Tales from the African Swamp

[grasshopper]

I haven't visited this website for many moons, so I thought I'd stop by and show a couple of trail camera pictures from out here in the African boonies.

This is an African Bushbuck, (Tragelaphus scriptus), in a rare pose in the wild, next to my catfish ponds. I posted this picture at ChasingGame.com, so apologies if you've seen it already.

[WolfCub]

Gorgeous beast. Saw glimpses of dik-dik near where I lived when had some time in Uganda. Only glimpses though.
Got a trail cam now and enjoying setting it up near home in the UK. Would love to have had one when overseas.

Thanks for posting this.

[grasshopper]

Thanks for the reply, WolfCub. Bush buck are also native to Uganda, according to my book here. With totally unrestricted, year-round hunting in this neck of the woods, however, deer like these are the closest thing to big game left in the wild.

It is odd but true that most Africans living in Africa, who haven't been to the very few zoos around them, actually see far less wildlife over their lifetimes than do city-residents in the UK who spot urban deer and foxes regularly, and get to see animals from the world over on day-trips to the far more numerous zoos and animal parks in Britain.

I'll be setting up a couple more trail cameras deeper in the swamp, with the hopes of capturing the larger and even more elusive Sitatunga deer (Tragelaphus spekie), that rarely leaves its watery home.

While there, I'm thinking of setting up a "Monkey-Cam", maybe baited with bananas, to encourage visits by the large troops of those little fellas that call the river forest home.

[WolfCub]

Very true. We were lucky enough to make contact with a senior Park Ranger there and got to see plenty of animals in the Murchison Falls Park and Queen Elizabeth Park.
Local to us was only really small and very elusive stuff.

I managed to help one of the Ugandans I worked most with get a scholarship to a college in the UK. While he was here we took him to a zoo/safari park, can't recall which one.
When we were watching the handlers with the elephants he started to very excitedly and animatedly recount a story passed to him by his Uncle.
When the Uncle was a young boy he was involved as a 'noise maker' in the hunt of what turned out to be the last elephant in his district. He got too enthusiastic and too close and was chased by the elephant as the men of the village were trying to bring it down.
They did kill it, eventualy, and the whole village community ate very well.

This was all recounted with the amazing and colourfully energetic enthusiasm of a gifted African story teller ...... to the gradually quitening discomfort and disaproval of those around us ..... it was priceless !

As you say, the only elephant my friend had ever seen, and many other African animals, were those in the zoo that day.

Looking forward to any other pic's you might catch and put up here.

[grasshopper]

Ha ha that story of an African village elephant kill told at a zoo in the UK captures the attitude much of Africa has to wildlife, which is frequently classified as "big meat" or "small meat", rather than by species.

I hope to have some more pictures soon. Just found another heavily used deer trail. Turns out that the construction of my catfish ponds along the river forests fringes has created a safe zone for deer to breed where the hunters and their dogs can't reach.

I've been an avid deer hunter much of my adult life, and yet now, as already diminishing wildlife habitat makes way for farmland here, the challenge for me has become catching what deer are left on film, as opposed to stalking them to harvest venisson.

[grasshopper]

My camera set up under a bamboo stand beside the swamp rainforest. The place was plastered with deer tracks, but they were all of a smaller upland deer species, so it was a surprise to see the Lord of the Manor make this guest appearance, emerging from the swamp to perform an energetic dance for the camera.

The Sitatunga Deer is about the most elusive and hard to spot life-form out here, so this is truly a very rare chance to see one relaxed and doing his alpha male thing on an African dusk outing.

[grasshopper]

This is my best closeup so far of a Bushbuck. This doe grazed past my camera a few days ago. She's been around a few times in the past.