BUSHBUCK HILLS NEWSLETTER April 2019

Lesser bushbaby (Galago moholi) Marlothi cabin. For those people looking for a quieter and more secluded stay on the farm, then Marlothi cabin might be worth considering. Water is provided via a JoJo tank on the top field and can be heated via a “donkey” adjacent to the cabin. The cabin itself has a sink, toilet and shower – all of which are functional! Cooking is done over a fire or gas stove (occupants supply). LED lights are powered via battery. There are two bedrooms, each of which has a set of bunk beds and a double bed, all of which have mattresses. Bedding may be available or just bring your own sleeping bags. Cooler bags or camping fridges must be taken with you. Towards the end of March the temperatures were still very high during the day but cooled off nicely in the evenings and night. This effectively meant that staying in the cabins during the day wasn’t possible but extremely pleasant from evening onwards. Bushbabies have been seen on various portions of the farm including the road to the bush camp, close to the White house and the one above in the acacias near to Marlothi cabin. In the right conditions they can be extremely numerous – apparently up to 500 per square kilometre! They are reported to live or rather sleep together in small groups but to hunt individually. The one above was part of a pair that were hunting in close proximity to one another. Their actions are rather cute and endearing, as they moved about the branches they were constantly moving their heads to look through all the possible angles of a sphere. Similarly to owls, bushbabies have huge eyes that are fixed in their Bushbuck ram (Tragelaphus scriptus) beside heads and hence Marlothi cabin. they have to move their whole head Foxy Emperor Charaxes jasius at Marlothi in order to look in a different direction. As the peer round them they seem to be continually changing their posture in order to see better. One moment crouching down as in the above photograph and the next standing up tall on their legs trying to spy out the next branch to leap to. This pair seemed quite relaxed and were followed for fifteen minutes or so before they finally decided to bounce away. Foxy emperor. The foxy emperor is a large and fast flying butterfly, as are most species within the Charaxes genus. Usually they are somewhat adverse to having their pictures taken. Fortunately this one was much attracted to a piece of charcoal from the fire – and no matter how many times it was disturbed and flew off, it always came back to the charcoal. As it sat there sucking nutrients from the charcoal it moved its hind wings individually up and down with its twin tails producing a sort of shearing action. Still, whilst it did allow photographs to be taken of the under sides of its wings, it never did sit with its wings open to allow the top sides to be seen. Stick insects are often attracted to lights left on over night and are then seen on the walls next to the lights the following morning. This one was seen on the walls at Huis Karee and rather unusually its wings were on display. When the wings are not actually spread they are exceedingly difficult to detect. The two photographs here show the same insect, with and without the wings spread – quite a Giant stick insect (Bactrododema tiaratum) B. tiaratum with wings spread difference!

Freshwater crabs. Apparently there are 19 species of freshwater crabs in South Africa, all within the Potamonautes genus. They range from being extremely common to extremely rare. This one was found towards the top of the stream. The contents of the carapace were missing as was most of the body and legs. Whilst it’s difficult to be sure it looked like the work of a water mongoose (Atilax paludinosus). This mongoose species feed on crabs (amongst other items) but Freshwater crab Potamonautes sp. - bits of. tend to leave the large and harder chitinous parts behind. Otters on the other hand would have eaten Water mongoose print the entire crab. Prints of water mongoose have been seen on the farm (Atilax paludinosus) previously as in the photo to the right taken in 2014. The identification of the species that made the print was verified by Louis Liebenberg of cybertrack.org and author of various tracks and tracking guides. Millipede Dung beetle interaction re-visited. Thanks to Professor Clarke Schultz the interaction between “Dung Beetle” and millipede in the last edition of the newsletter has been clarified. The interaction involved a “Dung beetle” - Scarabaeus but of the sub genus Sceliages. This group of dung beetles feeds exclusively on millipedes typically taking possession of the millipede, or parts there of, after they’ve been killed by assassin bugs – see December 2016 newsletter. There is apparently no indication that they actually kill millipedes themselves. Brood balls constructed by the beetles are coated in soil, possibly to slow the rate of decomposition of the millipede segments. This is the only groups of beetles that both coat the brood balls in soil and stay round long enough to look after the young. For anyone interested there is a very informative book available on dung beetles: “The African dung beetle genera”, A Davis, Andry Frolov, C Scholtiz. Trail camera photos.

Juvenile warthogs squaring off with crests raised This pair of juvenile warthogs were caught a number of times on a camera trap mock fighting. Somewhat unusually their “crests” were very evident as they were playing - something that isn’t usually seen. Both the prints of aardvark and a brief glimpse of the animal itself were captured by normal and trail camera respectively – the latter was taken at 02:41 in the morning. The prints of aardvark are very distinctive with three toes showing, though sometimes two sets of overlapping antelope prints may cause confusion. The camera trap also picked up a large porcupine out for a stroll at about at 08:30 in the morning. Aardvark print

Porcupine out for a morning stroll The aardvark itself! Dodder this is an obligate parasitic member of the morning glory family originating in North America. As the seedling grows the tip spirals round until it finds a host plant. When it reaches that plant it sends out haustoria – effectively roots but these ones penetrate the stems of plants and extract fluids. Once it has penetrated a plant its own roots “rot” off leaving it firmly anchored to the host plant. From there it sends off other shoots to find new hosts. After a while a whole area can be covered with a spiders web of yellow vines. Previously we’ve seen a lot of this at the South West extreme of the top field. That patch seemed to disappear of its own accord – quite fortunately as it’s considered an absolute Dodder (Cuscuta campestris) noxious and very difficult to get rid of weed that kills its hosts plants...

Poison bulb As its common name implies it is poisonous to many forms of livestock and was apparently used to anoint bushman arrows. On the other hand it is a distinctive and attractive looking plant. As can be seen in this photo it has a distinctive fan shape whilst the individual leaves have an attractive twist. Usually the bulb (which is large) usually sticks half way out the ground and is seen in the winter time as a corm without any vegetation. Whilst it doesn’t flower regularly, when it does it is very impressive forming a spherical inflorescence almost the size of a football before the leaves are produced. The colour is pink and Poison bulb (Boophone disticha) apparently induced to some extent by bushveld fires.

Edible fruit As per the last newsletter the fruit of the red ivory tree are edible by both animals and man. Recently the trees have been covered by this fruit as can be seen in the adjacent photo. The fruits (drupe) range in colour, starting green and progressing through yellow, orange, red and finally black. A distinct lack of black ones are evident in the photo due to a sampling, followed by the discovery that they really are good to eat! There appears to be a distinct browsing line on the trees perhaps evidence of antelope also enjoying them. Because of the height of this line you might be wise to pack a pair of step ladders in your rucksack if you’re thinking of picking Red Ivory (Berchemia zeyheri) fruit some. Veld violet is an attractive and hardy plant that also has an extended flowering period. It’s flowers are rather similar to those of the garden plant “Forest bells” or Mackaya bella. Veld Violet (Ruellia cordata) It’s Moth time of the year!

Natal sphinx (Macropoliana natalensis) M. natalensis with ruler

This rather large and distinctive “hawk” moth was found sitting on the bricks outside the back door of Huis Karee. The second photograph, with tape measure next to it, gives an idea of the size – approx 110 mm across the wings when open to their fullest. It looks very impressively in real life. This rather colourful banded emperor moth was found in the sheds adjacent to the main building by the farm management. Indeed it almost forced its attentions on them by flying directly at them. Its wing span is similar to the Natal sphinx above at 110 mm across the wing Banded emperor (Cinabra hyperbius) tips. Photo courtesy Farm Management. Another very colourful, though much smaller, moth is the Cherry spot. When it’s in peak condition it has six yellow tufts of hair on top of its head – though only four can be seen here. That together with the black lines and the not forgetting the red “cherry” spot makes it a very attractive Cherry spot (Diaphone eumela) looking moth. Owls – well of a sort! Both of these moths are commonly seen about the farm, with the cream-striped owl being attracted by rotting fruits, beer and wine. Given the manner in which it holds its wings outspread it might easily be mistaken for a butterfly. The faint owl on the other hand sits in a much more “moth” like attitude. It is also known at the Yinyang moth … which does seem rather appropriate. Cream-striped owl (Cyligramma latona) Faint owl (Cometaster pyrula) Citrus swallow tails are large, colourful, daytime flying butterflies. Their offspring are well know to people having citrus trees as they feed voraciously on the leaves of those plants. These caterpillars are rather interesting as they disguise themselves, very successfully as bird droppings! Striped hawk moth (Celerio lineata) Citrus swallowtails (Papilio demodocus) The striped hawk is a night time flier, though in common with all of the moths within sphingidae family it is extremely adept at fast and accurate flight. A number of the moths in this family are known for their hovering abilities – the day time flying ‘African humming bird’ moth, being one of the best known of these Tracks by the dam.

Marsh terrapin trail Detail of front and rear prints Detail of each foot print (Pelomedusa subrufa) Looking at animal tracks by the dams always seems to bring something interesting to light. The images above were initially seen from afar and a game ensued of trying to guess what made them prior to seeing them up close and personal. Of course once the scales from the under side of the animals feet were visible in the prints then it became clear that they had been made by a member of the testudines order – an order including tortoises, turtles and terrapins. The identification of the owner being a marsh terrapin, is mostly an educated guess – the tracks went into the dam and couldn’t be found coming out again, so it’s less likely to have been made by a tortoise (though leopard tortoises are reported to be able to swim) and the dam is inhabited by many terrapins. Terrapins do have longer claws than leopard tortoises which might allow for differentiation between the tracks to be made … but only if you could see both sets of tracks together.. The terms terrapin, tortoise and turtle appear to have different meanings to different people and also between different countries. South Africa for the most part seems to follow the UK nomenclature with the use of turtle for marine dwelling species, terrapin for fresh water species and tortoise for those that dwell on the land. Birds Pale flycatchers are one of those birds that falls into most peoples definition of LBJ’s (Little Brown Jobs) and as such are usually rather difficult to identify with any great certainty. One of the pair in the photograph to the left ,was perching on a branch of a tree about two metres off the ground occasionally swooping down to attack and eat insects close to or even on the ground. Whilst it was suspected to be a Pale fly catcher the identification was by no mean definite – the farm plays host to a number of other different flycatcher species including: Southern black, Pale, Spotted, fiscal, marico and grey tit. Playing the call of various flycatchers elicited no particular response from the bird. However, when the call of a pale flycatcher was played, the bird being watched, plus two others immediately flew out the tree and towards the source of the noise. The birds then sat in a nearby tree calling loudly to each other and anyone else willing to listen. So pale flycatcher they were – almost Pale flycatcher definitely! The lesser grey shrike in comparison to the flycatchers is a very simple bird to identify. It is one of our regular non breeding summer visitors – though not always very common. It is a palearctic migrant spending its time during our winter months in parts of Europe and Western Asia where it breeds. In Europe it is now becoming rather scarce though it’s overall numbers haven’t seen a particular drop. At the moment at least two or three of these birds may be seen sitting on fences or trees round the top field. Flying kites – or in this case a kite sitting on a branch. There are two main subspecies of kite that visit South Africa as Lesser grey shrike summer visitors – yellow-billed and black. The two subspecies can be difficult to tell apart because the juveniles of the yellow- billed kites don’t have yellow bills (yellow cere but black bill). That being the case we’ll stick at species level which according to Robert’s VII is black kite. This one was taken on the eucalyptus tree adjacent to the farm on the way back to Swartruggens (which now stocks various species of larger felidae including lions, tigers, caracals, servals etc). It’s suggested that the black subspecies often gathers in large numbers and roost on alien trees such as Eucalyptus – which was certainly the case here with at least 30 plus birds either perching on a eucalyptus tree or actively flying in the immediate area. They are known to be opportunistic feeders and are possibly taking advantage of the food being set out for the felidae. The black subspecies migrates from as far afield as Europe whilst the yellow billed has a shorter Black kite (Milvus migrans) migration route from Northern Africa. “Foot” Notes: Human. It’s easy to forget, or to just ignore the fact that there are ticks on the farm, their numbers increasing or decreasing generally in line with the seasons and the amount of rain we’ve been having. Those of the Amblyomma genus can carry the Rickettsia africae bacterium that is responsible for African Tick Bite Fever (ATBF). Although helpfully listed as non fatal on the web, the symptoms associated with ATBF do appear to range quite widely in severity . Tick bite eschar Anecdotally it would appear as though the first time a person is infected, may well be the worst time. The photo here is of the eschar believed to be the source of an infected tick bite received at BBH. The resultant infection seems to have been at the more severe end of the spectrum with the person involved not making a full recovery for almost 6 weeks. Symptoms are flu like with the victim suffering from fever, headaches, lack of appetite, general lassitude and worst of all an inclination to lie in bed whilst they should be out fishing (but that’s another story). The take-home note of all this is that it’s probably best to check for ticks during and after a walk in the veld – or even consider wearing long trousers.

Animal. Photos taken by trail cameras can be quite frustrating, or sometimes rather exciting in equal amounts. The identification of animals taken by them is not always easy and that is the case with the one here. A single photograph (the trap is set to take three on any given trigger) and the result is a single picture of a foot – oh and a shadow! Well it certainly looks like a cat paw, that together with the lack of spots and the “size” of the shadow makes for an educated guess of Caracal. Various share holders have reported seeing them on the farm, though this is the first time the newsletter team have managed to capture an image! Caracal (Caracal caracal)

Rainfall in mm. 2019 2018 Delta February 11 28 -17 March 0 11 -11 April so far 87 64 +23

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