The "Live" Safari Thread

Creag

Creag

The Boar's Rock
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
46,394
Reaction score
8,944
Location
Joburg
No better time than now to launch a thread like this.

I stumbled onto this because of a recommendation by a friend. Working at home has its pros and cons. The pros mean that I can flip my spare monitor onto YouTube in the morning and afternoon for the sunrise and sunset drives.

https://wildearth.tv/ has been my medicine through some intensely frustrating times. I suppose there are others, but this has been my go-to for the last 2 months.

Getting to understand the bush and its characters through various "naturalists" has been amazing. They share everything from plants and trees to insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, great and small.

For a while now their bush drives have been in the private game reserves adjacent to the Kruger National Park, north of Skukuza (in the Sabi Sand and Mali Mali area).

Recently, they added Tswalu, a large privately owned reserve in the Kalahari. What an awesome addition this has been. Meerkats, the promise of aardvark and bat-eared fox, and many other animals native to this area is simply amazing.

Tswalu is hosted by Dylan Smith and cameraman, Kyle Ansell. Dyan is a consevationist to the max. This morning he announced one of the meerkat clans has pups. I am looking forward to seeing them greet the world. This afternoon he tracked down a puff adder from his spoor to the nether regions of a bush. Just awesome to see how he disects the Kalahari and shares some amazing finds.

Oh well, I am in awe.

Feel free to share any links you have to other similar conservation or live safari channels or sites.
 
The other nice thing about the Wild Earth feed is that after dark, they have infrared cameras to keep the feed going till 6 pm.
 
Cool,shall take a squiz later...not sure if it's the same live feed youtube channel I watched a few weeks ago. but anyhoo, ta
 
I usually have this on in the background... didn't even realise that they had added a feed because the sound is often off.

I was amazed at how the animals had changed and then the the other day I saw that the one driver was in the dark while the other was still in sunlight and realised one of them must be really far away :laugh:
 
Today's special sighting on the safari was a pangolin in Tswalu, Kahalari.

We were waiting for the shy creature to get out of the bush in which it was foraging. And then I was called away to connect a dishwasher. I missed it all :cry: talk about the misplaced priorities some in my home have :X3:
 
Oh. Forgot to add. They added a private reserve from "& Beyond Phinda", which is by St. Lucia on the KZN north coast (?), and another reserve outside by Hoedspruit, Limpopo.
 
With the daily safari drive that I have going in the background (sunrise, sunset), I started keeping a record of the different animals positively "sighted".

I started recording these on 17 June. To date, I have 36 birds, 28 mammals or rodents, 6 reptiles, and 3 critters.

But there have been many more I can think of prior to the date I started recording. For example, BC sightings include a cobra in Tswalu and python in Phinda. Also, I cannot follow everything, as my attention is focused on work. It is fun though to see all the different animals around this great country of ours :love:
 
Most enjoyed sightings for me, to date, aardvark, pangolin, brown hyena, cobra and meerkat.
 
McT said:
Feel free to share any links you have to other similar conservation or live safari channels or sites.
Click to expand...



Not a link, an anecdote: I did a lot of my military training in the Kruger National Park. We were transported to our remote location by helicopter (Puma). The air force used this opportunity to practice their nap-of-the-earth, treetop level flying. Once I was sitting by the open door of the chopper and the noise scared a family of giraffe and they began running away – straight ahead. They didn’t break left or right but ran straight ahead on the track of the chopper - giraffe seem particularly stupid. “I’m a giraffe and I am so cool I can outrun those noisy, whirly things in the sky”. They really do appear to run in slow motion. We overtook them (directly overhead) and they continued their senseless run after we had passed. Too stupid to stop, I suppose.
 
SABC is now taking Wild Earth from 3 - 4 live on one of their channels. Great initiative, methinks.
 
McT said:
SABC is now taking Wild Earth from 3 - 4 live on one of their channels. Great initiative, methinks.
Click to expand...
Indeed, just hope kids in particular actually watch it and don't flick channels to cartoons.

How often will it be broadcast?
Gonna take a squiz myself right now on 3.

Wow just seen 2 white lion members of a single pride... which in itself is extremely unique!
There are apparently only 3 white lions in the whole of Africa !!o_O

Also a large male Sable, cheetah family, hyena all live .. great show, informative and interactive :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
I have never really seen the appeal of safaris, I have done a couple but its not my thing. I dont really find land animals very interesting.
The oceans on the other hand I find mindblowing, I could watch underwater stuff for hours on end.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Colour me very surprised, that is actually a bloody good move from SABC...
Click to expand...
Yep. It is a well-presented show by WE, professionally run and provides great insight from their knowledgeable "naturalists".

James Hendry, today, picked up elephant and rhino scat. Broke it open to show viewers the difference in their diet. Even put their excrement back exactly where he found it. Explained why too. Unless you actually go research this yourself, it is this sort of information that you will never learn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X