Name: Claire-M. from Quebec E-mail: Not specified Dear Pondies, I wish it could bring peace, love and educated language to our sharing threads for this edition of NGM Wildcam Africa at Pete's Pond, Botswana. This site is offered to us by NGM which is giving us the opportunity to watch wildlife in a part of Mashatu Reserve in Botswana. - Our link with NGM is a very attentive gentleman, John Kondis, who recently while, on a well earned vacation, checked on the site and calmed a "pondal crisis" (Nancy/IN, you must find a definition for "pondal crisis", thank you.).
- Then, there is Pete Le Roux who is not offering us Pete's Pond, but who is the wonderful being dealing with the local problems (weather, programming, asking Cameron to come as a technical hel; findind new CAMERA OPERATOR FOR THE HIDE, etc.) making his best so that we are satisfied. Pete Le Roux is also a gentleman.
- Next come Cameron who is there when there are technical problems. He is there and most of the time we are unaware of his interventions. Cameron is also a gentleman.
- And now, our Camera Operators. I won't try to name all of them because I'm afraid to forget one. But, I want to name the Mashatu researchers and workers who gave their time to working the camera for us ... and also sharing their great knowledge of wildlife great and small and very small, our dear Paul, Jeanetta and Villiers. And Mpho who helping Jeanetta and Villiers with their researches and operations and working at Mashatu.
These scientists gave us their free time to man the camera and talk with us Pondies. Imagine ... us Pondies being able to share and talk with Jeanetta on elephants; Villiers on great cats ... of course his leopards being his preferred. And what about having Paul at the camera showing us his knowledge about birds, and smaller critters in the underworld of Pete's Pond ... a first.
- And our cameramen and camerawomen who all had to learn not only to man the camera, but to also please us Pondies. And, unhappily, to cope with sometimes harsh words and comment from people who are not true and dedicated Pondies. These very special people are for this year up to now : Gerrit, Elizabeth, Dane, Ivana, Malora, Alisha, Michael, Judd.
And my best wish is that, yes on auto panning cam we can have a slow pan and stops at best sighting possibilities. But WHO ARE WE TO ASK FOR A 24/24 manning of the camera???? Some of our great Pondies are able to share with us great moments that we missed. And,
- my next best thanks is to our Great Pondies who learned to capture, process and post photos and videos of the everyday life and also special live moments at Pete's Pond NGM site and also to the creators of Pete's Pond Spaces where you can find emotion, photos, poems, photos, stories sharing,
I spent a lot of time to choose the wright words to bring back calm and peace to this thread. Claire-M. from Quebec. P.S. Rose is my prefered colour. It's the colour of "affection". May I offer you a real rose elephant. This article was published in 2005. 
Battle for survival: This baby elephant, believed to be a very rare albino, was spotted in the Kruger National Park. Photo: Odette Joubert, The Star
| African sun puts albino jumbo at risk |
 | Melanie-Ann Feris
January 12 2005 at 09:06AM | |
The little one kept on rolling in the mud, as if trying to disguise its strange colour with the dirt.
The baby elephant, spotted among a herd in the southern part of the Kruger National Park, could be an albino or white elephant.
The baby is believed to be about a month old, and an older sibling and its mother seemed very protective of it.
Sadly, however, it is most probably doomed as it would be susceptible to the harsh African sun.
| 'As they were drinking I noticed a very light one' |
Odette Joubert and her husband, who have a house on the banks of the Crocodile River near Hectorspruit overlooking the Kruger Park, came across the little elephant.
"Yesterday morning (Monday) we were having breakfast when I saw the herd of elephants come to drink. As they were drinking I noticed a very light one, then they disappeared."
"Later we were lounging around the pool, and I saw the same herd and I grabbed my camera," Joubert said.
She said the herd came so close to the fence she was able to take pictures which clearly show the elephant's pink eyes and white eyelashes.
Joubert said the elephants, especially the mother and an older sibling were very protective.
"The baby kept on trying to roll in mud. Maybe he knows he is different," she said.
Joubert said she had spoken to a ranger in the park who said that albino elephants were very rare and that they might try and collar one of the herd to keep track of the group.
"They are very, very rare," said Dr Ian Whyte specialist scientist for large herbivores in the park.
"Sometimes you see some elephants with patches, particularly behind their ears, that don't have pigment. Some time ago I saw a newborn, who was pink, from a helicopter when we were doing a census.
"Maybe they are more common than we think they are but they just don't survive. It would struggle in the African sun," he said. - Environment Reporter.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on January 12, 2005
- This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on January 12, 2005
|
|