Firstly - I apologise if this is posted in the wrong forum??

Here's something different for those of you that may like to see from Nuanetsi (Outfitted by Chifuti Safaris).

In the mid western section of Nuanetsi (Southern Zim), there is small cattle trough (last used for cattle in the mid '90's), secluded at the foot of the Matengeni hills which had not seen water or animals for many years, so we rehabilitated this watering point in 2009. Soon after we got water to this area the numbers of animals drinking there has grown from strength to strength. I put a trail camera up several days ago and recovered it this morning - remember there was not an animal to be seen in this area just 4 1/2 years ago. This morning there were 1 744 images on the trail camera and I thought I would share a few...(they are not in date order)



Nyala on the left will grown into something special





Amazing how the Nyala survived back then in this extremely dry area, with no water...

















Nice dewlap for Livingston's Eland...



One doesn't often see an Antbear at water!





He'll be a big boy one day...





The Wildebeest bull on the far left is a damn nice one!!











Unusual to see Honeybadgers out at midday!











Unfortunately this is a bad image but a Leopard also paid the waterhole a visit..



This just shows what a little "TLC" will do for our wildlife, both here and anywhere else on the planet! This little eden (Nuanetsi) is ultimately being paid for by you,the HUNTERS across the globe who are the enternal conservationists!!! So I thank you all for your support.

AWESOME!!!!! Thanks for posting.

Great rewarding effort!! Thank you.

Those are some cool pics!

Thx for sharing them.

That is too cool, thank you for taking the time to share with us.

Amazing how the addition of a water source can completely remake an area. Some nice pictures Brent... that kudu bull in the next to last kudu picture had my blood pressure up and my palms sweaty. Not to mention the eland sneaking through the edge of camera range...

Thanks for sharing and doing a good deed for the animals

Thanks for posting Brent. Nice to see some positive efforts by hunters paying off in terms of successful rehabilitation of a depleted area. Good stuff sir!

Neat pictures! The temperatures at various times of the day are interesting. I have been hearing that with strong rains the bush is still quite thick, which these picts show.

A quantifiable success story and a great conservation model, obvious to those who are not too blind to see.

outstanding - well done!!!

Nice job..keep up the good work

Hey Brent!

So nice seeing an area going from strength to strength! We hear so much about "how good an area used to be" so its a breath of fresh air hearing about a depleted area making a come back- keep up the good work!!!!

Good to see, Brent.

Would like to know how you have decided to ensure the water supply is sustainable. Solar pump from the aquifer? Or diesel? How to do the maintenance and who will fund it/do it.

Regards, Tim

Great Post!!

quote:

Originally posted by Tim Carney:
Good to see, Brent.

Would like to know how you have decided to ensure the water supply is sustainable. Solar pump from the aquifer? Or diesel? How to do the maintenance and who will fund it/do it.

Regards, Tim

Tim,

Nuanetsi was a very well managed Cattle Ranch for many years and gradually the water system was left to go to rack and ruin. We came in and removed most of the old cattle structures (plunge dips, kraals etc). We then began a slow process of rehabilitating the old existing water system and have also added where we have been able to afford to.

Today we feed 83 water points across the property with 21 diesel pumps & boosters (drawing from boreholes and the Mwenezi river) which draws 1100 liters of diesel/month which is very costly and is a maintenance nightmare but we have to do it for the animals as +-80% of the property is reliant on the artificial water.

In a perfect world, I'd much, much rather use solar as it would ultimately be management free and more importantly, be almost cost free except for abit of R&M....problem is the initial cost outlay is serious for a solar system as our water table is at an avg depth of 40 meters. Had it been at 5-10 meters, it would have been relatively reasonable.

Cheers,
Brent

Outstanding post!

Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Must be wonderful to give a piece back to nature.

Hi Brent

Fantastic work you guys are doing there!!

Most excellent!!!
Such a refreshing story to read here...Well done

quote:

Originally posted by Caracal:
Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Must be wonderful to give a piece back to nature.

+1..... we all do though, every time we hunt.

You sure have the job I dream of, Brent.

How big is the property?

Any DG there?

quote:

Originally posted by Caracal:
You sure have the job I dream of, Brent.

How big is the property?

Any DG there?

Someone's gotta do it...

150 000 hectares.

We have Buff, Leopard & Ele's - the occasional migratory Lion passes through, once a blue moon.

Great work!

Well done and heart warming!

Great pics. There are nice animals there. Amazing what a water source will do for the animals population. Well done. Bruce

Well done Bruce, beautiful pictures.

Thanks for sharing. The wildlife looks great!

quote:

Originally posted by MANDLAZIM:
Tim,

Nuanetsi was a very well managed Cattle Ranch for many years and gradually the water system was left to go to rack and ruin. We came in and removed most of the old cattle structures (plunge dips, kraals etc). We then began a slow process of rehabilitating the old existing water system and have also added where we have been able to afford to.

Today we feed 83 water points across the property with 21 diesel pumps & boosters (drawing from boreholes and the Mwenezi river) which draws 1100 liters of diesel/month which is very costly and is a maintenance nightmare but we have to do it for the animals as +-80% of the property is reliant on the artificial water.

In a perfect world, I'd much, much rather use solar as it would ultimately be management free and more importantly, be almost cost free except for abit of R&M....problem is the initial cost outlay is serious for a solar system as our water table is at an avg depth of 40 meters. Had it been at 5-10 meters, it would have been relatively reasonable.

Cheers,
Brent

Thanks, Brent. Was afraid you'd be up against it like that, but clearly you are making it work. Expect you're right and solar in Zim at this point is prohibitively expensive, especially a pump to put down so far and push up.

Wonderfully rewarding to see that variety of animals at the water.

Regards, Tim

well done Mandla! sorry my hunt there starting Tuesday was cancelled. I feel we lost out on a wonderful opportunity at a big Tom.....good luck with all your continued efforts there and hopefully the politics will continue to stay away from there! Cheers Shamwari

Nice one Brent - great idea, and thanks for sharing!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Thierry Labat:
well done Mandla! sorry my hunt there starting Tuesday was cancelled. I feel we lost out on a wonderful opportunity at a big Tom.....good luck with all your continued efforts there and hopefully the politics will continue to stay away from there! Cheers Shamwari[/QUOTE)

Thanks Shamwari.

Pity about the cancellation because you would have bagged a jaws Mr Spots, for sure.

If only politics would leave ALL wildlife areas to get on with business!!

Great job, well done you guys.

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

Torbjorn

To all involved a job well done, for all the time and effort.

Great photos!

Mike

Counting the days till JULY 1st !!! Be good to see you Brent. Great job you have done my friend, a real task, but the results are there to see.

thanks for the pictures Brent....Keep up the good work.

Great pics Brent. Keep them coming please! You can give all of us our weekly dose of the African bush.

Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures and perfect timing to get my blood pumping. I will be hunting Nuanetsi mid June with Andy Hunter. My first hunt in the lowveld. Can't wait.

Great pics, thanks for posting!

Great job Brent. It's nice to see you are back. I had heard you weren't hunting for a while. Thanks again for that great hunt in Dande back in 2008. Best of luck.

Bob