Today, I found myself in a scene straight out of paradise—hundreds of butterflies dancing through the air, feasting on a field of blooming purple Verona wildflowers. I counted more than ten species, each adding its own splash of color to the kaleidoscope unfolding before me.
I captured them until they began to roost for the night, some simply disappearing, and others hiding under leaves. It was a magical time. As the shadows crept across the field, I felt no fear of the leopard that may also have been watching!
Our young team loves their weekly conservation lessons at the Gate of Hluhluwe Park. We share fun and knowledge of How to protect Vultures that venture outside protected areas. The young ambassadors are also taught how to spread information about other wildlife that is at risk, to their peers, family, and school. Various lessons help them better understand the importance of saving rare animals and birds. We also help encourage awareness of humane care for their domestic animals and encourage them to report any injured animal that may need our help.
Please help prevent the suffering of ill, injured or orphaned wild animals by contributing to emergency veterinary treatment. We provide habitat & home for a vast diversity of wildlife including more than 80 indigenous animal species in the Rural Environs of Isimangaliso World Natural Heritage Site South Africa. Your support will also help to build urgently needed recovery stables and a warm nursery where orphaned wild babies can be nurtured till they are released again.
Over a period of 32 years, we have provided an important safe extended sand forest habitat for leopards and other rare species. We continue restoring, expanding and protecting the biodiversity in the Buffer Zone of False Bay Park.
The problem leopards face in our area is serious. Adjacent to our Nature Reserve, False Bay Park, provides only a narrow area of protection – a strip of 500 – 1.5 km wide on the western shores of the lake edge. Outside the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, that we border, many properties are farmland or rural habitation. This provides little safety for leopard and other species that need a larger range that they have in False Bay Park.
They often move out of the Park to seek food, and new mates, to keep cubs away from other males, and for the mother to move cubs away from her once they mature. So where do they go? They move into extended ranges out of the Park and then they get poached, hunted, baited and tracked down at times, even with dogs. For this reason, leopards in particular are hugely impacted and are recorded in the Red Data assessment as being vulnerable, which means without protection they could become extinct.
Community involvement is also important and we reach out through our Young Environmental Ambassador Zulu Dancers to encourage leopard protection in the rural area.
Our practice sessions with the wonderful group of Young Environmental Ambassador Zulu dancers are going well. They are preparing to represent KZN in the National Talent Africa contest in Sasolburg on 6 October. (They won High Gold in the TA regional contest in KZN where they qualified for Nationals)
3 out of 5 children in rural areas in South Arica face lives of poverty. Young underprivileged children between the ages of 6 and 14 years of age walk miles from their rural homes, to reach the area where they spend their day training in Zulu dance to perform outside Hluhluwe Wildlife Park. Often, they have no lunch, or shelter from rain. Our project will provide meals, and studio shelter for arts, dance, and conservation, to empower them to be leaders while expanding their talent nationally.
Keeping alien plants out of our reserve to protect the indigenous biodiversity is a regular task, especially after the rain. Here the common guava (Psidium guajava )is being removed by cutting it and then applying herbicide to the stump. It has a delicious fruit but the wildlife feast on it and spread the seeds extensively, so it has to be managed. Other than this we never use poisons in our Reserve and we prefer to remove invasive alien vegetation manually.
Caring for injured or orphaned wildlife is a challenge. But with the new facility we are developing much more will be accomplished.
Sadly a baby wildebeest was recently orphaned was injured.
Zebra showing concern for injured baby wildebeest
We located the baby wildebeest in the bush this afternoon and the zebra were around him showing concern. He saw me and came up to me, somehow he knows we are trying to help him and he kept approaching us. We decided to try to hold him by his little horns again, and managed to do so.
The baby was quite docile so I inspected the wound. It needed to be cleaned which we attended to. It was fortunate that we were able to find him, without treatment he would have died an agonizing death. It would have been safer for him to have been homed inside a boma and should it rain, inside a stable.
We were eventually able to home him in a temporary boma but this was an emergency measure – we are now now developing a secure rehab facility.
Temporary canvas boma
We will now establish a safe rehab boma and stable for orphaned and/ or injured wildlife. We also aim to secure timeous professional assistance for future wildlife in need. Any support for this project would be greatly appreciated.
An urgent appeal to all who care: Please support our drought relief appeal Zululand is experiencing the worst drought in 20 years. The entire Province of KZN has been red flagged because of the drought. Rivers have dried up and virtually no rain has fallen during the past months in our area at False Bay Park.
Any amount however big or small towards feeding the wildlife at our Sanctuary would be greatly appreciated. Please click below to donate through PayPal. Thank you for caring!
A bag of game pellets costs R250.00 (18.11 USD)
One bale of Lucerne R105.00 (7.61 USD)
We have been doing our best to help our wildlife through the drought and we have to supplement food for our wildlife in our Sanctuary. There is no longer grazing and very little browsing available. Nyala graze 30% and browse 70% depending on availability of foliage and grass. Wildebeest are bulk grazers and zebra each need 10kg of hay/grass per day. Although we bring in grass from areas where there is no grazing, we now need to supplement this with Lucerne and game pellets. The female antelope that are pregnant especially need more food to tide them through.
Any support you may be able to offer – however big or small – would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for caring!
NEW YOUNG ENVIRONMENTAL AMBASSADOR MOVEMENT
We have linked our Young Environmental Ambassador conservation movement with Kenya! How exciting. We are connected geographically through the Great Rift Valley that runs though Kenya and ends in our environs of False Bay World Natural Heritage Site of Isimangaliso Wetland Park .
The prints are on thick import-quality textured paper. 1 of each of the above animal prints are rolled together to form a set of the “Big Five”. This lion below is a closeup and gives you an idea of the quality of the art. Continue reading→
Our Bed & Breakfast accommodation is private and cosy, with two cottages to choose from. Guests are welcome to dine at Leopard Walk Lodge’s restaurant.
Our guests can normally enjoy a relatively close encounter with the wildlife. Trips to nearby “Big-Five” wildlife reserves can also be arranged.
During 1991 Janet and Rob Cuthbertson purchased a rundown pineapple farm, which today has been rehabilitated into a beautiful and flourishing wildlife reserve.
Our years of effort have at times been exciting, rewarding and often the challenge has been daunting, but the knowledge that we are giving something back to nature is our most worthwhile reward”. ~ Janet and Rob Cuthbertson
Suni-Ridge Sand Forest Park is located in Maputaland, an ecological paradise on the north east coast of South Africa, and enjoys a greater biodiversity than any other area in the country.
“On the left is the sparkling Mozambique coast with the town of Ponta da Oura and on the right, the start of the most beautiful stretch of KwaZulu Natal coastal landscape. A series of lakes strung out like shimmering beads in necklace.
We had just flown across Tembe Elephant Park with its unique watery wilderness, spotting elephant and rhino at waterholes. And ahead of us is the Mkuzi Game Reserve, the up-market Phinda Reserve and the grandeur of the Lubombo Mountains with Swaziland on the other side.”
Jill Gowans, an environmental reporter for the Sunday Tribune, observed this while flying over the Maputaland region. Continue reading→
Below is the privacy statement for Suni-Ridge Sand Forest Park Environmental Rehabilitation Centre. It specifies how we might use the personal details provided to us by our website visitors. Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. Continue reading→
