Oltukai Conservancy

Category: Uncategorized, Wildebeest, general wildlife, lions, predators, zebra | Date: Dec 02 2008 | By: oltukaiconservancy

This morning the Ol Tukai Game Scouts called to report lions have moved into the conservancy. This is a rare occurrence in the conservancy because during dry months the larger prey species like zebras and wildebeest migrate north to the Serengeti or south to the near by Tarangire national park.  During the rainy seasons, November-December and April-May the lions occasionally follow the herds to the fresh grazing grass of Ol Tukai.  Patrick Fleming Ol Tukai Team

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Category: education, general wildlife, predators | Date: Sep 16 2008 | By: oltukaiconservancy

New Sightings from Ol Tukai!

In the last few weeks many reports have come into the Ol Tukai Conservancy office from eye witness accounts and game scout accounts of Leopard, Cheetah and Hyena sightings within the Conservancy. This is great news to the team at Ol Tukai because sightings of leopards and cheetahs have been exceptionally rare here over the last several years.

Just last night, September 15th, another report was received from Sidan Lodge staff of a leopard strolling around the area. For those who don’t know, Sidan Tented Lodge is our newly constructed eco safari camp nestled in the heart of the Ol Tukai Conservancy.

At around 8:30 p.m. local time, the Ol Tukai game scouts and myself, looking through night vision goggles from the safety of one of the Sidan lodge tents, suddenly spotted the leopard casually meandering through the middle of camp. After a short time, the leopard went on his way, undisturbed by our presence.

In addition to sightings such as that of last night, there have been accounts of many other species of wildlife in the area. Within the immediate vicinity of Sidan Lodge, there are daily sightings of Thompson Gazelle, Giraffe, Reed Buck and other small species of antelope. Avian species found in camp include Ostrich, Yellow neck spur foul, Secretary birds, Kory Bustards, Lilac-Breasted Rollers and many others.

The frequency and diversity of recent wildlife sightings have given us hope that the construction of the lodge appears to have had little to no effect on the eco-system in and around the campsite and Conservancy at large. Needless to say, life is thriving in Ol Tukai!

More updates to come soon…

Thanks from the Ol Tukai Team.

-Patrick Fleming

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Category: Wildebeest, general wildlife, predators | Date: Apr 04 2008 | By: admin

The Wildebeest (Eastern Race of the White-Bearded Gnu, not to be confused with the Serengeti gnu’s, the Western Race) are normally associated with flat open land areas, and that these animals will therefore do well only in the Northern grassland savanna areas where scattered trees also occur.These Wildebeests prefer an open land of Tarangire-Manyara ecosystems (including OL Tukai village, where The Conservancy is operating).

The social structure consists of a territorial bull with few cows and calves.Such groups may join up with other groups( they are really moving in a hundreds and thousands herds). Normally these are also bachelor herds of young, older bulls and mixed herds. The mating season occurs in April and may, where the gestation period is about nine months, and the Calves are born, during late January and February.The Calves are able to walk ten minutes after birth and join the herds, The Calves hide in the tall grasses for the first week after birth. Later they walk with their mothers. The Wildebeests are actually grazers, in which they can eat up to one third of their weight in a short time.Their food consists almost entirely of grasses, but ocasionally seeds, stalks and leaves.

Lions, Hyenas and Leopards are responsible for predation of Wildebeests. Although it is young, weak and old animals which are mostly attacked/killed by Lions, Hyaenas and Leopards,
Below find the pictures of the Wildebeests while grazing in the open land.
Thank you for your interest on these animals.
Boniface Ngimojino.

Tags: , 517, 523, 547

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Category: Wildebeest, general wildlife, predators | Date: Mar 25 2008 | By: admin

Hallo All!

Just received the latest report from the game scouts at Ol Tukai. For the first time in years we have wildebeest breeding again in Ol Tukai. This is a wonderful development and really bodes well for our effort. The scouts got a photo which shows the young wildebeest, its not the clearest image but the animals are there!

We also have more and more predation within the conservancy…now on wildlife as opposed to livestock…which is a great relief and another demonstration of how the land set aside for wildlife is recovering well.

Also we had a lovely herd of Elephants in Ol Tukai last month. They were very nervous and stuck to good cover but the scouts managed to get a decent photo of them…

Thanks again for all the support!

Tags: 330, 474, 517, 523, 535, 6

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