Tailor Made Safaris

  • About Us
  • Destinations
    • South Africa
    • Namibia
    • Botswana
    • Mauritius
  • Travel Information
    • South Africa Info
    • Namibia Info
    • Botswana Info
  • Reviews
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Destinations
    • South Africa
    • Namibia
    • Botswana
    • Mauritius
  • Travel Information
    • South Africa Info
    • Namibia Info
    • Botswana Info
  • Reviews
  • Contact Us

MEETING A BHEJANE ON FOOT

7/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Part of my ranger training at &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve required me to spend some alone time in the bush! This time allowed me to really experience the bush by myself without having the instructors or my fellow trainees around. 
Picture
Ranger Paul
The prospect of being in a ‘Big 5’ game reserve with my handheld radio, rifle, map, binoculars, ash bag and a packed lunch was beyond exciting for me. After spending weeks learning and understanding animal behavior and what to do when meeting any potentially dangerous animal on foot, it was time to put my training to the test!

Picture
Most intimidating on foot!
Apart from spending time alone walking around this remarkably diverse game reserve, it forced me to learn some of the areas that aren’t frequently driven to find animals, familiarize myself with road names, landmarks, understand where to find certain game and bird species, photograph the smaller animals (butterflies, reptiles and other insects) /plants and ultimately improving on my level of awareness.

Picture
Lunar Moth Larvae
Picture
Common Scarlet
With all this said I must admit that I had read my map incorrectly and found myself deep in the mountains of the western side of the reserve. By the time I realized I 'd gone the wrong way it was too late to turn back. I decided to continue on the road hoping that I could get back on route once I got to the next junction. 

Picture
Taking a break next to this Marula tree
As I continued walking and observing every so often I stopped dead in my tracks! On the right side of the road, approximately 30 meters ahead of me was an animal feeding.  At first I thought it was a buffalo but to my surprise it was a rhino, not a White Rhino but a Bhejane (Zulu for Black Rhino)!
 
Picture
Black Rhino feeding
In those few seconds of looking around for a tree to climb, thoughts of this animal charging me and every other behavioral aspect regarding Black Rhino’s were going through my head, including the fact that my heart was sitting in my throat! Luckily the Bhejane hadn’t yet heard or smelt me yet. I turned around, tippy toed to a Milkwood Tree on the opposite side of the road. I placed my rifle nest to the tree, took my backpack off, crabbed my camera and was up that Milkwood in a blink of an eye! 

Picture
Time to climb a tree
From a crook in the tree, very uncomfortable I turned my camera on and started recording the action on the ground.  The Bhejane still hadn’t registered of my presence and continued on feeding. It was from here
that I could see and hear it pulling out small sickle bush shrubs and other forbs.  I zoomed in on the lesions (area on skin that is damaged due to parasitic fly larvae) on the side of its body and also managed  to make out that it was in fact a bull, because it started spraying urine and defecating in the act of marking its territory!

Suddenly the wind direction changed, the Bhejane looked up in my direction, snorted, turned and ran around some bush up the side of the hill! It then stopped looked in my direction again and decided to charge toward the tree I was in.  Stopping again with its ears and nose pointed towards me it turned around again, walked up the hill and started scent marking. 

Picture
Looking for me
I remained as still as I could watching its every move. Only once it had calmed down I decided on a route to take, which had lots of cover. Slowly I descended from the tree watching the Bhejane, crabbed my backpack and rifle and made my way towards the tree line. 

Once on the road, I picked up my pace, looking back making sure the Bhejane wasn’t following me and hoping that nothing else would be ahead of me!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    About Us

    Hi there! My name is Paul and I am the new specialist guide for Tailor Made Safaris! On this blog I will keep you all updated with trip reports and interesting stories about the African Bush! 

    Want to read about something special, please feel free to drop me an email on paul@tailormadesafaris.co.za and let me know what you would like for me to write about.  

    Coming up next

    See below a list of articles which are currently being researched and/or written. Check back soon to see if they are online!

    - Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park
    - Rhino poaching

    Archives

    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All

    Subscriibe

    Leave your email address below to stay up to date and receive an email notification when new posts have been published!

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Or subscribe using RSS:

    RSS Feed

Tailor Made Safaris is an official partner of: 
Picture
Picture

Copyright 
©2018 Tailor Made Safaris
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact us