Tumaren

Category: Mammals | Date: Oct 25 2007 | By: tumaren

In the past 2 weeks we have had 4 sightings of wildcats. Wildcats are the original tabby cat - the species that people first domesticated and bred into all the forms we now find in the domestic pussy cat. We are having a huge boom in the rat population and it appears that the wildcats are reaping the benefits. We also had a caracal on a night drive about two weeks ago.
cheers, james

8 responses so far

Category: Mammals | Date: Oct 14 2007 | By: tumaren

After about 6 months of large herds of elephant on us the groups are beginning to disperse with only the odd bull passing through. this is in a way a relief. our poor trees need some time to grow a bit and recover from all the damage. pictured below is the big boss bull we call rob with some females behind. he always rests his trunk like this.
cheers, james

4 responses so far

Category: Birds | Date: Oct 08 2007 | By: tumaren

while tubing down our rapids the other day I flushed a male Finfoot who flew across the water surface then proceeded to slink along the rivers edge in front of me for nearly a quarter of a mile. A stunning and hard to see bird that is the sole representative of his entire family. i was unable to get a picture and so i recommend that anyone unfamiliar with this species do an image search on Google. cheers, jamie

No responses yet

Category: Insects | Date: Oct 04 2007 | By: tumaren

While swimming down on the river I ran into this interesting fishing spider in a small pool of water in a large rockoutcrop. the pool had mosquito larvae and when i found the spider he was totally submerged trying to hid underneath a rock. his movements under water were identical to a crab and when he emerged to the surface after some coaxing he appeared totally dry. Very Cool.

3 responses so far

Category: Reptiles | Date: Oct 03 2007 | By: tumaren

I have noticed more and more carapaces of dead tortoises in our area in Laikipia. They range in size from medium to large and show no signs of physical trauma. I’m wondering if there could be a fungus that could be spreading between them that may have originated from captive animals. I understand that tortoises in the states have had problems like this.???

4 responses so far