One early afternoon on Ilkley Game Ranch, one of the guys from our anti-poaching unit knocked on my door and asked if I’d like to join him for a bush walk. Always keen for a walk, I decided to join.
Being a hot summer’s day we made a bee-line for a dry river-bed, to walk in the shade.
Not long into the walk, we came across some very fresh tracks of two Elephant bulls, so we took on the challenge of trying to find them.
The tracks were very clear and easy to follow as they had walked in the thick sand all the way along the river and within an hour we had sight of them resting in the shade of some large trees.
As we got closer we noticed a large termite mound right on the river’s edge with an old and very large tree stump protruding from it. The termite mound would serve as a great viewing point as it was downwind from the elephants, we could hide behind the tree stump if necessary and being right on the river’s edge, it was very steep on the one side from all the water erosion, which would prove very difficult for the elephant to climb up on.
For about an hour we sat very quietly watching the sleeping elephants when all of a sudden one of the bulls lifted his trunk to sniff the air. The wind had changed direction and he had picked up our scent! Being curious about the new smell, he decided to follow it and slowly made his way towards us. We had a good 50 meters before he would reach us, which gave us enough time to decide our next move. We decided to stay on the termite mound and hide behind the tree stump in hope that the elephant would soon lose interest.
A minute or so later there we were, the elephant on the one side of the termite mound and us on the opposite side sitting very anxiously behind our stump, wishing the elephant away. All we could hear was the sniffing of his trunk just 4 or 5 feet away! Fortunately we were out of his reach as the bull was standing in the river bed on the steep side of the mound.
After about two very anxious minutes waiting, the elephant turned around and walked away, or at least we thought so. The bull had found a pathway leading out of the river bed and before we knew it, he had sight of us and came running full steam towards us!
The ‘book’ says “DON’T RUN!!”.......YEAH RIGHT!!, if we had tourists with us we would have stood our ground but not on this day, so we took the chance to make a run for it as the surface of the riverbed was very uneven and filled with potholes and just 20 meters away from us was a very narrow but long trench which we could jump across and the elephant obviously not.
We jumped off the termite mound and at the speed of lightning ran as fast as we could while hopping over the potholes and in Olympic-style, long-jumped over the trench where we came to a halt.
Not 5 seconds later there he was, the elephant bull, standing on the opposite side of the trench, trumpeting like mad and not too happy of course.
With a sigh of relief and a clean pair of jocks needed we walked away from our unhappy friend and made our way straight back home.
The Naughty Nine
I started working at my first lodge in August 1998, in a small Game Reserve called Ilkley Game Ranch. It was the perfect start for my career as the only dangerous game we had on the property was Leopard and Hyena.
Well I thought it was pretty safe until one day to our surprise we had 9 very large long-nosed creatures appear in front of the Lodge!
This was a heard of 9 elephant that had pushed over the fence of our neighboring property, Thornybush Game Reserve and made there way onto Ilkley Game Ranch. Awesome!! Elephant on Ilkley!!
It was pretty cool when they first arrived, especially for the game drives and bush walks but we soon realized why they were called the “Naughty Nine”. The matriarch of the herd was hand-reared as a youngster and introduced into a reserve in the Northern Province where she eventually started her own heard. The matriarch and the rest of her herd were relocated to the Thornybush Game Reserve where they showed us just how naughty they could be.
The elephants’ favorite game was to push over the game reserve fences. Even with the fences being electrified this was no problem to them. They would simply test the fence buy touching each individual wire with their trunks until they found strands that didn’t shock and then pull at these strands until the fence was ripped out the ground. The elephants went where ever they liked.
For the next five months to come I had the extra job of guarding the lodge by chasing the elephants away from the kitchen. The matriarch having been hand raised as a youngster knew that Lodge kitchens have an abundance of fresh fruit, just ready for the taking.
One early morning the elephants caught me off guard and to my shock when I arrived at the Lodge I found that the kitchen had been ransacked by the elephants! All the windows had been smashed from trying to reach the food on the kitchen counters, the front double-door was lying on the floor, the cupboard doors were ripped off and the fridge was also open!
I thought is looked bad enough when the Vervet Monkeys get into the kitchen to feast, but wait till you see what 3 baby elephants can do.
The next five months with the elephants on Ilkley Game Ranch were very exhausting but all very much worth it.
Elephant Attack!!
Well I thought it was pretty safe until one day to our surprise we had 9 very large long-nosed creatures appear in front of the Lodge!
This was a heard of 9 elephant that had pushed over the fence of our neighboring property, Thornybush Game Reserve and made there way onto Ilkley Game Ranch. Awesome!! Elephant on Ilkley!!
It was pretty cool when they first arrived, especially for the game drives and bush walks but we soon realized why they were called the “Naughty Nine”. The matriarch of the herd was hand-reared as a youngster and introduced into a reserve in the Northern Province where she eventually started her own heard. The matriarch and the rest of her herd were relocated to the Thornybush Game Reserve where they showed us just how naughty they could be.
The elephants’ favorite game was to push over the game reserve fences. Even with the fences being electrified this was no problem to them. They would simply test the fence buy touching each individual wire with their trunks until they found strands that didn’t shock and then pull at these strands until the fence was ripped out the ground. The elephants went where ever they liked.
For the next five months to come I had the extra job of guarding the lodge by chasing the elephants away from the kitchen. The matriarch having been hand raised as a youngster knew that Lodge kitchens have an abundance of fresh fruit, just ready for the taking.
One early morning the elephants caught me off guard and to my shock when I arrived at the Lodge I found that the kitchen had been ransacked by the elephants! All the windows had been smashed from trying to reach the food on the kitchen counters, the front double-door was lying on the floor, the cupboard doors were ripped off and the fridge was also open!
I thought is looked bad enough when the Vervet Monkeys get into the kitchen to feast, but wait till you see what 3 baby elephants can do.
The next five months with the elephants on Ilkley Game Ranch were very exhausting but all very much worth it.
Elephant Attack!!
My Fist Lion Charge
I will never forget the first time I was charged by a lioness.
One of the lionesses from a pride called the Molowati Pride (In the Sabi Sand Game Reserve) had left the rest of her family to give birth in a hidden place.
One morning we found her tracks going in and out of the same dry riverbed where she more than likely had hidden her cubs. Unfortunately it was not allowed for anyone to walk in this particular riverbed as the vegetation was very thick and some of the rangers in the past had been charged by lion and leopard numerous times in this riverbed.
We were so excited about having new lion cubs in the reserve, so we decided to break the rules and go look for the cubs. There were three of us, myself and two other guides (Mike & Jaco), Mike walked in the front as he had the best tracking ability, while Jaco and I walked behind him just looking carefully to see if we could spot the lioness.
It was not long, maybe 15 minutes of walking when all of a sudden there was a loud and deep growl followed by the lioness crashing out of the bushes like a torpedo straight towards us!
From the time we heard the growl it took her maybe 2 or 3 seconds to get to us. Fortunately she stopped about 15 meters in front of us, growling and spitting, not happy about our presence there.
This being my first lion charge was not what I expected as I thought I would turn my pants brown, but this was not the case as the adrenaline rush from all the excitement seems to keep you calm, as there we stood the three of us chatting away discussing how we were going to get the Land Rover into the same spot to possibly view the cubs.
Once we had planned our route in, we slowly walked away from the lioness, facing her all the time. When we were about 50 meters away from her she turned away and went back to her cubs.
When we back to the Land Lover, that’s when the nerves kicked in resulting in unstoppable shakes. That was awesome!! What a rush!!
Well we managed to see the cubs, two beautiful females just a few days old.
Leopard in the House!!
This unexpected event took place in a private home within a reserve that borders the Kruger National Park.
One early morning a very old male leopard by the name of “one-eye” decided to explore a bit further in search of food than he normally did. Instead of looking for animals to hunt in the bush, he obviously thought he chances of catching something would be better in the residence of one of the local game rangers.
The ranger’s wife who was home at the time, left the house for 2 minutes and upon returning was absolutely shocked to see a leopard walking out of the house with one of their two pet bull terriers in its mouth! So in a space of just 2 minutes the leopard had walked into their home, killed both of their bull terriers and was on his way out to enjoy his meal elsewhere.
The room where the dogs were killed was the same room where the owner’s two-year-old baby normally slept. Fortunately for them the baby was not in the room at the time. Unfortunately the leopard was destroyed as they couldn’t take the chance of the leopard coming back to look for more.
This just goes to show you just how powerful and lethal a leopard really is, even if it is old.
Eat and be eaten
A few years ago I worked with a ranger that had one of the most out of the ordinary sightings while out on a game drive.
I won't mention what the game rangers' name is, so I'll just call him Mike.
Mike had just left the lodge for the early morning game drive and was driving along the boundary fence of the game reserve. In the distance along the fence they could see a big male Lion, the Lion had killed something and was busy eating it. The question was, what was it? Whatever he was eating was pure white in colour.
As Mike approached the Lion he then could see that it was feasting on the chef of their Lodge!
The chef apparently had been stealing meat from the lodge and would then walk through the bush to give it to his friends on the other side of the fence. He obviously chose the wrong night to do this as the Lion probably followed the scent of the meat until he found the chef and then made a meal of him.
Moral of the story: DON'T STEAL!!
I won't mention what the game rangers' name is, so I'll just call him Mike.
Mike had just left the lodge for the early morning game drive and was driving along the boundary fence of the game reserve. In the distance along the fence they could see a big male Lion, the Lion had killed something and was busy eating it. The question was, what was it? Whatever he was eating was pure white in colour.
As Mike approached the Lion he then could see that it was feasting on the chef of their Lodge!
The chef apparently had been stealing meat from the lodge and would then walk through the bush to give it to his friends on the other side of the fence. He obviously chose the wrong night to do this as the Lion probably followed the scent of the meat until he found the chef and then made a meal of him.
Moral of the story: DON'T STEAL!!
Charged by 3 of the Big 5 in 7 minutes!
This story may sound bizarre or even difficult to believe. Believe it or not but it is VERY TRUE.
One of the duties as a game ranger in most lodges is to knock on the guests’ room doors to wake them up for the early morning game drive. Normally you don’t come across any dangerous animals when doing the wake-up but every once in a while you’ll come across an un-welcomed visitor, especially if there is no electric fence around the lodge.
It was summer time and we were waking the guests up at 05:00. At that time of the morning you still needed to walk with a torch (flash-light), as it was still a bit dark.
The rangers use to take turns to do the wake-ups and it was Mike’s turn this time.
Mike had woken up two of the rooms already and was on his way to wake up the rest of the lodge. He was still half asleep himself, but not for long as when approached the main lodge building a huge Elephant bull came charging out towards him! Mike shouted out at the Elephant. Fortunately it stopped charging and then turned around and walked out of the Lodge.
The last two rooms at the lodge were always an adventure to walk too as you had to cross over a small bridge through some thick vegetation to get to them.
Just as Mike was about to walk onto the bridge a Leopard came charging out at him! Mike started shouting again, loud enough to chase the Leopard off. At this stage Mike was very much awake.
Eventually he managed to knock on the last guests’ door. The guests were awake already and when they heard the knock they quickly opened up and told Mike that they had seen a Lioness outside their room just minutes earlier. Mike then told them that it must have been a Leopard as he had just seen one.
The guests closed the door and as Mike started walking off, a Lioness came charging out straight towards him! She stopped about 10 meters in front of him. She just stood there growling at him and then suddenly out of the dark came the Leopard. The Leopard stopped about 7 meters to Mikes’ right side also growling as well.
Fortunately Mike had a weapon, he then pointed it at the Lioness, started shouting and ran straight towards her. Luckily that was enough to chase both the Lioness and the Leopard away.
Later that morning, after game drive the guests told me about their adventure that morning with the Lioness and the Leopard.
At about 04:30 they heard the sound of an Impala (antelope) outside their room. It sounded like something was killing it. The husband then got up to look through the window to see what was happening. It was the Leopard and it had just killed the Impala. With all the noise that the Impala had made it had attracted the interest of the Lioness. The Lioness came sprinting in and chased the Leopard off the now dead Impala.
The Lioness then saw the guest staring through the window at her, and with that she then charged at him, stopping right outside the window! She then turned around and went back to the Impala to start feasting.
Yip. Another day in Africa.
Leopard Attacks Park Ranger!!
One of the duties as a game ranger in most lodges is to knock on the guests’ room doors to wake them up for the early morning game drive. Normally you don’t come across any dangerous animals when doing the wake-up but every once in a while you’ll come across an un-welcomed visitor, especially if there is no electric fence around the lodge.
It was summer time and we were waking the guests up at 05:00. At that time of the morning you still needed to walk with a torch (flash-light), as it was still a bit dark.
The rangers use to take turns to do the wake-ups and it was Mike’s turn this time.
Mike had woken up two of the rooms already and was on his way to wake up the rest of the lodge. He was still half asleep himself, but not for long as when approached the main lodge building a huge Elephant bull came charging out towards him! Mike shouted out at the Elephant. Fortunately it stopped charging and then turned around and walked out of the Lodge.
The last two rooms at the lodge were always an adventure to walk too as you had to cross over a small bridge through some thick vegetation to get to them.
Just as Mike was about to walk onto the bridge a Leopard came charging out at him! Mike started shouting again, loud enough to chase the Leopard off. At this stage Mike was very much awake.
Eventually he managed to knock on the last guests’ door. The guests were awake already and when they heard the knock they quickly opened up and told Mike that they had seen a Lioness outside their room just minutes earlier. Mike then told them that it must have been a Leopard as he had just seen one.
The guests closed the door and as Mike started walking off, a Lioness came charging out straight towards him! She stopped about 10 meters in front of him. She just stood there growling at him and then suddenly out of the dark came the Leopard. The Leopard stopped about 7 meters to Mikes’ right side also growling as well.
Fortunately Mike had a weapon, he then pointed it at the Lioness, started shouting and ran straight towards her. Luckily that was enough to chase both the Lioness and the Leopard away.
Later that morning, after game drive the guests told me about their adventure that morning with the Lioness and the Leopard.
At about 04:30 they heard the sound of an Impala (antelope) outside their room. It sounded like something was killing it. The husband then got up to look through the window to see what was happening. It was the Leopard and it had just killed the Impala. With all the noise that the Impala had made it had attracted the interest of the Lioness. The Lioness came sprinting in and chased the Leopard off the now dead Impala.
The Lioness then saw the guest staring through the window at her, and with that she then charged at him, stopping right outside the window! She then turned around and went back to the Impala to start feasting.
Yip. Another day in Africa.
Leopard Attacks Park Ranger!!
Black Rhino Charge
One thing I do Love about the Kruger National Park is the vast areas between all the roads, this makes it such an awesome Game Reserve to do bush-walks in. When I worked in Kruger we would just drive around until we found a Hippo or Rhino pathway, then walk these paths to see what beautiful areas we could find.
One morning I was doing a walk with 4 guests on a well worn Hippo trail. We decided to stop for a short coffee break on the edge of a small plain. Just after we had finished our coffee I found some fresh foot prints for a Hyena.
While I was busy explaining the Hyena tracks to the guests I noticed something moving through the bush on the opposite side of the plain. At first I thought it was a lone Buffalo, but I then realized it was a Black Rhino! The problem with Black Rhino is that it doesn’t take much for them to charge. Luckily we were down wind from the Rhino and it was not on the plain yet, so I quickly told the guests that we should make a run for the closest thick vegetation to hide away before the Rhino got onto the plain and saw us.
Just as we ran off of the plain the Black Rhino must have seen us and with that it started to charge straight towards us! We had a good head-start on the Rhino, maybe 80 meters, so we managed to get behind a thick bush before it got sight of us again. A few seconds later you could hear the Rhino’s feet stopping on the ground as it came running towards us. Fortunately we were out of sight and he ran right past us. Once he had passed all you could hear was the snorting and blowing sound it made while looking for us. We waited for a while, just to make sure he wasn’t around anymore and once safe we made a bee-line for the Land Rover incase it decided to come back our way.
The funny thing about the whole event was that when it was all over I couldn’t help but notice that one of the guests had only half of her clothes on. I asked her why her clothes were off. She then told me that she had once read in a book: “when you are charged by a Rhino you should take off your clothes and throw them behind you. The smell and sight of the clothing with then distract the Rhino, giving you a head run to get away.”
I don’t know if this is true although it does make sense but it would not work in our situation as while we were running away from the Rhino, the husband of the woman was running behind her catching and picking up all the clothes off the ground.
One morning I was doing a walk with 4 guests on a well worn Hippo trail. We decided to stop for a short coffee break on the edge of a small plain. Just after we had finished our coffee I found some fresh foot prints for a Hyena.
While I was busy explaining the Hyena tracks to the guests I noticed something moving through the bush on the opposite side of the plain. At first I thought it was a lone Buffalo, but I then realized it was a Black Rhino! The problem with Black Rhino is that it doesn’t take much for them to charge. Luckily we were down wind from the Rhino and it was not on the plain yet, so I quickly told the guests that we should make a run for the closest thick vegetation to hide away before the Rhino got onto the plain and saw us.
Just as we ran off of the plain the Black Rhino must have seen us and with that it started to charge straight towards us! We had a good head-start on the Rhino, maybe 80 meters, so we managed to get behind a thick bush before it got sight of us again. A few seconds later you could hear the Rhino’s feet stopping on the ground as it came running towards us. Fortunately we were out of sight and he ran right past us. Once he had passed all you could hear was the snorting and blowing sound it made while looking for us. We waited for a while, just to make sure he wasn’t around anymore and once safe we made a bee-line for the Land Rover incase it decided to come back our way.
The funny thing about the whole event was that when it was all over I couldn’t help but notice that one of the guests had only half of her clothes on. I asked her why her clothes were off. She then told me that she had once read in a book: “when you are charged by a Rhino you should take off your clothes and throw them behind you. The smell and sight of the clothing with then distract the Rhino, giving you a head run to get away.”
I don’t know if this is true although it does make sense but it would not work in our situation as while we were running away from the Rhino, the husband of the woman was running behind her catching and picking up all the clothes off the ground.
Lions on Foot in the Kruger National Park.
It was one of those days when we had no guests in camp, so we headed out to go do some much needed road maintenance. There were six of us (3 Rangers and 3 Trackers).
While busy fixing one of the roads one of the trackers noticed a large number of vultures sitting in trees about 400 meters off the road. With so many vultures around there had to be a kill of some sort.
The curiosity was eating us away so we decided to take a walk in to see what the vultures were looking at.
All we had were 2 spades, a panga (machete) and one of the Rangers had a kattie (sling-shot) on him.
Once we got to where the vultures were we would stop then listen very carefully for the sound of something maybe eating, look carefully around, walk a few more steps then look and listen again.
Eventually we were surrounded by at least 200 vultures in the trees.
Suddenly there was a loud growling sound from behind us! We whipped around to look, and saw 2 big male lions about 30 meters away! We had walked right passed them without even seeing them! As they stood there growling, 3 other male lions stood up from out of the long grass and started growling as well. It was the most amazing powerful sound, it sounded like 5 V8 engines revving it up, you could feel your chest vibrating.
One of the trackers tried to make a run for it, and with that we grabbed him by his collar to stop him from running. When in a situation like this you can’t run as it shows the lion that you are afraid. “When the mouse runs the cat chases.”
Slowly we started walking away from the lions facing them all the time until we were a good 80 meters away. They just stood there growling and eventually stop when we were out of sight.
Once back on the road we got into the Land Rover and then drove back to where the lions were. The lions had killed an adult Giraffe. We managed to find the rest of the pride, another 16 females and youngsters.
While busy fixing one of the roads one of the trackers noticed a large number of vultures sitting in trees about 400 meters off the road. With so many vultures around there had to be a kill of some sort.
The curiosity was eating us away so we decided to take a walk in to see what the vultures were looking at.
All we had were 2 spades, a panga (machete) and one of the Rangers had a kattie (sling-shot) on him.
Once we got to where the vultures were we would stop then listen very carefully for the sound of something maybe eating, look carefully around, walk a few more steps then look and listen again.
Eventually we were surrounded by at least 200 vultures in the trees.
Suddenly there was a loud growling sound from behind us! We whipped around to look, and saw 2 big male lions about 30 meters away! We had walked right passed them without even seeing them! As they stood there growling, 3 other male lions stood up from out of the long grass and started growling as well. It was the most amazing powerful sound, it sounded like 5 V8 engines revving it up, you could feel your chest vibrating.
One of the trackers tried to make a run for it, and with that we grabbed him by his collar to stop him from running. When in a situation like this you can’t run as it shows the lion that you are afraid. “When the mouse runs the cat chases.”
Slowly we started walking away from the lions facing them all the time until we were a good 80 meters away. They just stood there growling and eventually stop when we were out of sight.
Once back on the road we got into the Land Rover and then drove back to where the lions were. The lions had killed an adult Giraffe. We managed to find the rest of the pride, another 16 females and youngsters.
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