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Zeedoc .. actually very easy to answer ..

What should we do?
Report it to the nearest camp with time location etc, and do not handle the animal, insect, reptile or bird.

What would I do?
Report it to the nearest camp with time location etc, and do not handle the animal, insect, reptile or bird.

Agree with W@H. Tourists usually do not have enough knowledge to intervene without disturbing something. Leave it to the experts, even if it seems cruel.

What I would do depends on the situation. If I find a wounded animal on a road then I'll try to asses if the injury was man made. If it is then I'll try to help the animal, if it isn't then I'll let nature take it's cause (hartbreaking as it may be).
Last May I saw a lion cub with a badly broken right hind leg near Babala. I felt bad about the poor thing for the rest of the day, and even feel bad now thinking about it as it clearly was in a lot of pain. I had no way of helping it as its mother would probably have objected to my helping, but I didn't think the injury was man made so helping it would not have been the right thing to do.

The wildcat kitten should have been left on the road. Once you pick it up the mother won't accept it again as it will smell of man. Trying to help it by bringing it to a ranger may feel like the good thing to do, but I think it's wrong.

I'll make one exception though; if I find a wounded animal that is considered endangered then I'll probably try to save it as it might be used in a breeding program that in the end may help the species to survive.

Just my two cents though, other people may have other opinions.

Spot on Madach,

The ranger for Berg en Dal is situated next to Malelane Camp probably very close to where the kitten was and if there was need for help a trip down that short road to the house to report it would be the way to go.... but in all fairness you probably would have found that the kitten was left by the side of the road while mom was hunting or very possibly she was right there anyway. I know its hard seeing a defenceless little one...but as you say nature must take its course. I remember as a Teenager I watched a female spotty (hyena) kill 2 alone leopard cubs. I was close by with a friend and he had his Dads 416 ready to blow the hyena away but we decided to let it be. The worst part was seeing the leopard mother looking fruitlessly for her cubs the next day.

I'd like to be there when you report a wounded insect

Its true what Madach says.
Dont handle very young animals unless you are certain it can be saved by human intervention.
Mothers dont accept them anymore with humans smells
Lots of very young roebuck end up dead in my country because people want to cuddle them when they are found in nature.

416 is a calibre/rifle, right? Was it usual in those ancient times to visit Kruger armed?

[edit by gwen]

Another reason for not handling 'injured' or 'ill' animals is that it might be ill - and pass on the illness. Anthrax is very infectious and easily passed on to humans.

Richard

Hi christelsabine,

Nope .. Firearms have never been admitted into KNP .. Firearms are sealed at the entrance in a bag .. In fact, the only firearm allowed by tourists I believe is a handheld on like a pistol or revolver, and these get sealed .. and if the seal is broken you will have a lot of trouble ... serious trouble ...

We had the unfortunate experience of coming across a Leopard Tortoise which had only just been run over by a car and badly injured. A 4x4 had just passed us going in the oposite direction at considerable speed, which is when the tortoise would have been on that side of the road.
This poor creature had its shell cracked right across and its back legs badly damaged and was dragging itself across the road.
Dilemma, what now, we stopped next to it and debated long and hard over what we should do, I most likely would have picked it up and taken it into Skukuza if I had had anything suitable to place it in. My SO wasn't too sure.
Finally we just made sure it reached the side of the road and into the grass and left it with a heavy heart, hoping all the while it would not suffer too long.
I still wonder if we made the correct decision.

hi

Can anyone tell me how you differentiate between a mail and female rain spider?

also, what do they eat?

Much appreciated

By default the female spiders are bigger than the males.

Maybe some more expert person can tell us what they eat.

the females are often recognised by the width of the abdomen being greater than the width of the cephalothorax. In males it is the other way around - the cephalothorax is wider than the abdomen. However, if a female has just laid her eggs, it will be probably difficult to determine gender (unless you were naughty and watched her in her private moments of birth giving tsk tsk) as the abdomen will then almost certainly be narrower.

Eating... insects, moths, flies, roaches, naughty children etc. Often their activity is increased by rain, so on rainy evenings, they often come into dwellings, attracted by the insects which are attracted by the lights.

easy way to get rid of them, rather than playing squash, is use a large glass bottle, (clear glass is better) and place it over them, slide paper underneath, walk to your garden wall, and fling it in your neighbours direction.....

Family: Sparassidae (previously Heteropodidae)

Phylum: Arthropoda,
subphylum Chelicerata,
class Arachnida,
order Araneae,
suborder Araneomorpha


(The one found in my tent in Punda Maria. Not quite sharp unfortunately.)

In South Africa the Sparassidae include 7 genera; Eusparassus, Heteropoda, Olios, Palystes, Panaretella, Parapalystes and Pseudomicrommata. Olios, Palystes and Parapalystes are the most common genera in the Western Cape. Palystes common names include huntsman spiders, rain spiders, lizard-eating spiders and large wandering crab spiders.

This family contains very large hairy spiders with legs all turned sideways and forwards so the spiders can move sideways as well as straight ahead. The outer segments of each leg have dense scopulae which facilitate lateral movements. The typical body and leg colours are grey, brown and black, often with enough mottling to provide useful camouflage when the spiders are resting on bark surfaces. It is usual to find huntsman spiders under bark, although they will sometimes be found on the walls of man-made constructions.
They are very fast-moving, and they can deliver a painful bite. Please note that ALL true spiders have a certain amount of venom. Although most people are not affected by this species, some people may be allergic to the venom, or just more sensitive, making it a dangerous situation. This is one of the reasons that people should not handle this true spider. Affects of this true spiders' natural defenses may vary between people.

Palystes occurs mainly on plants where it hunts various insects but is also regularly found in the home where they are fond of hunting Geckos (usually the common Marbled gecko, Afrogecko porphyreus). Spiderlings eat flightless fruit flies, and pinhead crickets. Adults eat crickets, and other large insects.

source 1, source 2 and a very good page

Sorry, i did not know where else to post this. Can someone
please provide me with an example of a typical food chain found in the Kruger National Park?