De Holiday

Earlier this week I got back from a short holiday trip to a nature reserve and thought I would share some of my sightings on the blog.

Early morning view from the camp site

The reserve doesn't offer a lot in terms of mammal watching, and since I wanted to relax I didn't focus very hard on game watching. Still, it was a fun trip and I saw plenty of cool things. The reserve is quite close to home (about 200km) and I'm sure I'll be back.

During this trip (and in general) I don't like to bother too much with taking "good" photographs, and rather spend some time to enjoy the experiences. So, the photographs here aren't anything spectacular. Just simple "point and shoot" attempts.

Macro photography on the tidal rocky shores can reveal a whole new world

My camera traps were at home when I got ready for the trip, for some TLC. I decided to take a few with me to the reserve. Unfortunately there were a lot of Baboons in the area, so I didn't want to take unnecessary risks with the camera traps. Especially since there is a chance that the Baboons have learnt to recognise and target human-made-stuff.

I was mostly interested in taking a break and enjoying my holiday. As a result I didn't get around to doing any real camera trapping.

I opted to book a camping site, since I haven't camped in a tent in a while and thought it would be fun. Camping brings its own charm and experiences. Thanks to that decision I managed to return home with camera trap photographs of one mammal species.

Cape Gerbil (Kaapse Springmuis - Tatera afra) putting it's best foot forward for my Birdcam 2.0

Each night, just after sunset, this little fellow would start scurrying around at the back of my tent. This would continue for a few minutes and then the gerbil would wonder off. Sometime after 12am it would return once more to scratch around in the dirt. After the second visit it would disappear until the next night. Where it went and why it visited each night, at more or less the same times, I don't know.

I had my Bushnell Trophy Cam at hand and got some video clips as well.

Video: Cape Gerbil scratching the ground at the back of my tent

I'm not sure what the gerbil is doing? I put some broken biscuits out as bait, but it didn't pay much attention to it, preferring to rather scratch around in the soil. Cape Gerbils are plant eaters for the most part, but maybe they'll also eat the odd insect? I'm not sure what this one was hunting for each night in the topsoil...

On the last night I decided to try and see the little fellow for myself (not only on camera trap photos). The scratching starting right on time and I sneaked a peak. I even managed to take some photos and video clips using my mobile phone.

As long as the gerbil didn't see my face it wasn't too stressed out about the light

Video: A video clip of the Cape Gerbil keeping me company outside my tent

All in all the rodent was a pleasure to have around the camp site and didn't cause any problems. No, it didn't chew on anything I own. People often think of all rodents as "mice" or "rats" that create unhealthy nests that stink, or as pests that destroy furniture. The truth is that most rodents are good citizens. In particular almost all wild species are shy and reclusive in nature, with specialised diets and do not ever cause any problems of any kind to us humans.

On the other end of the size scale the reserve is also famous for the Southern Right Whales that visit the shoreline during our winter and spring months.

Southern Right Whale (Noorkapper - Eubalaena australis) resting in the waves

At first I wasn't sure how easy it would be to spot a whale, but when I got to the viewing deck I easily counted at least 12 rolling on the waves. It really is a good place to visit if you wish to see some whales.

Highest on my wish list were the Cape Vultures, classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Cape Vulture (Kransaasvoël - Gyps coprotheres) souring overhead

As I started the hiking trail I only glimpsed one or two in the distance, but luckily on my way back a few more came in and I got some good views.

Video: I tried to photographs the spiralling column, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to see...

One of my favourite species at the reserve is the Yellow Mongoose. Luckily they were fairly common near the main camp area.

Yellow Mongoose (Rooimeerkat - Cynictis penicillata) doing a good job of staying out of zoom range...

I just couldn't manage to get close enough to one to get a proper photograph! They just do not sit still for long enough and the ones I encountered were skittish of humans, or maybe it was the fact that I was paying them a lot more attention the average visitor does.

An interesting thing about the Yellow Mongoose is that it is a natural reservoir for Rabies, with some individuals able to carry the disease (infectiously) for several years.

There were many other birds and animals around the camp area. The Dassie and Scrub Hare were rather tame and presented some good views.

Dassie/Rock Hyrax (Klipdassie - Procavia capensis) giving us one of those infamous Dassie smiles

Scrub Hare (Kolhaas - Lepus saxatilis) out and about well before sunset

I'll wrap up with a few photographs of flowers (and Monkey Beetles) I spotted while walking the hiking trails in search of the Cape Vultures.

Grey Matters

I like to use my old Phablet in the mornings while eating breakfast, before going to work, to catch up on some nature blogs and "light-weight" news that might interest or entertain me. (I find "real" news to be just too depressing to waste my time on it.)

Yesterday morning the news article about a mongoose and lion having a confrontation caught my eye. It is actually fairly entertaining and you can see the full story and video over here.

Now, the reason for this post isn't to comment on the behaviour shown in the video itself, but instead triggered by the following statement from the article: "... the terrified marsh mongoose".

A Marsh Mongoose? Really...? Riiiight, sure, OK... ummm... I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with that. Unless the Marsh Mongooses in Kenya differ a lot from the ones over here in South Africa (and I'm pretty sure they don't), then I would not call that particular mongoose a Marsh Mongoose.

Sadly it is true that most people really do not care what kind of mongoose it is, or even whether the face of this earth was ever blessed by the pitter-patter of tiny mongoose feet at all. But since this is a nature blog I feel that I can get away with kicking up a bit of a fuss about the misidentification, to my hearts content. :)

If you are still reading this then you are one of the elite, the special few, that do care about knowing and appreciating nature, even if only ever so slightly. (If I am mistaken and you don't care then I don't know how you ended up on this blog, but I'll save you some trouble by informing you that you can safely stop reading now and continue to catch up on the "personal" "lives" of people being famous for being famous.)

Right, back to business. The Marsh Mongoose (aka Water Mongoose) has a huge distribution range. As a matter of fact they are also found all the way down here at the southern tip of Africa, roughly 4000+ km away from Kenya.

Lets first have a look at a real Marsh Mongoose. The photograph below was taken at Koeberg Nature Reserve just outside Cape Town, near Melkbosstrand.

A real Marsh/Water Mongoose (Kommetjiegatmuishond - Atilax paludinosus) at Koeberg

Ok, so to an untrained eye the mongoose in the video might look similar, but if you spend just a little time comparing the two you will notice many small differences.

The most obvious (and key) difference is the tail. The tail on the March Mongoose is rather short and "thick".

For more examples of a Marsh Mongoose have a look at some of my old blog posts over here.

I believe the true star of the video clip to be a Large Grey Mongoose. The Large Grey Mongoose (aka Egyptian Mongoose, aka Ichneumon) also has a huge distribution and can also be found from Kenya all the way down along the coast, right to the tip southern of Africa.

An old photo of a Large Grey Mongoose (Grootgrysmuishond - Herpestes ichneumon) from Tygerberg

How can I be so sure about the mongoose in the video? Well, the Large Grey Mongoose has a characteristic black brush at the end of it's tail, as can be seen from this photograph below which was recently taken at Koeberg.

The presence of longer black hair at the tip of the tail is a good sign that you are dealing with a Large Grey Mongoose

If the visual clues aren't enough then the behaviour can help to confirm the species. My books state that the Marsh Mongoose is mainly active at night, whereas the Large Grey Mongoose is largely active during the day. I fired up WildLog and pulled a quick report for both species. Yep, my camera trapping data confirms this as well.

The habitat can also be a good tool for identifying species. In this case both species like to hang around near streams and small ponds, but the Large Grey Mongoose tends to readily wander far away from water.

Now, I must admit that I'm not familiar with all the mongoose species found in eastern Africa, but over here in southern Africa the Large Grey Mongoose is the only large, greyish, diurnal mongoose with a black tipped tail.

For more examples of a Large Grey Mongoose have a look at some of my old blog posts over here.

Thus the Marsh Mongoose and Large Grey Mongoose are actually rather easy to tell apart. A much trickier matchup is the Small Grey Mongoose and Large Grey Mongoose. This old blog post over here covers both species.

My most recent batch of camera trap photographs from Koeberg contains a couple of photographs at one particular set which still have me scratching my head. There seems to be photos of a normal Small Grey Mongoose, then some of a very large Small Grey Mongoose and then some of a very small Large Grey Mongoose... I'm starting to think it might be a juvenile Large Grey Mongoose, but I'm not sure yet.



To be honest I'm still not 100% sure whether this is a small Large Grey Mongoose or a large Small Grey Mongoose

I enjoy trying to identify species and can spend hours staring at camera trap photographs of small mammals, trying to figure out what species they are most likely to be.

The Trouble Maker

Something caught the corner of my eye.
I turned my head and tried to get as close to the ground as possible.
Then my heart skipped a beat. What could this be?

This is clearly a weird miniature land based Sea-Cucumber-Thingy

The great thing about camera trapping is that you often stumble upon weird and wonderful things. Things you would never have stumbled upon normally. Very often these amazing new finds can be the most ordinary and everyday of things.

I wanted to find out more about this strange object and scoured the area for clues. It didn't take long to find a whole herd of these strange little contraptions living on the wet sand.

This creature must be dang cute if it's bodily waste can morph into tiny fairy beasts

As it turns out these are not tiny magical creatures, but the droppings of some small mammal. The amazing fungus grows out of the droppings as they decay on the damp sand of the reed bed.

At closer inspection I found lots more of these droppings in the general area, in various stages of decay, so I concluded that the owner of these little works of art might drop by for a visit sooner or later.

Now, I have as much respect for another creature's private bodily functions as the next guy, but these things intrigued me just too much. I'm sure the local critters at Koeberg already think of me as "that bloody guy that keeps on putting those invasive cameras throughout our respectable neighbourhood", and now here I was thinking of intruding even more on their privacy.

I told myself that any artist that creates masterpieces like these is bound to start attracting unwanted fame and fortune. Surely it is only reasonable, dare I say natural, to expect that the dreaded Paparazzi will appear on the scene sooner or later? I definitely don't want to be called a Wildlife Paparazzi (the idea of which I don't like at all), but how could I resist this opportunity to photograph the master at work?

To my shame I took the plunge and dropped a camera trap smack in the middle of the poor creature's toilet... I'm not proud of, but I did it. I told myself it was "in the name of Science", but it didn't help much to ease my conscience.

The scene of the crime

Well, as it turns out I paid for my crimes... The local law enforcement was quick on my case.

For such an act of blatant disrespect of personal privacy none other than Honorary Special Agent Senior Colonel S.E. Mongoose was assigned to handle the case.

Small Grey Mongoose (Kleingrysmuishond - Galerella pulverulenta)
"Yo, Buster! You got a permit for this here camera trap?"

Most of you would know by now that the Wildlife Police Service operates independently from their more humanoid colleagues. In this day and age the Wildlife Police Service might be dwindling in number, but they still take their jobs seriously. Over the years many have fallen victim to all sorts of evils (mostly traps, guns and poison), but to this day none have ever fallen victim to corruption.

Thus it was that the Honorary Special Agent Senior Colonel promptly arrived on the scene to investigate the serious matter of domestic disturbance that was filed against me.

He might weigh in at less than 1 kg, but that doesn't detract from his ability to dish out a heavy dose of the Stink Eye to each and every law breaking citizen that crosses his path. (I feel like turning myself in every time I look at that intimidating glare in the photo above...)

What is more, in a feat that has become almost unheard off in some parts of the broader police service, this civil servant promptly started investigating the scene of the crime. Thoroughly.

As all good police officers know getting on top of the situation is the first step to solving any crime

He only left when he managed to adjust the camera trap enough to give the traumatised landlord the privacy any non-taxpaying citizen of this country deserves.

As a result the best shot I got was this photograph below (cropped).

Can this be the mysterious creator, and I believe possibly copyright holder, of the fantastical droppings I discovered?

It is common knowledge that most mongooses are members of the Royal Mobile Foot Patrol Unit And Outdoor Monitoring Outfit (or RMFPUAOMO for short). However, very few people are aware that some individuals excel at tasks that fall outside the jurisdiction of the RMFPUAOMO. These elite member are usually transferred to other Wildlife Law Enforcement Units that best suit their unique skills. There they receive further specialist training to unlock their full potential.

It is thus not surprisingly that some mongooses master the art of flying.



Being born under an exactly 42% full moon on a misty morning helped this mongoose to master its flying ability at a young age

These flight specialists usually join the Fearsome Fowls Tactical Force (aka. the Secret Police). At Koeberg I'm particularly familiar with their Francolin Division...

The regular members of the RMFPUAOMO take their position seriously, as illustrated by this officer checking to make sure I'm not using any illegal bait to attract animals to my camera traps. Look at that dedication, and focus. You can't fool a professional!

"Oi, punk! I better not find any illegal substances or contraband hidden around here or I'll have to confiscate it immediately."

Below another officer is making sure that the camera trap is not positioned too close to the Bush Karoo Rat's family home. According to the officer if the flash is too close to the building the pups living inside might get epileptic seizures or the camera trap might cause structural damage to the building.

"Listen here buster, you better hope I don't find any broken twigs in here. Mmmmm...."

They are a diligent bunch, constantly patrolling their beat. Sure, they also eat some of the citizens they protect, but I have been assured that they (usually) only eat the trouble makers or the citizens that disobey the public safety protocols. They are also proud to point out that they perform a vital civil service by helping take care of the sick and elderly.

"32, 33, 34... Listen here, twerp! The field of view of this camera trap has been sanctioned to cover 53 paces. If it doesn't comply one of the Eland will come to make the necessary adjustments, at your expense..."

They even go under cover in their efforts to keep me honest.

"There have been several reports of a possible 283c in this neighbourhood. Is this flash 283c compliant?"

The next time you are hiking or enjoying a walk around Cape Town, don't be surprised if you see one of these Grey Coats popping up in front of you. They like to scurry on ahead of you to make sure the civilians have enough time to clear the area and to keep an eye on you to make sure you are there to appreciate nature and not to cause any trouble!

Some Stripes And A Steenbok

I've been occupied with some other stuff recently and thought I would just do a quick post of some camera trap photos that have been laying around for a while and I haven't gotten around to yet.

Plains Zebra (Bontsebra - Equus quagga) getting a mouthful

The Steenbok below is a young male being harassed by a bunch of flies on a hot summers day.

Young male Steenbok (Steenbok - Raphicerus campestris) with still relatively short horns

The next male has a far more impressive set of horns.

What lady Steenbok wouldn't want to lose her virginity to this stud! Even the flies respect him.

The photograph below (and the one at the top) was actually taken about 10 month ago. It is from my first batch of photographs.

Zebra family walking past the camera trap at Koeberg

I like how the photograph bellows shows the white belly, short tail and large ears that are so characteristic of the Steenbok.

And that's all folks

Killer Caracal

I've recently been fortunate enough to capture three incidents of predation by Caracal at Koeberg Nature Reserve.

Like many members of the cat family, the Caracal is an obligate carnivore, and thus completely dependant on killing other animals for its survival. The Caracal might be restricted to only eating meat, but the source of meat can be very wide.

My previous post Going Nuclear showed a Caracal stalking a Cape Gerbil. More recently my camera traps captured two incidents that illustrates the wide range of animals the Caracal can and will kill for food.

The camera trap photograph below shows that Caracal will kill and feed on animals as small as lizards (at least I think it's a lizard).

Caracal (Rooikat - Caracal caracal) carrying a dead lizard in its mouth

This photograph was taken by my trusty old Bushnell Trophy Cam which I got in 2009 (you can find the original blog post over here). I'm amazed that the camera is still working after all it has been through. Maybe when I finally retire it I'll do a post with some highlights from its years of service. The day might be close at hand. It recently had some problems with the LCD display and the IR filter seems to be giving problems too, resulting in the day time photographs turning out like the one above (with a weird magenta tint and lots of overexposing). But at least it is still working, and without it I would never had gotten this cool photo.

So, to get back on track, we now know that Caracal will eat small animals such as lizards and rodents, but just how big an animal will they kill? Most people, especially farmers, will know that they are frequently responsible for killing livestock, lambs and adult sheep in particular. Luckily there aren't any domestic animals at Koeberg and no animal husbandry in the surrounding area that I'm aware off, so these felines are relatively safe from hunting and poisoning.

The Caracal at Koeberg, however, have taken to killing Springbok. I'm sure they also hunt the Steenbok and Duiker on the reserve, but the Springbok tend to hang around in the same area as the office buildings and this makes the killings more noticeable by staff and visitors.

After a meeting with the reserve manager she informed me of a Springbok that was killed the night before. The carcass was close by, however by the time I got to the kill site the carcass was gone. The Caracal wasn't in the area anymore and I spent quite a while searching the area until I finally found the carcass hidden deep inside one of the bushes.

According to the staff the carcass was still out in the open when they arrived at work in the morning. The Caracal must have dragged it quite a distance to hide it in the large bushes.

Half eaten Springbok carcass pulled deep inside a bush by the Caracal

About half of the carcass has been consumed the night before. Interestingly it was covered by grass. I can't see how the Caracal could have kicked or pulled the grass over the carcass. The carcass was too deep into the dense bush. The animal must have climbed out of the bush, pulled out some grass (with it's mouth?) and carrier it back to the carcass. It did a very good job at hiding it.

The lower half of the body was completely covered by grass, only one leg was sticking out

The Caracal is the top predator in the reserve and it can't be afraid of some bigger animal stealing the prey, so why go through all this trouble? I'm guessing that it reduces the amount of flies that gets attracted to the carcass during the day. It also hides it from the crows which would definitely feast on it if they found it. There are also no vultures (anymore) in this part of the country for it to worry about.

I was curious to see what will happen with the carcass and decided to place my other (newer) Bushnell Trophy Cam pointed at the bush with the carcass inside.

The Springbok carcass is in the huge bush to the left and the camera trap is on the right

The Caracal returned to the kill just before sunset, still looking stuffed from the previous night's feasting.

Look at that huge belly

But then I noticed something interesting. There wasn't only one Caracal, there were two! I'm so used to only photographing one Caracal at a time, that this was a bit of a surprise to me.

Two Caracal sharing the feast

Not only were they both feeding on the Springbok carcass, but they seemed to get along very well and appeared to be very relaxed in each other's company.

The one animal seems to be larger than the other. My guess would be that this is a male and female. The territories of Caracal males are know to overlap with many females. In general Caracal don't appear to be very territorial and can live in fairly high concentrations if there is enough food. Large parts of their home ranges can overlap with those of other Caracal, especially those of the other sex.

This photograph gives some idea of the size difference between the two

The kill was close to the office buildings and the staff know these two animals well. I sent the above photograph to the reserve manger and she said that they have known about the two Caracal being seen together for over two years. This is also not the first Springbok to fall victim to this due.

This made me wonder whether these two only team up when hunting large animals, or whether they are always seen together.

I've noticed before that the marking on the inside of the front paws can be used (to some extent) to tell individuals apart, so I fired up WildLog and went through the Caracal sightings I've recorded at Koeberg.

From my quick analysis I noticed that the same animals have been photographed a couple of times in the general area. In fact the Caracal hunting the Cape Gerbil was photographed only 1km away and seems to be one of these two. However, they were never together, so I guess it is safe to assume they only team up when they hunt larger animals.

The Caracal photos I captured in the other parts of the reserve were of other individuals. For these two I guess that the area around the office buildings is the core of their range.

Caracal behaving like a true feline

I have no idea how they got the carcass in there and there surely wasn't enough room in the bush for both of them. The one animal would often hang around just outside the bush, often grooming itself, while the other one feeds.

The feeding continued through the night, with only one brave Porcupine walking past (around midnight). There was no action of any kind during the next day. The first photo captured by the camera trap the next day was the Caracal returning to the carcass, again just before sunset for their third, and last, night of feasting.

The next morning a brave Cape Francolin was the first to brave the scene and resume normal activities. The other animals followed shortly afterward and soon a steady flow of traffic resumed.

Cape Francolin (Kaapse Fisant - Pternistes capensis) making sure it is safe

Over the next two weeks a total of 12 species was photographed walking past the camera trap. Neither of the Caracal returned again to feed on the carcass and the other animals didn't pay the bush any notice. One Caracal walked past the camera 6 days later and another the day after.

We are still fortunate enough to have a good many Caracal in the Western Cape, despite severe persecution by farmers (of small livestock).

Caracal can be found throughout most of Africa and parts of the Middle East, all the way to India, but are most common and at home in southern Africa.

They seem very at home in the landscape around Cape Town, and I found it fitting to learn that this area is also the place from where the type specimen was collected and first described (to modern science) in 1776 by Schreber. Below is the illustration from his book Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen.

Caracal illustration from Schreber's book. Is that Table Mountain in the background?
(The image is from over here)