The afternoon drive on December 31st was Lieschen's first drive as a camerawoman. On the WEchat, Lieschen's interactions with Pieter, her questions and her giggles were good to our WEheart and we were remembering the good WEmoments we spent with Helen and Nick in the first months of WildEarth.
When Kay asked "Who are Nick and Helen?", I said to myself : "Well, such a question is worth a journey in the past, let's see what I have in my Treasure Chest!"
So, for you Kay and all the other WEmembers that are curious to know why we so often talk of Helen and Nick and how it was back then to go on a drive with them, here's a few videos, my first video clips ever. But first, have a look at WEblog in April 2007 for photos and bios of the first WEcrew :
Let's start with an interesting part of the afternoon drive on July 21st, 2007.
Elephant bull and hyena - Part 1 A lone elephant bull near a hyena den.
Elephant bull and hyena - Part 2 Suite and End of the encounter.
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A Nick and Helen morning drive on July 22nd, 2007.
Djuma Glorious Morning - Part 1 A great sunrise in South Africa and important informations about Burchell's zebra and male elephants.
Djuma Glorious Morning - Part 2 Subtitle : Elephants in the mist
Glorious Morning at Djuma - Part 3 Lot of elephants. Nick sneezes 3 times. Fork-tailed drongo.
Glorious Morning at Djuma - Part 4 More elephants, baboons and final by Egyptian geese.
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The beautiful day of July 22nd is completed by the afternoon drive with Nick and Helen. How lucky was I to be able to log on twice on the same day!
Sunset drive 072207-1 A beautiful afternoon in South Africe and lot of animals.
Sunset drive 072207-2 Mostly hippopotamus and elephants.
Sunset drive 072207-3 Elephants, lot of them.
Ellie bull walking on dam wall and Helen and Nick sitting in The Tank just below him. Then my heart almost stopped. I was so afraid of these giant creatures that I knew only from documentaries on television.
Sunset drive 072207-4 Elephants, hipppo, nyalas.
Sunset drive 072207-5 Starring dwarf mongoose, hippo and hyena.
Sunset drive 072207-7 Finale Cape buffalos. The Judge is there. And baboons. And surprise, a glimpse of a Honeybadger.
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The latest drive I have recorded with Nick and Helen is on the afternoon of July 27th, 2007. That drive is also memorable because we spent quality time with Karula and one of her cubs.
Karula and Cub, part 1 Karula is lying in the grass in the shadow of her tree and Cub is playful, hunting her/his mother.
Karula and cub, part 2 Beautiful zooms on Karula's and Cub's faces.
Karula and cub, part 3 Karula has beautiful teeth. Nick explains that spots above the last line of whiskers are used to identify leopards. Cub plays hide and seek. Karula goes up her tree for a hyena watch.
Karula and cub, part 4 On her branch Karula falls asleep, but not for long. Where is the cub? Camera problems. The drive ended there.
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Now you know them and, I'm sure, love them as WE do.
Thanks Helen and Nick for the beautiful moments WE spent together. Vuyatela!
We had been quite concerned about Bo, who you may remember is a two year old male leopard who we are tracking via a GPS collar. We hadn't received any uploads from Bo's collar for three weeks and to say the least we were getting worried. However he has turned up alive and well and as you can see, he's been a busy boy. The collar stores data and uploads at set times if he is in cell phone range. Thankfully he has moved back into cell coverage. Our thanks to Lela and other ILP members who have been tracking Bo from their homes and keeping us updated. We don't always have a good Internet connection here in the bush, and rely on help from our friends. You can also join the ILP and help us track research animals. www.ingweleopard.com Written by Will Fox
We have a new member of the ILP team. Susan Belling has joined us to help with our work in conservation. Susan is a qualified Game Ranger and has recently been leading overland Safaris through main land Africa. Susan wants to pout something back into conservation and has decided to work full time with the ILP. She has been training with Gerrie and Anton over the last weeks, investigating leopard issues on local farms and tracking leopards via telemetry. She is now joining Anton on her first Black Leopard investigation at the Dalton Trust in KZN. Where she will be putting her training into action under the supervision of head researcher Anton. If you would like to welcome Susan then you can become a fan by selecting the link below. Written by Will Fox
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