This male cheetah, currently in our boma facilities at Monate, was captured in the Thabazimbi area. His mother died when he was about 7 months old, and without the education of his mother to hunt, he started catching and feeding of livestock in the area. EWT (Endangered Wildlife Trust) was called out to capture this young male. After he was captured he was translocated to the Potgietersrus Zoo where was kept in captivity until a suitable ‘home’ could be found for him. That suitable ‘home’ was found at Monate.

The main objective with this male is to release him back into the wild where he can hunt for himself and establish his own territory. The re-wilding of this male will be done at Monate and we hope to release him as a sufficient hunter and dominant male within the next 3 to 6 months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New pink feet on Monate
This hippo calve was born on 5th of February 2012, in hippo dam which is one of our biggest dams on the reserve.
Caring and protective mother is seeking for evasion to save her youngster from being killed by the other raft members. Sad but true there was an incident about 3 months ago where Monate also had a new born calf, but unfortunately he didn’t stay long with us, the maximum was 3 days.
This is actually not an unusual behaviour within Hippos to kill out the youngsters. They live in what we call pods or rafts which consist of an n dominant territorial male with a number of females.
Males that come into the area mustn’t show any interests in the resident females. They will also not tolerate more members to join if the area and food sources are limited already.
Within nature animals will reach an equilibrium where they will not increase or try to decrease when environmental conditions are taking down.
Let’s see and all hope that this pink foot will get the opportunity to bring her own one into the world.
Nature will take its course for the best of it!!

Green Katydid resembling a leaf
Nature is amazing in many ways don’t you think. Even insects have their clever ways to play hide and seek in the bush.
See picture above of Green Katydid resembling a leaf. Having these features is to camouflage into its surrounding. The body shaped as a leaf and green colouration will blend in, “act” as another leaf in the tree which will make it very difficult to spot.
To spot something like this between the leaves you seriously need a practised eye to recognise the body shape.

By Surina Brits

Monate was privileged to host Mr & Mrs Brase’s wedding this last weekend!

Luckily the weather played along & everybody had a wonderful time at the ceremony held under the Marula tree on the reserve, game drive and then a fabulous – unforgettable time at the reception!! Read more »

IBM brought along their client’s for 3 nights to Monate.  The delegates worked very hard during sessions and had time for fun inbetween!  Buggy rides kept everyone entertained, even when it was raining!  Dinner in the cave & under the stars in the bush were both raved about.  It was such a pleasure working with Nombulelo & Natalie – we look forward to hearing from them soon!

Our rainy season and magnificent electrical storms have begun, which is wonderfully welcomed with open arms, terrible hair days and fried equipment (like our internet for the last 2 days), but that’s the fun part about living in the bush!

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