Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger, Author at Nikela: Helping People Saving Wildlife

Vulture Rescue: He was found hanging upside down in dead tree

Sep 20, 2018 · by Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger · In: Bird of Prey, Nikela Blog, vulture, wildlife conseration Tagged: African White Backed Vulture, Andre Botha, SANParks

There are so many wildlife stories with sad endings. When I came across Andre Botha’s post on Facebook about this remarkable vulture rescue it simply had to be shared. The Vulture Rescue told by Andre Botha On Tuesday morning while busy with fieldwork in the Kruger National Park, I was contacted by the State Veterinarians and Veterinary Wildlife Section of SANParks about a vulture that was found hanging in a tree near Skukuza in the Kruger National Park. I drove out to the site expecting to find a dead vulture suspended from a tree that needed to be recovered and…

A nail in the coffin of the captive lion breeding industry?

Aug 29, 2018 · by Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger · In: canned hunting, Nikela Blog Tagged: canned lion hunting, Conservation Action Trust

There was an overwhelming consensus for the need to bring an end to the controversial captive lion breeding industry in South Africa at a two-day Parliamentary Colloquium of the Portfolio Committee of Environmental Affairs. However, in an article in the Cape Times “SA’s lion conservation policies rooted in science” is a carefully scripted piece by Minister Molewa trying to justify an industry the majority of attendants at the colloquium agree has past its sell by date. Mr MP Mapulane (chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs) summed up the sentiment around the room by saying “South Africa is allowing…

Raiding Elephants, Foes Now Friends and More Wildlife News from the Thuma Forest

Jul 3, 2018 · by Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger · In: elephant, Human Wildlife Conflict, Lynn, Nikela Blog, wild animals Tagged: elephants, human wildlife conflicts, Lynn Clifford, Sheri Gann, WAG

For the past two years we’ve been involved with Lynn and her work in the Thuma Forest in Malawi. But we’ve never had so much good news to share before. Many thanks to Nikela Volunteer Sheri Gann for this informative summary: Raiding Bulls and a Mistaken Identity For many years now Chaka, our tuskless bull, has been blamed for breaking the fence line, raiding crops, and killing people. In February we had a spate of fence breaking and rangers tracked the elephant. We then hired a helicopter from African Parks and with the help of Dr. Amanda Said were able…

South Africa kills captive bred lions to sell their bones

May 9, 2018 · by Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger · In: canned hunting, lion, Nikela Blog Tagged: canned hunting, captive breeding, Conservation Action Trust, Lion bone trade

Visions of wild animals roaming free in Africa are fast becoming fantasy as we hear once again of the horrors happening to captive bred lions. It’s been a bloody time for the South African canned lion industry. Last week, a lion ‘abattoir’ was exposed on a farm in the Free State, where close to 100 lions were reportedly to be killed and their skeletons prepared for export to Asia. Shortly after news of the slaughter broke, a game reserve owner from Limpopo was mauled by one of his captive lions, Shamba. The lion was immediately shot, causing a social media…

The problem of an elephant bull who wants to stay home

May 2, 2018 · by Nikela Volunteer/Guest blogger · In: elephant, Human Wildlife Conflict, Nikela Blog Tagged: Conservation Action Trust, elephant bull, human-wildlife conflict, Riff Raff

In Africa an elephant dies from a poacher’s bullet every 15 minutes. But in South Africa’s private reserves they’re breeding like bunnies and there’s trouble up ahead. The scramble head off the death sentence of a persistent elephant bull called Riff Raff is a synecdoche. It began with an unsanctioned two-strand electric fence. The wires were strung across the centre of the Greater Makalali Pidwa Private Nature Reserve in Limpopo to keep out elephants the owner of the northern sector said were were no longer welcome. There was a drought. The fence cut through the traditional home range of Makalali’s…

Vulture Rescue: He was found hanging upside down in dead tree

A nail in the coffin of the captive lion breeding industry?

Raiding Elephants, Foes Now Friends and More Wildlife News from the Thuma Forest

South Africa kills captive bred lions to sell their bones

The problem of an elephant bull who wants to stay home

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