Africa Wild

Great to hear that OD.

Awesome stuff I see that it get more "likes" and comments of praise then many of the sighting updates

From Kruger:

Dear Nadav,



While we appreciate your efforts in communicating the floods in the KNP we would like to request you not to create any panic. We are updating the media regularly on our website as SANParks spokespeople and we would like you to refrain from confusing people and creating further panic. The situation is under control and we will not allow confusing messages from all over the place.



I trust this will reach you in good faith.


Best regards,

Reynold "Rey" Thakhuli
General Manager: Media, Events & Stakeholder Relations
South African National Parks, Groenkloof, Tshwane/Pretoria

Odie, tell them to stick it, in my opinion!

You did nothing wrong, and your site provides a clearly-stated avenue for assisting SanParks!

Well done!

I second that RP great job OD keep it up

For the life me I cannot understand the logic in SANParks way of thinking.

They are quite happy when this site creates chaos at sightings, but want to stop it when info is published by people at a certain area with first hand knowledge of the current conditions regarding the floods. They themselves should have issued this info way before the public did!

Richprins wrote:Odie, tell them to stick it

I agree OD

Well done

Is OD's site perhaps affiliated with SANParks now?

This seems to be a sensitive issue with many and there’s a wide range of opinion. I see that it’s starting to become an issue elsewhere and thought let’s explore things a little more freely here, especially since we discussed it all more than a year ago, so some may have to read all 18 pages of history

Is it good, bad or is there middle ground

Firstly, has it caused crowding at sightings or are there really just too many cars in the south. Remember the gate quotas for day visitors increased big time at around the same time as the development of this site.

Does it cause speeding, or would that same idiot speed if he was told by another visitor on the road or checked it out on the old sighting board. Isn’t this just an electronic sighting board?

In most cases one loses cell reception a few km out of camp in Kruger, so those leaving on their planned morning drive wouldn’t utilize these updates.

Is it causing bad behaviour, or is the lack of effect people management, education and policing allowing this behaviour.

Every day the first message posted is:

Remember when at or driving to a sighting:
- TING IT!
- Submit leopard photos to leopardIDproject.com, Wild Dog photos to @KNPWildDogs & Bat info to @KrugerBats
- No going over 50km/h.
- No getting / hanging out of cars.
- No feeding animals OR littering.
- Not to park in a way where nobody else can see the animal or pass through.
- Switch off your engine.
- Not to play animal sounds.
- To share suspicious activity & dead animals.
- No sharing of rhino locations.

The good achieved:

20+ Hyenas with snares. All removed.
5 Cheetahs with snares and manmade injuries.
Loads of lions and leopard with snares and collars which are on too tight and are choking the animal.
Continuous help with Wild Dogs as they are very endangered and seem to get snares often.
We have also helped some injured rhinos recover.

Some other projects that Latest Sightings is involved with: Wild Dogs, Ground Hornbill, Pangolin, Leopard, bats etc...

Never mind the funds raised for the Shingwedzi staff after the floods and the part this site has played in securing US anti animal trafficing donations.

Another thing to consider is that this site permits you to post “ND23#$%^” speeding, “ND2445$%” feeding vervets, “ND345%^&” out their car at a sighting. These are examples of posts that I have seen on this site, so members of the group aren’t necessary the bad ones as surely they wouldn’t want their own registration popping up. This could also be utilized by SANParks BTW.

As I said there are varied often volatile opinions on this subject

I know that OD sells an orange ribbon to his followers, and to be honest, besides OD himself, I have never seen another orange ribbon at a sighting...granted, not everyone may have one.

I think with the number of people in the south word spreads so quickly, and probably more often than not people will hear about a sighting from someone else before they get into cell phone range.