Addo Outings 2014

[PJL]

I had a phone call from a good friend of mine who was in Addo yesterday. He runs tours and had possibly the best day of sightings he could remember... huge herds of buffalo, elephant, black rhino in the open, the lions with cubs as well as a total surprise which he kindly let me share:

[Flutterby]

Wow...fantastic!!

[PJL]

Apparently there are 3 cheetah in the park at the moment. No-one is totally sure where they have come from - they weren't introduced by the park

There's talk that they may have come from a farm nearby, but as yet no-one seems to be owning up and no-one seems to know what to do with them. Naturally if they were to be transferred back from wherever they came it would need a helicopter and darting team - so it begs the question as to who would foot the bill for that. Personally I'd be quite happy if they left them in the park

[Lisbeth]

Cheetahs in Addo I certainly hope that they will leave them What are they going to feed on? There are no small antelopes in Addo.......
but lots of warthogs Just saw that there are bushbucks and of course lots of zebras, if they are hunting in group, which cheetahs normally do not

[PJL]

I would imagine they will do well with warthog Lis

The latest I've heard is that one was captured and re-located immediately. The other two were supposedly also captured, but Craig's photo suggests otherwise

[Lisbeth]

" Hide, cheetahs, hide"

[Mel]

Oh please leave them where they are. Since we dont get to see any leopards there despite the rumour that they exist in Addo, it would be great to have another kind of cat there!

Did cheetahs use to occur in Addo? Presumably not otherwise they probably would have been introduced by now...

Btw, there are also steenbok for them to feed on

[Toko]

I hope the cheetahs enjoy their outing until they are captured I hope they don't come from one of the breeding farms where animals are abused for petting

[PJL]

We took an afternoon trip to Addo yesterday to see if there was any sign of the cheetahs. The lady on reception said that the management were being very evasive when it came to questions about them... it sounds like officially they want them out the park, but perhaps they are also just interested to see how they get on
Either way, I hope they stay a while longer as we didn't get to see them.

We did however find this sleepy jackal pup oozing cuteness

[Flutterby]

Aaaaah...cuteness overload!! Was it on its own?