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However researchers from Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth were able to obtain permits to visit Samara during lockdown in order to conduct essential, time-bound research. The team, led by Professor Graham Kerley, serviced a large array of camera traps that have been collecting data on the use of grasslands by the populations of black … Continued
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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
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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
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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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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
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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
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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
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We usually associate majestic migrations with the rolling plains of the great Serengeti; where a vast, collective herd of wildebeest, zebra, Grant’s gazelle, Thompson’s gazelle, eland and impala follow rainfall patterns to cross expansive open-ground distances of treacherous terrain, thick with waiting predators, to find new grazing and fresh water. This annual migration is said … Continued
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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
