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Conservation
Join the Betty’s Bay Baboon Action Group on our Facebook page. Follow us for all kinds of baboon information.
Residents of Betty’s Bay who live in areas that are visited by the baboons can join the BBBAG WhatsApp group for notifications when the baboons are in the urban area. (This is not a chat group) Please contact Renee at 0606 567 341 to be added to the group.
Agulhas National Park eBulletins.
We have the occasional copy of this fine PDF available here.
Attributions
Many of the professional photographs you will see on this site are courtesy of www.peteoxford.com and www.peteoxfordexpeditions.com
- Details
- Written by KBRC
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2222
Dear All,
The 9th Annual General Meeting of the KBRC will be held on:
Date: Tuesday, 03 December 2019
Venue: Elgin Railway Market
Time: 18:00 for 18:30 pm
Please click here to RSVP (before 29 November 2019).
In this linked zip file please find: The Agenda Minutes of the previous AGM and the Audited Financial Statements.
Thank you,
Kind regards
KOGELBERG BIOSPHERE RESERVE COMPANY
PO Box 200, KLEINMOND, 7195
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.kogelbergbiosphere.org.za
- Details
- Written by Tamzyn Zweig
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2114
Please see this poster for the Kogelberg Biosphere area 2019 Holiday Season.
Feel free to share with holiday rentals/accommodation, put up on Notice Boards etc. The poster is A3 but you can print A4 - just check your printer settings, it may be necessary to "fit to borders."
Please do share far and wide with estate agents, B&Bs, holiday rentals etc.
Thank you,
Tamzyn Zweig
Environmental Officer
Environmental Management Section
Directorate: Infrastructure & Planning
Overstrand Municipality
33 5th Avenue Kleinmond,7195
T: +27 (0) 28 271 8420 Ext: 8420
C: +27(0) 83 286 4999
E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Details
- Written by Reneé Bish
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2166
Betty’s Bay and Kleinmond baboon troops are one and the same. Today we responded to another call-out that a baboon troop was inside the residential area of Palmiet village. We soon found them walking through people’s yards, feeding on fruiting trees and foraging on lawns. We have been with them pretty much every day for the last couple of weeks. They are very relaxed around us and we are getting to know individuals.
One very positive outcome of todays visit was that we confirmed 100% that this was the very same troop that has been in the Sunny Seas area.
There is a Palmiet WhatsApp baboon alert group which seemed pretty effective in relaying the whereabouts of the visitors and after discussion with one resident an idea came to mind whereby a community, such as Palmiet, Sunny Seas, Jock’s Bay or the Caltex garage area in Betty’s Bay for example could each have a dedicated baboon-only siren/whistle to alert residents in the area.
This would have to be manned of course by someone. What do you all think of that idea?
- Details
- Written by Reneé Bish
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2372
Betty’s Bay neighbourhoods are experiencing lots of visits from the baboons since the fire. I urge you all to read this article written by Jocelyn Mormet , who has been studying the baboon troop in Rooi Els. I have visited many homes, especially in the Sunny Seas area, who are upset with the amount on visitations they are getting.
Almost everyone I have been to has some kind of food out for the birds, mongoose or porcupines. They say they are not feeding the baboons—however baboons are omnivores - they eat anything! They love bird seed, they love porcupine veggies and they don’t mind eating mongoose meat! There is so much food out there for these animals. Have you seen a skinny baboon in our troop? Do they have lots of babies? Wild food has less calories so they’ll be occupied for longer if they forage naturally.
Please also encourange neighbours not to feed any animals. We are in the process of setting up a Betty’s Bay Baboon Action Group. In the meantime please do not hurt these animals. We live in a Biosphere Reserve and they are important to our eco system. They are also a lot of fun to watch. Go outside and just walk with them!
All photos ©Pete Oxford http://peteoxford.com
- Details
- Written by Pete Oxford
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2225
I had a brief but fortuitous visit yesterday to Harold Porter Botanical Gardens and came across these two White-fronted bee-eaters (Merops bullockoides). Rare vagrants to our area they are way out of range usually found much further to the north and east of South Africa. These two however seemed quite happy sallying for insects often returning to the same perch. Midday sun wasn’t the best light but great to see them anyway.
- Details
- Written by Reneé Bish
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2164
I walk Main Beach, Betty's Bay, everyday, proud to live alongside this designated Marine Protected Area ("MPA"—Ed). Yet, nearly every day I find another dead Puffadder Shyshark on the beach discarded by fishermen.
If you catch one guys, Put It Back Alive! Our MPA is suffering enough as it is from blatant, uncontrolled abalone poaching. Let's not be part of the problem too. Even These little sharks may be annoying to a fisherman but they are pretty cool, harmless (and necessary).
They are classified as Near Threatened, which means they are not in good shape already. When threatened they curl up like a doughnut to make themselves harder to swallow! They only live in South Africa. We should be proud of them.
- Details
- Written by Reneé Bish
- Category: Conservation
- Hits: 2122
We were in a meeting on the shore of Betty's Bay today when we got a call about a lot of commotion in the water off Sunny Seas. Was it the orcas?? Jumping up we got to see and watch a great display by a big humpback whale close to shore, probably about 30 tons. He was flipper flapping (a real term), slapping the water hard with his long pectoral fins. Usually the humpies are more active at the beginning of the season as they announce their presence and become boisterous in the excitement of the build up to mating. Once you see the large pectoral fin of a humpback whale it cannot be confused with any other. It gets to about 15 feet long!! Even their Latin name Megaptera novaeangliae means 'long-winged New Englander'.