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Snapshot Safari & Citizen Science

By ffc_content

Snapshot Safari’s premise is simple – thousands of camera traps set up across sub-Saharan Africa collect a multitude of images per day as wildlife moves past, triggering motion-sensor cameras. All this data can be used for valuable research, conservation and management decision-making. Sorting through it all, however, can be impractical and costly. The solution? Outsource … Continued

Rewilding in action

By ffc_content

As 2019 has drawn to a close and we step into 2020 we feel grateful that so many more people have become part of Samara’s journey. Thank you to our extended Samara family for helping us on our mission to rewild an extraordinary yet fragile part of South Africa. It is no exaggeration to suggest … Continued

Bull elephants translocated to Samara

By ffc_content

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

Ecological Benefits of Snow

By ffc_content

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

Tracking & Monitoring the elephant herd

By ffc_content

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

Lions to return to Plains of Camdeboo

By ffc_content

These lions will be the first free-roaming lions in 180 years to set foot back in this area, providing a much-needed conservation good news story for South Africa, whose poor track record of lion conservation has made news headlines in recent months. The lion has declined in numbers by 43% over the past 24 years, … Continued

A guide to introducing your kids to conservation

By ffc_content

Our children will inherit a world fraught with more pressing ecological reverberations as a result of human interference than our ancestors ever imagined possible. Our natural world is threatened by increased climate change, rapid urbanisation, air and water pollution, a drain on natural resources and calamitous species extinction. Fervent conservation efforts are being made to … Continued

The planet needs our love

By ffc_content

We sit at a critical juncture in Earth’s history, a time when the forces of greed and destruction threaten our environment’s very existence, and therefore our own. Our only hope is that people around the world stand up for the environments and places that they hold dear. Already countless acts of love have preserved precious … Continued

Elephants return to Samara

By ffc_content

Sarah and Mark Tompkins, founders of Samara Private Game Reserve, explain that when they first established the reserve in 1997, their aim was to restore the area to the wildlife haven it had been before species like cheetah, rhino, Cape lion, springbok and elephant were eradicated by early farmers and settlers. “This is an extremely … Continued

A guide to Samara’s 5 unique vegetation biomes

By ffc_content

It has a certain beauty, yes, but it is a stark and desolate beauty, with few trees, animals or other signs of life. At Samara, however, this could not be further from the truth. Nestled at the foot of the Sneeuberg – Snow Mountains – Samara is uniquely situated at the meeting point of five … Continued