Life in the African Bush

The Eternal Battle between Dogs and Snakes

2010-04-16T20:58:00.001+02:00

Duke - our beloved 5 year old English pointer was bitten badly two days ago by a REALLY large puff adder. His life now hangs in the balance he is hooked up to drips, Anti-oxident drugs and pain killers at our local vet in Bela Bela , Limpopo Province, South Africa. the next 48 hours are the real danger period. How do we know the snake was large ? OK ... here is the explanation and a bit of background history. ..Out here in the bush, Duke was being trained from a puppy by his fellow "dog mates and peers" - mainly "7 Fox Terriers " known for thier ability to
" Kill Snakes". Thier method of killing is fascinating and almost uncanny to watch. They all surround the snake and distract it from all angles by moving in and retreating from various points .. then one of them moves in normally the "alpha male or female" takes the snake by the back of the neck and shakes it so hard and so quickly that he break's the snake's back and stun's him. They also bite them toward the ends of thier tails where thier hearts are situated (yes, snakes hearts are towards the ends of thier bodies! the last third actually) Then once the snake has been semi- incapacitated they all move in and rip it to shreds. Yes. literally shreds. Anyway Duke being taught this from a baby (puppy) and although a "bird dog" by nature learnt the art of killing snakes from the Fox terrier adults and used to join in the foray. Sadly the last of the 7 fox terrriers died earlier this year and we are left with two young female pointers - who grew up without the benefit of the foxies and thier tutoring and as a result Duke has taken over the role of "snake killer" and "protecorate" of Green Valley Farm. Back to Duke ... A large rumpus was heard across the river from Lesley's house. I had been into town for my monthly shopping trip. Lesley called Duke but could see he was fighting with something across the river and it was on the ground. The two female pointers were barking frantically but were not getting involved. Duke came back in eventually to Lesley and she could see a scratch on his face and what looked like a large egg (swelling) on his face. She called me on my cell and got me on my way back from town to say she thought that Duke had been in a fight with a "Rock Monitor" , she told me she was going to take him into the house and bathe his wounds as blood was coming out from his mouth and he was sore. To cut a long story short... the Puff Adder was to big for Duke a 35kg , a very fit and strong pointer to "shake" and hence Lesley thinking it was a Large Lizard, what we call a "Rock monitor". By the time I got back to Green Valley, Duke was walking - but not running in his usual style to meet me. He was whining and instead of the beautifully slim head of the pointer he looked like a bulldog! My adrenalin kicked in and I called Marius "our local vet" immediatly , we loaded Duke in the Pajero and we headed off helter Skelter for town - 40 minutes away and a precarious drive on badly damaged dirt roads after all the rain we have had recently. Thank you to my husband, Pete - for breaking all land speed records on very bad dirt roads, thank you to our Pajero for being such a great vehicle and thank you to Marius (our wonderful and caring vet) for coming in when you were not even on call to help Duke so quickly. I am praying 3 days later that we can collect Duke 2morrow morning - I will keep you posted.

A Croak and a Grunt in the Night

2010-04-08T13:55:00.000+02:00

It is the time of year when we are starting to hear the startling sounds of the night and early morning mating rituals of the Impala. (Aepyceros melampus) These delicate, beautiful creatures roam Etango in large herds and are normally a very placid and gentle creature. That is .....until it is time for the males to challenge each other in the annual right of who gets to mate with the females and pass on his genes to the herd.

Thier startling grunts and calls sound like the roaring of a lion and are really quite disconcerting to the uninitiated human. These calls are combined with fights that can leave the weaker male with broken horns, viscious wounds, dead and at the mildest a large headache. On Tuesday we had just such an incident outside of the staff farm house where one of the males was left with a horn hanging from his head. There is nothing you can do to help him and you have to stand back and let nature take it's course. This preoccupation with challenging of each other affects thier vigilence and it is often possible to pass by close to the herd without disturbing them. These antelope reach a shoulder height of 91cm they weigh about 45-55kg and thier gestation period is 180-210 days.

Rain in Abundance

2010-04-02T14:26:00.000+02:00

It has been raining non-stop for two days ! The Lodge has had over 120mm of rain and the dams are all overflowing. The animals are looking sodden and are not used to this unusual amount of rain.
My current concern is that all the guests that are spending the Easter Weekend with us and are arriving this afternoon are going to be able to get to us on the dirt roads as they have become swirling rivers of mud. Its is very unusual to get this much rain at this time of the year as we are heading into Autumn and Winter which is normally our dry time. We always hope for a little rain at this time of the year so as to give the dams one last boost to get us through the Winter and the spring rains that normally come back to us in September, but BOY we are getting buckets of it.
I was joking with someone yesterday that we are going to have to trade - in the landrovers for boats. My sister has just driven through to us from Johannesburg (195kms) away and it took her nearly 5 hours to get here. Apparently it has rained none stop since before she left and the visibility was awful and and the traffic was very heavy as it is also the annual pilgrimage to Moria for the members of the ZCC church. Moria is based just outside of Polokwane (Pietersburg) further north than we are and they get about 2 million pilgrim visitors there for the long weekend. Well lets hope this rain lets up a bit shortly and that my wisecrack doesnt become a reality !