June 5th, 2018:
3 species on the same acre: Geometric Tortoise, Bowsprit Tortoise and Parrot-beaked Tortoise
June 6th, 2018:
The morning was cold and clear, no wind with the scent of diesel in the air! Over 1.5 miles of dry acacia slash awaited! A CapeNature fire team of 25 (including risk-taker "fire-beaters" were ready. Alwyn with his back-up water wagon (Bucky-Sucky) oversees mixing of Petrol and Diesel (rarely a good idea?), and the game is afoot!
Fire raged (but under control) for about 4 hours burning the longest 3 of our 5 rows without mishap or impact on adjacent fynbos! CapeNatue and Wineland Fire folks were fantastic and suffered no injuries while tortoises watched approvingly from outside the fence. Slash gone and fynbos restoration shall proceed!
June 18th, 2018:
More rain expected on Saturday, which should help the southern preserve that suffered a wildfire in March 2017. To date, it has made a speedy and amazing recovery, in spite of drought! (and home to the largest puff-adder ever seen!)
In tortoise exclusion area of previous burn we took advantage to bring in equipment to fill in several ugly clay mining test pits dug many years ago.
June 21st, 2018:
Wrapping up work at the Geometric Tortoise Preserve, got almost 3” rain last week so fynbos is flowering. Spent last week in southern Namibia on a friend’s 500,000 acre private nature reserve south of Aus and thanks to a small TCF grant from Anders was able to confirm two Nama padloper populations: one very remote from the threatened type locality population! Only found under large rocks where various deadly shakes also frequent! See many-horned adder below!
