Conservation

In the crazy and insecure Covid-19 months it is a challenge at it is to get enough funds together to keep the excellent care and feeding of the many animals going. No one knows yet how long it will take before things will go better. For emergencies like buying a new engine for a sport aircraft to assist anti-poaching, there’s not much left. But as you will all understand, it is very important that the anti-poaching work continues to not give free way to the ones destroying all beautiful wildlife.

So if you can please, please find the kindness in your heart to help sponsoring this very good cause. If you want to give a donation to a cause that is worth support, we can surely recommend this. Here’s the story in a nutshell by Sean Hensman of Adventures with elephants, anti-poaching of rhino, elephants and all other wildlife in need.

The story in a nutshell. We purchased the light sport aircraft from an APU near the Kruger, as they were upgrading their aircraft from the Surveillance BatHawks to another faster aircraft, with a longer range to reach further into wilderness areas quicker. We didn’t have the funds for the faster aircraft, and didn’t feel we needed to be as fast or have the endurance that the previous owner did, so decided on the BatHawk which is a great Low & Slow aerial platform. Since purchasing our BatHawk we have used the aircraft to assist the greater community / area with conservation work as well as security work from the air, and in doing so it had become an invaluable tool for the wider area. We have used the BatHwak to find rhino that have been poached, wounded and even simply not seen for a few days. We have found other wildlife that have been injured, caught in snares and even just done basic counts to monitor numbers. We have monitored wild bush fires, assisted tracking teams from the air, caught poachers and criminals as well as conducted surveillance flights around the area.

Sadly on a routine flight Mike had a catastrophic engine failure, he was lucky enough to land safely without damaging the airframe of the aircraft but the engine is beyond repair. So we have had to purchase a ‘new’ second hand one, sadly insurance doesn’t cover engine damages. The prop broke in the incident so we have had to purchase a new propeller too, and have to get the aircraft re-certified to fly.
All a bit of an issue especially now during Covid with no funds coming in. To top off our woes there has been a spike in poaching in the wider area and the APU’s have asked for our aerial support on many occasions which we haven’t been able to help with due to the aircraft being grounded.

For details how to donate please go to AdventuresWithElephants.com.

Thanks so much in advance!!!

The Iriomote cat (Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis) is a subspecies of the leopard cat that lives exclusively on the Japanese island of Iriomote. It is critically endangered.

We received an e-mail and an excellent drawing by Masahiro Tateishi.
He is a Japanese wildcat enthusiast. He asked us to put this cat species in the spotlight again.
The Iriomote Wildlife Conservation Center reported only 110 Iriomote cats in 2016 and ever since it only went downhill for the numbers of this species. It is very rare to have a good sighting of this cat. Luckily we can show you this great drawing and some pictures of the Conservation Center. To follow their great conservation work for the Iriomote cat, go to their website.

The pampas cat is a small wild cat native to South America, It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List as habitat conversion and destruction may cause the population to decline in the future. It is also known as Pantanal cat and colocolo in parts of its range.