I was lucky enough to be one of the six
“chosen ones” to help out with the game count at Ubizane last month. The game count is done annually to do a ‘stock
take’ of the animals we have. This helps us to get an idea of how our animals
are doing and to what extent poaching has affected our game. We use this opportunity to analyse the
population growth and decrease in order for us to make sure the animals are
living in healthy circumstances without any serious fluctuation. Being part of such an important part of
conservation at Ubizane was truly exciting and knowing the technicalities that
go into the final numbers, I simply enjoyed the events during the day which
made this a fun outing for me! So this is my story:
Our general manager informed me early the
morning we would do a game count later on the day and I must get ready because
they need an extra person. Lucky for me I had a camera ready and a skin in much
need of sunlight so I was first choice to fill the extra spot! I grabbed my
camera, a pen and a hat and rushed to the Land Rover. I was paired up with the
trusty Hamilton – our Game Ranger – and he chose the strong tough Landy called
“Elephant” for our adventures and off we went to the “old gate” where we would
meet up with the others.
 |
| Elephant - our tough Land Rover! |
At “Old Gate” we gathered and discussed the
plan of action. Each Land Rover (with
two people each) received a sector of the Ubizane grounds to count in which
every single road and track needs to be covered to ensure the most accurate
count possible. And when finished we
were to meet again at Tree Lodge to hand in our findings. Now as a first timer
I have to admit I was a little bit scared we would have to jump into the bush
and chop down thicket with Panga’s, in my mind looking like a scene straight
out of Rambo, until we found animals to count and add to our ‘stock sheet’
which I had the pleasure of filling out.
With Hamilton laughing away at my ridiculous ideas, he told me we will
be sitting in the Land Rover safe and sound without any Panga’s needed for any
excursions in the bush. With a big sigh
of relief I took my pen and I was ready to count those Impala...and the Nyala,
Zebra and whichever other animal we were to find. The ‘stock sheet’ contained a column for
species, babies, young male, young female, adult male, adult female, pregnant
female and unknown for those Zebra and Blue Wildebeest who are just too fast to
make out the gender. No animal will be left behind in Ubizane’s game count!
 |
| Even Matthew & Zequenya joined in the fun! |
We started at 10am and drove through the
Ubizane plains and bush, staring down each little bush with each movement our
eyes caught. We soon realised the heat
did not help much and made our task a lot harder as animals were hiding away
under trees in the shade or staying low in between the grass to catch any cool
air they could find. In the first two
hours we counted a staggering 12 Impala.
Out of the hundreds we have on the farm (if you were wondering) this was
not a good result for us. Since we were still in the “busy” part of the reserve
near Safari Lodge we decided we will probably find more interesting and larger
number animals further in the quiet bush of Ubizane.
And interesting it most certainly was...
(Part Two will be published in the first week of December so keep checking our blog and don't miss out on the next part of this adventure!)
