Over the past 25 years, I have spent a lot of time counting lions as part of my job. Only last month, I spent three hours with two males – possibly brothers – right next to my car in Maze National Park, Ethiopia. Lions come in the night, very quietly. Despite weighing well over 20 […]

An application to the High Court of South Africa has been lodged to release three elephants, known as Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba from the Johannesburg Zoo into a rewilding facility. According to Animal Law Reform South Africa (ALRSA) these elephants are currently being held in conditions unsuited to their basic needs, and they are living […]

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) Customs unit, working with the South African Police Service (SAPS), have successfully foiled an attempt to smuggle rhino horn out of the country. (Sadly too late for the rhino themselves, slaughtered for their horn which is smuggled to countries like China and Vietnam where some people mistakenly believe they […]

Growing up, for me, it was always about the Lion. Being born from the Lion Clan made it worse and I heard many stories about this formidable King of the Beasts… writes Jinxy S Luther, a safari guide and operator at Delta Guides Safaris in Botswana. One day, probably I was only 7 to eight […]

It was quite an emotional day today for everyone who fell in love with Felix, a Subantarctic Fur Seal that has been relaxing on Klein Brak Beach on the Mossel Bay coast the last few days. At around lunchtime, Felix wandered back into the ocean and swam away. Stranded Marine Animal Rescue Team (SMART) – […]

A multi-disciplinary team at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) have been applauded for their vigilance in detecting, preventing and clamping down on illicit activities – particularly poaching – at the international airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. The SA Police Service (SAPS) General Fannie Masemola commended the team for the arrest of a 41-year-old man, and […]

South African National Parks today, 25 May 2022, welcomed yet another heavy sentence handed down to three rhino poachers by the Skukuza Regional Court on Tuesday, 24 May 2022. Isaac Zitha 41, Oscar Ndlovu 38, Richard Mkhombo 39, – all South African – were convicted by the court on twelve charges related to rhino poaching. […]

One of the 11 young and adventurous bull elephants that walked over 700 km from Mozambique to the Kruger National Park, has sadly had to be euthanised due to severe injury. The elephant had tried so valiantly to keep up with the rest of the herd, and was filmed limping behind Trailblazer (see video below), […]

Yesterday was very exciting, writes Bron Kotze, owner of Mlondozi Self-catering Chalet in Malelane, near the Kruger border. After having followed the news on the Elephants Alive Facebook page, of a group of elephants that were making their way north from Mozambique (over 700kms!), I was delighted to hear yesterday morning that they had reached […]

A group of 11 elephant bulls in Southern Africa – apparently led by an elephant nicknamed Trail Blazer – have journeyed over 700km from Mozambique to reach the Kruger National Park, Trailblazer’s original home. Thanks to Trail Blazer’s tracking collar, their journey has been monitored to ensure as much safety as possible, although sadly it […]

Four massive male lions – including a white one – caused a massive traffic jam in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Watch below. It has to be the coolest traffic jam ever… as the four lions stroll down the middle of the road, heads held high with total confidence and disregard for the waiting […]

A field ranger in the Kruger National Park (KNP) was tragically killed yesterday (4 May 2022) during a confrontation with a buffalo. Field Ranger and Dog Handler Shando Mathebula was on duty in the Shangoni Section, in the northern part of the Kruger where he was based, when the tragedy occurred. The Acting Chief Executive […]

South African filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert – who are based in Botswana – have been awarded the prestigious 2021 Explorers Club Medal at the 118th Explorers Club Annual Dinner. Previous honorees of the Explorers Club (which was founded in New York City in 1904) include the world’s all-time greatest explorers like Neil Armstrong to Sir Edmund […]

With rhino poaching in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) reaching monstrous levels, there comes a glimmer of hope that action is being taken to protect some of South Africa’s precious wildlife. Four Black Rhino have been successful translocated as part of a leading conservation programme to a safer location that will help the expansion of the species. Between […]

This afternoon, two of South Africa’s most famous best friends will be appearing live on Facebook… to the delight of their fans around the planet, and in a bid to raise funds for the world’s largest orphaned rhino sanctuary, Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary in SA. The BFFs are baby zebra Modjadji and baby rhino […]

One of the last of Africa’s iconic big tuskers has been killed by a trophy hunter in Botswana. The iconic elephant was one of Botswana’s few ‘hundred-pounder’ elephants, which refers to those elephants with at least one tusk weighing 100 pounds (45kg). In fact, this elephant was extraordinary because he had about 200 pounds (90kg) […]

A  newly-formed pack of African Wild Dog has been successfully released in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP). The release took place on Saturday 2 April and is a great step forward in conservation efforts for this priority species. African Wild Dogs are Southern Africa’s most Endangered Carnivore with only 5,000 to 6,000 left in the wild, […]

African penguins, whose populations have rapidly decline over the last century, may go extinct in the next few decades, according to experts in South Africa. Listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN), the African penguin population has been plummeting due to multiple human factors, from industrial fishing to fuel spills. […]

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The World Bank has issued the world’s first wildlife conservation bond, raising $150 million to help efforts to increase the endangered black rhino population in South Africa, the bank said in a statement on Thursday. The five-year ‘rhino bond’ issued on Wednesday will pay investors returns based on the rate of growth […]

South African National Parks (SANParks) today, 19 March 2022, welcomed the sentence meted out by the Skukuza Regional Court to a man convicted on 12 counts associated with poaching. The accused, Mike Nyathi, a 39 year old Mozambican man with a South African citizenship, faced 14 charges relating to two separate cases of rhino poaching. […]

You don’t often see killer whales in Algoa Bay (in the Eastern Cape, South Africa), so you can imagine the excitement when Raggy Charters – Marine-Eco Cruises spotted TWELVE of them this week! “Initially we saw two males with their tall dorsal fins breaking the surface,” says Raggy Charters. “As we looked around our catamaran […]

Cape fur seals are washing up dead on the Cape Coast in South Africa, with instances of up to 80 seal carcasses found along the coast (although witnesses say they’ve personally counted more than 200 in one go). This week current affairs programme Carte Blanche investigates what could be the cause of the mass seal […]

It’s not often you find an elephant in your garden, but a family who live in the Kruger National Park returned home on Sunday to discover they’d had an unexpected visit from an elephant while they were out! Fortunately, their neighbour managed to evict the uninvited guest, and film the incident. Watch below. Dutch expat, […]

CAPE TOWN – The South African government is marking World Wildlife Day with trophy hunting quotas that will sacrifice vulnerable leopards, endangered elephant and critically endangered black rhino “as conservation tool(s)”… although their conservation claim is being undermined by a new report which shows that 83% of exported trophies from SA are in fact captive-bred […]

Eastern Cape tourism relies on the influx of sun worshipers and water sports enthusiasts to East London’s white beaches and the Nahoon Estuary Nature Reserve. So, why are ageing pipes and broken pump stations leaking sewage (which stinks!) into this tourist treasure? Carte Blanche investigates… “It’s unbelievable to imagine that we are in one of […]