Current Tusker - Bidzane

[RosemaryH]

Current Tusker - Bidzane

Photo by Arks Smith


Origin of Name: Named in memory of Gus Adendorff who served as a ranger in the Kruger National Park for 27 years. (‘Bidzane’ is Swahili and refers to the zebra skin band around the hat that Gus always wore)


Read more about Bidzane Here

[Crested Val]

We saw him near Letaba several years ago!!

[Kaapsedraai]

Interesting fact about Gus Adendorf (a ranger from 1950 - 1977): He wrote a book titled "Wild Company' and at the back is a seven single record with animal sounds he personally recorded. Gus' son, John Adendorf' is the head ranger based in ADDO NP and a very pleasant guy.

I would love to meet the ellie named after Gus Adendorf one day....

[Crested Val]

Interesting fact about Gus Adendorf (a ranger from 1950 - 1977): He wrote a book titled "Wild Company' and at the back is a seven single record with animal sounds he personally recorded. Gus' son, John Adendorf' is the head ranger based in ADDO NP and a very pleasant guy.

I would love to meet the ellie named after Gus Adendorf one day....

We found him to be a gentle giant.............even though we (almost) literally bumped into him!!!
We came around a corner, and there he was in the middle of the road.
I'm not sure who was more startled...........him or us!!!

[arks]

Emerging Tusker - Bidzane



Origin of Name: Named in memory of Gus Adendorff who served as a ranger in the Kruger National Park for 27 years. (‘Bidzane’ is Swahili and refers to the zebra skin band around the hat that Gus always wore)
Range: North of Letaba

Read more about Bidzane Here

Barry, what about giving me credit both for my photo and for being the winner of the first Emerging Tusker competition?!? (I see credit is given in the link, but I'd appreciate you adding this information to your post here.)

@ Val: do you have pix? My understanding is that no one has seen "my" ellie since I had three extraordinary encounters with him in 2006 -- which are recounted in my 2006 trip report(s) if anyone is interested.

@ barry: I don't have time to search for those trip report links, but Aat gave me full credit for "discovering" Bidzane and quoted (with my permission) extensively from my reports of him on his website. SANParks needs to do better on giving similar suitable credit.

[Highbury]

The Sanparks write up says that this bull was first photographed in 2006 . That is not true . I photographed this bull in August 2005 - refer the pics on Tuskers of Africa site . These pictures were submitted to Sanparks at the time also .

[RosemaryH]

The Sanparks write up says that this bull was first photographed in 2006 . That is not true . I photographed this bull in August 2005 - refer the pics on Tuskers of Africa site . These pictures were submitted to Sanparks at the time also .

Hi Highbury
I will pass your comments on to SANParks.
May I ask you to please email the 2005 photo's to [email protected] or to myself ( I will PM my address to you) to have a look at.
Thanks

[Meandering Mouse]

The Sanparks write up says that this bull was first photographed in 2006 . That is not true . I photographed this bull in August 2005 - refer the pics on Tuskers of Africa site . These pictures were submitted to Sanparks at the time also .

Highbury, that is a very serious claim. Do you have pictures that you can post? If not< it remains hearsay.

[Highbury]

As I said in my post - the pictures are posted on Aat's site if you want to see them .

[RosemaryH]

Hi Highbury

I have private messaged you - please check your inbox. Thanks

[RosemaryH]

The Sanparks write up says that this bull was first photographed in 2006 . That is not true . I photographed this bull in August 2005 - refer the pics on Tuskers of Africa site . These pictures were submitted to Sanparks at the time also .

Hi Highbury, please see the following reply

I have gone through all the records and the emails from Highbury, who is well known to the project and has submitted numerous valuable images over the years. There has definitely been an error but certainly not intentionally so my apologies for that.

I checked the records of the tuskers competition. The info on the submission being referred to does clearly state 2005 but on the judging sheet the identification was recorded as not certain and it was marked as probably Timaka, with a question mark.

Highbury's submission was recorded much earlier in the year than the submission from arks so was judged first, meaning we were not aware of Bidzane at that stage. arks images were defining and gave close up detail of the ear markings and it was only after arks submission that subtle differences between the 2 bulls was noted resulting in Bidzane being named as a bull in the same area as Timaka, the only difference being the location of the small hole beneath the tear in the ear. This would explain why in 2007 when Highbury emailed again, given the new knowledge we had I could determine that the original submission was Bidzane. Unfortunately the competition data is not reviewed after the initial judging so the records there were not changed.

I have now updated the tuskers competition data with the correct ID of Bidzane, Bidzanes data sheet, Bidzane's information in the hall and on the website to read appropriately given this information.

[Sharifa]

As an example, on the TOA website there are numerous images identified as Bidzane. But further down are yet more images identified as the same animal but are mis-identifications. This causes serious problems with the accuracy of the data and again waters down the validity of the project.

from here

There has definitely been an error but certainly not intentionally so my apologies for that.

I have now updated the tuskers competition data with the correct ID of Bidzane, Bidzanes data sheet, Bidzane's information in the hall and on the website to read appropriately given this information.

Seems we are all mere mortals who can and do make mistakes.