Doug's Safari News - Bless the rains down in Africa

Leopard in tree with cub.

“The rain wets the leopard’s spots but does not wash them off” ~ African Proverb

The hot weather for Southern Africa is now starting to ramp up after what I would have to say has been a very mild winter, predictions are for a much better rain season this year and there are small amounts starting to fall sporadically which is a great relief as I can tell you that there are places around Southern Africa that are seeing some of the worst conditions they have ever seen! However, African ecosystems can generally handle one bad year it is when you put a couple of these together as happened in the mid 1990’s that things getting really bad with mass die offs but good times for the predators and scavengers. Anyway, fingers crossed that we get some good rains ahead as the rivers and vegetation certainly need it here in the South.

Some Good News…

Uganda Airlines has now opened a route between Entebbe and Harare so this makes linking a Southern Africa savannah safari with your big primates in Uganda so much easier and the flight schedules are quite user friendly, so if you want to combine these two experiences, please let us know and we can work out the logistics for you.

Primates in the trees

Other News…

We did a fair bit of background work on a project that I feel is very worthwhile here in Zimbabwe and also in Zambia and Malawi called Happy Readers. Essentially this is a project designed by educationalists to support junior schools with teacher training and books at grass roots level to ensure kids get a proper start in this essential skill. Covid came and our focus shifted to survival and now things are moving forward in a better trajectory I am wanting to get this back on track with us identifying a particular school or if possible, several schools in the Gonarezhou area of Zimbabwe. We plan to do this with our own contributions and also adding a small amount to each of our invoices to help support this project which is much needed and worthwhile. As we get the plans finalised, we will keep everyone posted, and you can follow the progress we make. https://www.happy-readers.com/

Antipoaching team and rangers

From the Campfire…

An often talked about topic on safari is about vision and how incredible it all seems to us as to how the creatures around us see the World. This discussion is often started when you look at a Zebras stripes which seem so clear to us and that how could they be used for camouflage and what is their purpose. So, I have here some incredible information about this topic of vision, which will amaze you and what I learnt went against all that I thought. Firstly, humans have incredible eyesight and one of the best around – in my younger days anyway, which can pick up details and colours that many other animals cannot, so the maths is that we on a clear day could pick out Zebra stripes at about 200 metres, Lions can only do this at 90mand Hyaenas at about 50metres. So generally, they would only see a Zebra as a grey animal from a distance before the actual hunt starts.

An animal’s acuity of vision is calculated – please don’t ask me how – in a scale called cycles per degree (CPD). To put that physically if you hold out your thumb at arm’s length your nail would represent about a degree of vision, so for those with youthful vision it should be possible to make out 60 to 70 thin stripes if they were there on your nail, so our score is 60 to 70 CPD. Now here is the incredible part if you relate that to other animals you know – The current record holder is the Wedge Tailed Eagle from Australia that goes up to 138 CPD allowing it to spot a rat over a mile away!! Black Eagles researched in Zimbabwe must have very similar numbers from the records of their hunts and being able to see a Rock Hyrax at 5km!! Here are some others that amaze me –Giraffes 27 CPD I always thought they had incredible vision? – Cheetahs 23CPD!!– And here is the amazing one to me, a lion only has a record of 13CPD which is marginally above the threshold for legal blindness in humans which sits at 10CPD. A bee has only 1 CPD!! – I think this all highlights how good our vision is but how other creatures combine all this information with a whole range of other senses to picture their world and not in a way that we can envisage.

Keep safe and well and hope to see you on safari in Africa.

Cheetah and cub spotted on safari