Pretty funny!!!

Looks like National Geographic TV is going to broadcast “live” twice-daily game drives from Kruger National Park:

The programme will be hosted by UK wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan and will be broadcast on National Geographic Wild, as well as online at www.natgeotv.com. Game rangers and wildlife trackers from Singita, along with veterinarians and ecologists, will also share insight into Africa’s conservation issues, as well as specific initiatives taking place in the Kruger National Park.

Here’s the link to the story…

BBC’s Big Cat Diary is back in the Masai Mara of Kenya for another season. They are staying with our friends at Governor’s Camps…

This year, the show will be broadcast live for the first time; and also for the first time, live filming will go on through the night.

“We’re hoping to reveal the nocturnal habits of the big cats as well as the stuff that happens during the day,” says producer Colin Jackson. “As for precisely what will happen… we have no idea, but what we do know is that every year the cats surprise us.”

You can see live streaming video and the latest update from the team at www.bbc.co.uk/bigcat.

We were excited to find this article about Edwin Sabuhoro, a 32 year old Rwandan ‘adventurer, naturalist, educator, guide, tracker, ranger and conservationist’ who recently won an international award for launching Iby’IWACU Village, “a community-based ecotourism initiative that was designed to develop incentives for local people to protect gorilla habitats.”

Today, the outcomes of the project are astonishing. Local people own 100% of the project. The cultural village has increased tourism arrivals by 40% and has generated a sustainable income base for the village. Poaching of gorillas has been reduced by 60%.

I’m not much of a “Survivor” fan, but I was excited to see that this season was in Gabon. Here’s an interesting article that talks about how the show is made, its footprint on the environment and the potential boost it could have on eco and adventure travel to Gabon.

The show’s presence in Gabon comes at a critical moment for the country, which just six years ago created a system of national parks to protect its largely untouched landscape. That national beauty is reflected in the tagline for “Survivor: Gabon,” “Earth’s Last Eden.” Now, the Gabonese government — one of Africa’s most rich and stable, thanks to oil and other reserves of natural resources — needs to find ways to make that protected land profitable, introducing ecotourism in place of logging.

Looks like Gabon could be a big winner. Read the whole article here.

Here’s a report from a couple that just returned from a 3-week camping safari through Botswana and Zambia:

Dear Louise and Kili,

Wow, what a trip! We are very pleased with your arrangement. Everything has worked perfect. Transfers between the different parts of the trip have been well organized and we have always been looked after in a safe way.

“Highlights in Botswana” was the rough part, exciting with fantastic game drives as well as unforgetable nights including hippos, elephants close to our tent. Anna even spotted a leopard nearby the bushtoilet! We were impressed by the big amount of animals. The guide was terrific. The only thing that was tough was the heat with hardly no shade and of course no where to go during the siesta. The Falls and the Flight of Angels were fantastic.

“Kafue Rivers and Plains” was amazing with the mighty rivers and the evening boat-cruises. The accomodations were great with excellent guide and management. We have been so fortunate on our game drives, lots of lions, buffalos and the real highlight five WILD DOGS. We saw prints of cheetah, but we didn´t find any.

“South Loungwa”. We liked the game around the lagoons, the beautiful green trees, walking-safari where we spotted the Thornicraft Giraffe, a very rare owl and a dito nightjar. The last camp, Kalamu, will stay in our heart forever. The athmosphere there was very special thanks to the management. Considering that NINE lions walked through the camp while we had our dinner doesn´t make it less memorable!

Thank you so much for a splendid customized safari. It couldn´t have been better! This was the journey of our life!

We absolutely love hearing feedback like this. You can download a PDF of their entire itinerary here: Custom 3-week Botswana and Zambia Camping Safari.

Here’s a radio story about how researchers are using state-of-the-art GPS texting devices to protect Elephants throughout Africa. You can read much more about the project in the September NatGeo article by David Quammen.

The article and radio story both focus on Iain Douglas-Hamilton’s work with the Samburu elephants. There’s some photos below of Kili’s trip to Samburu in May 2007. Who knows? Maybe some these elephants are sending text messages.

Our friends at Nomad Tanzania are the first to have a complete audit of the carbon footprint at both their camps & reservation offices. We congratulate them on setting the achievable & sustainable goal of a carbon-neutral ecotourism company:

The carbon footprint audit, completed in May 2008, was based on a year of data collected in the field by Julia Bishop, an environmental consultant, and audited by Energy For Sustainable Development (ESD) working with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management. Assessment is the first step in the carbon management process, which provides the building blocks to carry the company to a greener future. It enables us to develop our company strategy for reducing carbon emissions by setting targets that undergo regular assessments.

We now have the source data of our energy usage and carbon emissions, both for our camps and offices. We also have a carbon footprint offset value for each one of our safari camps, which will result in carbon neutrality for Nomad – and a carbon neutral safari experience for our clients.

Read more about what Nomad Tanzania is doing “to go beyond greenwashing.” They offer superb service & hospitality at 8 camps across Tanzania, and we’re proud to continue working with them.

Nomad Tanzania

Here’s some amazing photos by Hal Brindley of a leopard chasing down and attacking a crocodile. It’s the first time this kind of attack has been documented. None of us safari enthusiasts have ever even heard of this kind of attack before.

leopard attacks croc

Here’s the link to the story from the Telegraph, and here’s a link to a slideshow of the photo sequence, and thanks to the folks at Robin Pope Safaris for the tip.