During the month of June two cameras (one SCBC camera and
the other belong to a Medike resident) were left on a tree next to a remote
mountain road one camera was low down facing north and the other was higher up
facing south. The site was chosen due to the amount of animal spoor on track
and we were targeting Brown Hyaena. We have seen the tracks, but never managed
to get a shot of the animal. The location paid off. The cameras were left for
nearly a month and we were surprised to discover just how busy that road was.
The footage we got included two new cats, Caracal and
Serval. Some bad footage of another new mammal, the Red Duiker (not included in
this post). Two leopards, a big tom and a smaller leopard (possibly a female)
and some nice footage of a Jameson’s Red Rock Rabbit (not a new mammal species,
but the first time we have managed to get an image).
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| Brown Hyaena, Hyaena brunnea |
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| The Caracal or Rooi Kat (Caracal caracal) |
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| A large male Leopard (Panthera pardus) |
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| A smaller Leopard, possible female. |
Unfortunately on of the cameras was removed by hunters. They
obviously though the camera was a security device and removed it to eliminate
evidence. This is quite a big blow as we only had the one camera. But luckily
we have the footage of the new mammals.
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| Serval (Leptailurus serval subsp. serval) |
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Another highlight included in this post was captured by Alan
Carr in April. The footage clearly shows an African Wild Cat,
Felis lybica, this is the ancestor of
the domestic cat. This animal is threatened because it freely hybridizes with
the house cat, polluting the gene pool.
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| African Wild Cat, Felis silvestris subsp. cafra |
Finally a rather special species for our list was captured
one night in May. The camera was set close to a pool of water in the hope of
capturing a Water Mongoose. Instead we captured a brief video of the rarely
seen Selous’s Mongoose.
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| Selous's Mongoose, Paracynictis selousi subsp. selousi |
