Posted September 19, 2024 in News
UmPhafa has always had the usual predators living on the land but last week, the team managed to get a glimpse of one of the rarest ones so far, an aardwolf! To date, an aardwolf has only been seen once before on Umphafa, however this time we had photographic proof of this incredible species! An aardwolf is an insectivorous hyaenid species specialising in eating insects, mainly termites, lapping up as many as 300,000 during a single night using its long, sticky tongue. Their tongue is also strong enough to withstand the bite of the termites.
Another recent visitor, is the African wildcat! This species was thought to not be on the reserve until we released one in July, however since then another cat has been spotted several times in the day time which is unusual as they are mainly active at night when they spend most of their time hunting.
We have also been lucky enough to spot caracal and serval on our night drives and if we are really lucky, during the day as well.
You may have thought one of the rarest sightings would also be the leopard, however these are seen on a weekly basis during the day and night. Many Interns who have joined us over the last year can boast about seeing one of our beautiful leopards roaming UmPhafa!
