I heard from Anna and Steve at Chipembele-Zambia a few days ago. Chipembele is one of the projects we support in The Luangwa Valley in Zambia.

http://www.chipembele.org

They had sundowners on the water in the company of an armful of primates and Douglas the Hippo.

Douglas did his best to knock the drinks from their hands and knock them into the water, but all was okay in the end.

 

 

Hi Dave

The Luangwa rose about 6 foot yesterday, making it the deepest it’s been
all year…there must have been a lot of rain somewhere upstream,
judging by the foam as well! In the morning, I was walking along the
beaches with the dogs. Within 2 hours, the beaches had gone.

Doug went mad yesterday when Anna and I sat in the boat for sundowners.
He pushes the boat from all angles, then tries to bite it! If the boat
was any smaller, he would overturn it! He’s just playing really.

You can begin to understand why I was a bit shaken by my last canoe
trip, 600km, with several hundred incidents of annoyed hippos that
chased the canoe and tried to overturn me…plus the giant croc trying
to eat me!

Doug was staying in the Chowo confluence a lot recently, but now the
water is high, a small pod of hippos have taken it over today!

All the best, Steve

 

More Chipembele rescue updates:

Little Mykey has made lots of friends. Everyone loves him. He loves being mothered and there are plenty of willing volunteers.

Here are some pictures of him playing with his mates and loving a cuddle.

 

Rescued Scrub Hare released back into the wild

A slightly belated Happy New year to everyone! I have recently returned from a fabulous family holiday which included an amazing week in the Serengeti. We were lucky enough to see over a million animals in the migration herds – so beautiful, I am at a loss for words, for once!  Anyway back in the UK now and back to OAT business…

Successful Baby Elephant Rescue

Some great news from Game Rangers International, one of OAT’s sponsored projects in Zambia.

Last week their Elephant Orphan Project (EOP) started an orphaned elephant awareness campaign in the Lower Zambezi. This involved Senior Keepers, talking to communities along the river about the importance of rapid response when young elephants are seen alone.

On day 4 of the campaign EOP was made aware of a young elephant alone on an island. It was monitored for a few days to see if it’s Heard returned. Sadly this didn’t happen, so yesterday, with full support from the Zambian Wildlife Authority and local operators, EOP rescued the young male (1.5 years old) and transported him to EOP’s elephant nursery.

He has been named Muchichili, after an indigenous tree found on the island where he was found.  He is currently dehydrated and malnourished but overall in good condition. He will join other orphaned elephants here at the nursery and eventually through EOP’s release programme in The Kafue National Park, he will be released back into the wild as part of a newly formed orphaned heard.

We are so proud to support the work of Game Rangers International, they are nothing short of amazing!