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What started as a family farm has developed into a landscape-scale project to heal degraded land and restore extirpated species. We have had the great privilege of being guided by some of South Africa’s finest ecologists at SANParks and Nelson Mandela University, and an international family of conservationists around the globe who have given us … Continued
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To the uninitiated, all zebras might appear cut from the same cloth. However, there are some important distinctions between the various species – of which there are 3 or 4, depending on which experts you speak to. These species are: The Grevy’s zebra, indigenous to Kenya and Ethiopia, classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red … Continued
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November has been a busy month! First a bull elephant translocation, and now the long-awaited arrival of lions at Samara. Our founder pride consists of one male (3 years old) and one unrelated female (4 years old) from Kwandwe Game Reserve near Grahamstown. The translocation to Samara mimics the natural lion migration patterns that would … Continued
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Janetta Bock Benadie has been involved in the SA College for Tourism (SACT) Tracker Academy since its inception. In 2010, she travelled with her husband Karel Benadie, known as Pokkie, to Samara Private Game Reserve to become part of the Tracker Academy’s founding team as a camp attendant. Since then, she has undertaken further studies and … Continued
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If you’ve been following our Facebook or Instagram pages recently, you’ll know that we’ve just had a rather exciting weekend. On Saturday 17th November we began the mammoth task of translocating two elephant bulls to Samara from Phinda Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal – 1,400 km away. Though months in the planning, the actual date and … Continued
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On September 1st 2018, Samara tracker Rowan Benadie found Chilli the female cheetah with a newborn litter of cubs, only days old. He spotted her carrying two of them along the steep mountain slopes, presumably moving them from one den site to the next. Since the gestation period of a cheetah is approximately 3 months, … Continued
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Ntsindiso Mankangeni and Mzimasi Dlakavu are two graduates from the SA College for Tourism Tracker Academy, which was founded at Samara in 2010 and now occupies several sites across South Africa. They received their training in 2017 at the centre in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in the Northern Cape, and they are now completing a 1-year … Continued
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The inaugural Heritage Day Football Tournament, sponsored by Samara Private Game Reserve, took place over two days at the uMasizakhe Soccer Stadium in Graaff-Reinet on 23rd and 24th September 2018. Anneley Gradwell, Samara Assistant Manager, was instrumental in getting the event off the ground. She explains: ‘The youth of Graaff-Reinet, and of Beyers Naude municipality, … Continued
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Once winter hits, the dedicated snow reporters get active. Temperatures are monitored, low pressure systems tracked, and the prospect of snow fills many with excitement. When snow does fall, it’s not unusual for entire families to pack into cars on the weekend to drive into mountainous regions just to catch a glimpse of the powder. … Continued
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In a previous blog, we introduced you to the N family, Samara’s founder elephant herd released in 2017. There have not been elephants on the Plains of Camdeboo, a region made famous by Eve Palmer’s book of the same name, in approximately 150 years. The reintroduction thus provides a fascinating opportunity to study their behaviour … Continued
