Highlights of our safari at Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge

[Naks]

This lodge was on our bucket list due to its inclusion in the National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Naks

[Kobold]

Cool! or not? Depends on the point of view I suppose.. these sort of safari's make my toe's curl.. 

The animals seems to be quite domesticated, so there shouldn't be no animal abuse of wildlife, I suppose.. 

If those animals are domesticated refugees / outcasts / orphans this is a great way to introduce tourists to the local wildlife!

I'm not the kind of person to point my finger but without a context this sends a double message.. no offense ment!

I love wildlife, I'm often out in our nature, I also hunt, that's why 'abnormal' animal behavior sticks out like a sore thumb to me..

[Naks]

39 minutes ago, Kobold said:

Cool! or not? Depends on the point of view I suppose.. these sort of safari's make my toe's curl.. 

The animals seems to be quite domesticated, so there shouldn't be no animal abuse of wildlife, I suppose.. 

If those animals are domesticated refugees / outcasts / orphans this is a great way to introduce tourists to the local wildlife!

I'm not the kind of person to point my finger but without a context this sends a double message.. no offense ment!

I love wildlife, I'm often out in our nature, I also hunt, that's why 'abnormal' animal behavior sticks out like a sore thumb to me..

 

Errr, to what 'abnormal animal behaviour' are you referring exactly?

I'm not sure if you're joking or not...  If you are not, then you are really ignorant about African wildlife.

FYI, Sabi Sabi is part of the greater Kruger area, nothing domesticated about it. 

[Naks]

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Edited April 7, 2021 by Naks

[Kobold]

That's what I ment with not being offensive, I'm not familiair with African wildlife but wild cats that are sniffing trees and allow tourist vehicles at point of reach, red game that easely steps aside within 20 meters of a predator, it looks quite off to me. I do not mean to be ignorant but i'm stunned in disbelief of animal behavior.

In Holland, if a deer or roe spots a human within 200 meters it retreats, their predators (wolves) don't show up at all, all you will find are footprints.. (nothing ment wrong but it stuns me!)

My view might be clouded by the tourist safari we know in the Netherlands, there happens what i describes in my first post, and I absolutely disagree with that.

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Kobold

[Naks]

9 hours ago, Kobold said:

That's what I ment with not being offensive, I'm not familiair with African wildlife but wild cats that are sniffing trees and allow tourist vehicles at point of reach, red game that easely steps aside within 20 meters of a predator, it looks quite off to me. I do not mean to be ignorant but i'm stunned in disbelief of animal behavior.

In Holland, if a deer or roe spots a human within 200 meters it retreats, their predators (wolves) don't show up at all, all you will find are footprints.. (nothing ment wrong but it stuns me!)

My view might be clouded by the tourist safari we know in the Netherlands, there happens what i describes in my first post, and I absolutely disagree with that.

 

 

Leopards sniffing around/rubbing themselves on trees is perfectly natural - that is how they mark their territory, and how the females let the males know when it's time for mating.

As for the vehicles, well, they are habituated to the vehicles since they see them all the time, and they ignore them as they are neither predator nor prey. To them a vehicle is just something that is not going to eat them/that they cannot eat, so they ignore it.

We have also done a number of bushwalks around wild animals, there is really nothing scary about it as long as you listen to your guides and stick to the rules. We have been within 10m of cheetahs, and about 50m of a big herd of white rhinos (we even had our sundowner G&Ts at that spot) - it's all about risk management and not being stupid.

And these are far from domesticated animal: recently an anti-poacher ranger on foot patrol was killed by lions at one of the game reserves, and a few weeks ago a tracker at another reserve, also on foot, was killed by a pair of lions. People have also been killed by elephants, hippos, etc. 

Since KLM are still flying to/from ZA, how about you book a holiday to one of our amazing game reserves - we could definitely use the €€€ 

Alternatively, you can watch Live Safaris every day on the WildEarth channel:

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Naks

[Kobold]

These were caught on wildcamera in januari near a field I work:

https://youtu.be/YMIzpnK_aNc

Edited April 8, 2021 by Kobold

[Eightpot]

There's a big difference between European wildlife, which in the main are prey animals, and apex African predators such as lion, leopard, cheetah.  They don't see cars as people, just big slightly irritating non food items.  In general they aren't afraid of humans as we are easily caught & killed - we are bottom of the food chain without a gun. Same goes for elephant, rhino, hippo, giraffe - they can crush us like bugs and very often do.  Elephant also very often like to crush cars like bugs. 

Big cats like to catch thier dinner very early in the morning or early evening, they rarely bother during the heat of the day and other animals know this, and there tends to be a truce around waterholes so they often walk past each other though with some distance - and game animals are very difficult to catch on open ground anyway. Even a cheetah struggles to catch impala, the chase can go on for well over a kilometer. Kruger is a great place to visit to observe animals being animals. 

[ThreePointFive]

If it's a choice between a safari/protected reservation or a zoo when trying to conserve species in something even vaguely like their wild habitat, I'll take this any time.

If visitors are required to fund the reservation, then that's the cost. It might have an impact on the animals' behavior but if it wasn't for some of these places, there wouldn't be some species - modified behavior or not.

[Eightpot]

The big reserves don't have much impact on animal behaviour, they are protected wilderness areas so animals are left to be wild. Kruger and masai mara are each the size of Wales, Kalaghadi even bigger - and each have less daily visitors than Alton Towers.  Most animals won't come into close contact with people other than occasionaly seeing a car in the distance.  Very much different to a safari park for example. 

[Naks]

1 hour ago, Eightpot said:

The big reserves don't have much impact on animal behaviour, they are protected wilderness areas so animals are left to be wild. Kruger and masai mara are each the size of Wales, Kalaghadi even bigger - and each have less daily visitors than Alton Towers.  Most animals won't come into close contact with people other than occasionaly seeing a car in the distance.  Very much different to a safari park for example. 

 

There is a caveat to this: some endangered species are constantly monitored and there is even active conservation/veterinary intervention.

A good example are wild dogs, cheetahs, and rhinos: they are all DNA-catalogued, tagged, etc.

We got to see a vet darting wild dogs for rabies & distemper at Madikwe, a sad situation due to encroachment by humans and domesticated dogs.