African Wildlife andEnvironment Issue 71

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

One particular incident that I was involved in was near the Malelane Gate in the south of the Kruger National Park. A night drive student had stopped on a bridge over the Matjulu River and let some of the tourists get off to stretch their legs. He had walked with his rifle to the side of the Armco barrier at the southern side of the bridge where he was attacked by an adult male leopard. The tourists did what they could but could not save him. A short while later the Field Ranger Corporal from the Malelane Ranger Section arrived on scene and walked in to where the leopard had the student and was able to shoot the leopard. He immediately called me in and we had to deal with this very sad, surreal situation. It transpired that the leopard was in a very bad condition from mange and had been injured in a fight with another leopard. It was also the first leopard that tested positive for

Makalali in the Limpopo Province. During the night a leopard caught and killed her on the platform. She had been sleeping there alone and was only found early the next morning. I cringe when I see people feeding hyena left over bones after having a braai. Firstly you are teaching the hyena that there are easy pickings and they learn quickly and will come back again expecting the same treatment. Maybe the next visitors are not so bush wise and you could end up with a small kid being snatched and killed before the adults can react. The jaws of a hyena are so powerful that they will slice through human bone and flesh like a hot knife through butter. When you are sleeping out at night make sure you have someone keeping guard or make sure your tent or accommodation is properly closed. While I was still the senior section ranger at Stols Nek

Bovine TB. I remember carrying both the student and the leopard out to the road where they were transported away and thinking of how fragile life is. At the students’ accommodation back in Berg en Dal camp was a cake that had been baked by my wife for his twenty-first birthday. There was a slice set aside and waiting to be eaten on his return that evening. This was a devastating blow for his family and the rest of the Kruger National Park staff. Three years ago a woman volunteer in her early thirties from Switzerland was sleeping on a platform at one of the bush camps near

in the South Western corner of the Kruger National Park, a body was found near the boundary fence of a man that had been eaten by hyenas. It was not clear if he was alive when the hyenas found him or whether he was dead and they just scavenged. A very macabre incident… Other wild animals that do not see you as an easy meal but are just as capable of killing you are also numerous; however there is fortunately an inbred fear of humans that should keep you safe as long as you don’t do anything stupid. Starting at the biggest, the African Elephant is the largest land mammal that

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