50 or so years since the population has multiplied well. Now are said to be around 400, spread across 1 contiguous protected area (under a number of different authorities – Gir Sanctuary, Gir National Park, Pania Sanctuary, Mitiyala Sanctuary, and Girnar Sanctuary. The first 3 form the core, with the others lying within dispersal range. 

    Indian Lions do look incredibly similar to African lions, however are different in important ways

    The problem is at these three have a combined area of about 561 square miles, which is an incredibly high density for lions. 

    Continue reading “Asiatic lions are found in only one place, yet local government authorities refuse to move any”
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