What a Shame!

This tree was apparently in danger of falling on our house, so he (yes he, not it) had to be chopped down. What a shame! It took a whole lot of people, planning, time and heavy duty equipment to get the job done and all that is left now, is this sorry stump below. I've decided to give it a second life by planting a bougainvillea at the base so hopefully it will look nice again in the not too distant future and once again be home to some interesting creatures.

Goodbye Brompie

Yes - Brompie is free. We released him this morning. I did of course shed a tear but I'm sure he'll be just fine. I'm just constantly amazed at how all creatures just have such a will to survive and Brompie is no exception. We heard the other ground hornbills early morning so we put some food outside his cage, opened the door and waited. Within a couple of minutes he came out, picked up a bit of food and then must have realised that he's actually free, so he left the rest of the food and took off in the direction where we heard the other birds. What a beautiful sight that was. On recommendation from Dee and colleagues at the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project, I'll be leaving some food out for him for another few days, in case he's having a hard time feeding himself. They are very intelligent birds and he'll remember that this was the last place he fed and will return if he's hungry. Goodbye Brompie - we wish you all the best. Pierre captured this moment of action below.

New Patient

We've got a new patient. His name is Brompie and he arrived on Thursday afternoon. Pierre, Altus and Henk 3 found him next to the road, unable to walk. We've not yet been able to establish exactly what is wrong with Brompie but at least he's still alive and where there is life, there is hope. Brompie is a Ground Hornbill and my guess is that he is at least 14 months old. For those of you who don't speak Afrikaans - the Afrikaans word for a ground hornbill is a Bromvoel - from there the name Brom(pie) - the "pie" indicates small as opposed to large because if you take into account that ground hornbills take around 6 years to reach adulthood, he is still a baby! It is estimated that they live on average about 45 years but possibly up to 60 years or more in the wild. Oh and please - the "pie" is pronounced the same as "pea" and not pie as in steak and kidney.

As I obviously know nothing about caring for Brompie, I contacted Dee de Waal who is the Project Administrator/Handrearer of the Ground Hornbill Project at Mabula Private Game Reserve (one of South Africa's finest private game reserves situated about 2 hours' drive from Johannesburg in the Waterberg Mountains). Thanks Dee and Stephen (who is the vet that Dee contacted for some assistance with Brompie) for all your interest, help and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

Now, do yourself a favour and visit www.mabulagroundhornbillconservationproject.org.za. You will find some fascinating information there about ground hornbills and this very worthy project.

Chomp Moved House

Chomp has moved house! A big thank you to all the guys (on the photo below) who built this great new cage in our back yard. The "interior decorating" was done by my gardener Jioma (pictured far right), who sourced some tree logs and planted them around the cage to give Chomp ample opportunity to spread his wings and get some exercise.

I now divide his food into small portions which I then put in different places around the cage to encourage him to move around to find his food himself. I also place a shallow container with water inside the cage and this morning we found him taking a bath in it. I'm so proud of him - he's recovered so well. Hopefully it won't be long now before we can release him back into the wild.