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We will be down at Augrabies this coming weekend and are thinking of booking a night drive purely for birding, in particular Double Banded Courser, Burchalls Courser and Bronze Winged Courser. Would just like to know if there have been any recent sightings of these birds??

Hi Batmad
Unfortunately the night drives will be closed this weekend from the 7-10,the nigth drive truck is gonna be used in Kgalagadi.
These bird species that you mentioned have not been spotted on the night drives,but on the far western section of the park during the day,won't help much as this section is still closed.
You would have been a fair change to see Double banded courser,I've only spotted Burchall courser one's on that section.

The following is the night drive sightings for the 02/04,was not able to put it on.
Hartmann zebra,eland,gemsbok,klipspringers and scrub hare.
Aardwolf
Black backed jackel
Spotted eagle owl,night-jars and thick-knee.

Aardwolf!!

That was a close up sighting,I was the one which was more exited than the tourist

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Thank you for sharing your excitement , sightings and knowledge with us, AG !

Thank you,just came back from a drive,but went out with the guess vehicle,giraffes close to Moonrock,troop of baboons as well,klipspringers at black ridges,booted eagle as well as sandsnakes,koringkrieke a lot in there canabalistic form.

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Good evening all just came back from a night drive,night sky was perfect for stargazing,giraffes closed to the road in the area of moonrock,gemsbok at the black ridges,scrub hare and spotted eagle owl.
The bonus was a very young porcupine.

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Hi Malealea/Bush baptist/Forumites
The long awaiting answer from Dr.Marna Herbst(Ecologist)
According to her it is important to realize that Sanparks has adopted a conservation paradigm that acknowledges the flux of nature and the importance of spatial and temporal patchiness and habitat heterogenity.Therefore we have moved away from the old ''carrying capacity'' concept(farm for maximum productivity) to one that conciders that we are managing complex systems that are not stable but that are allowed to move and change within parameters.This is all part of the adaptive management approach and this will form the basis when we review the Augrabies management plan this year.

Currently there are no plan to reintroduce large predators in AFNP.The restoration and maintenance of ecosystems functions is a key objective for Sanparks and predators do play a important role in ecosystems.However many of the smaller parks are either constraint by their size or the land is degraded(agriculture etc.) or disturb or many of the ecosystems functions are not fully functioning(i.e. lack of herbivore assemblages).Each parkhas their own set of park specific objectives and for AFNP these objectivesfocus very much more on vegetation and landscapes rahter than predator introductions.Ecosystem functioning can also be achieved throught mimicking certain processes therefore the role of predators can also be achieved througt mimicking their role rather than introducing predators into the park.

In historical times,larger predators such as lions,brown and spotted hyena as well as leopard and cheetah has been recorded in the Northern Cape.However it is also important to remember that many of the species in historical times may onle have move through the area towards the Orange river,following the prey/herbivores but they may not have been permanently resident in the park/area.Therefore althought the these species historically present our parks will not be able to reintroduce them back(due to park size,degraded lands).

The leopards that you find in Augrabies is the same same species Panthera pardus that you will find in the Kalahari-all leopards in SA belong to the the same species althought in the Cedarberg the size of the leopards are smaller and they do call them Cape leopards,when looking at the genetics they also cluster separately than the rest of leopards in SA, however it is still classified as the same spesies.With reintroductions Sanparks will take into account geographic locations and species indroductions do not happen haphazardly(a good example here will be the proposal to reintroduce klipspringer in Mokala-we do not have a source population and following NEMBA disrtibution maps we need to source klipspringer from the Free state,thus can not use klipspringer from Augrabies or Karroo).

This was a detailed response,hopes it help

That is very interesting indeed, AG, thank you!

Thanks for the reply. Fair enough!

I was aware that there is only one species of leopard.

The 'Cape' leopard has 'evolved' smaller because of the vast distances it covers and the size/amount of prey being smaller. I was told by a ranger at Cedarberg.

According to the Cape Leopard trust they declare it as a Subspecie now I´m confused.

@ AG
Thank you very much for the rspond it is very intresting to hear about the Plans and so on. I´m really intrested in another question. You mentionen a few weeks ago, that Brown Hayenas have been rekorded. or let me say signs of them. Can you tell us any News? That´´l be very intresting.

Sorry I just like to inform myself, since the beginning of Augrabies, did records exist, that large predators comeback naturally. In Europe we have a development with the wOLF population, they are comming back to Germany the spread starts in poland. AGKNP and KTP are not far away maybe a development like that is possible, maybe in even occurs.

AG, can you please reserve an aardwolf for the night of the 27th? or the 28th?

Malealea the differens are mainly distinctive morphologically characteristics,lead different live styles,prey species etc.(SUBSPECIES)
It is still management dicisions with regard to development.There were no sightings of brown hyena since.

Moose I am really scared to say that there is a chance,as I know what the sightings is like here,should just keep our fingers cross.

Good morning all
Could not go out on nightdrive last nigth due to the rains,tourist decide to go on the morning drive instead.It was still rewarding, 2 family groups of hartmann zebra on separate occasions,giraffes in kukurasiep(close up sighting), red hartebees close to the bridge, springbok close to the black ridges.
Gemsbok and klipspringers as well.
Scrub hare also in kukurasiep.
Bird species like Hamerkop,pale chanting goshwalk,african black duck,hadida ibis,three banded plover and black chested prinia were also seen.