It's thirty five degrees today. A bit too hot to be working but we carried on regardless. This morning we went to look at our carnivore bait traps from Monday. We didn't have a great mix of carnivore prints. It was mostly Jackal, but we did find Kudu, Honey badger, Giraffe and even a snake print. We asked Michael to tell us what kind of snake it was. I think initially he thought we were being serious. After our 10th or 11th trap we pulled over as Michael wanted so show us something. It turned out to be trap door spiders. To start with I wondered why he was showing us a plastic bottle cap stuck into the side of a donger, however, it turned out to be a trap door. It is made out of silk and actually looks quite impressive. Well they did from where I was standing, which was a bit further back than the others. Michael tried to lure one of the spiders out by opening the door and poking a piece of grass into the spiders borrow. He pulled out a dying female. Apparently a female has a bigger belly than the male so that is how Michael could tell what sex she was. It didn't look good for her. She had a big hole in her belly. Carolynn explained that wasps are the spiders main threat, and that it looked like a wasp attack. What the wasps do is puncture the stomach and then lay it's eggs inside. When the eggs hatch they eat away at the spider, leaving the vital organs till last. Now I am not a fan of big black shiny spiders, but I did feel sorry for her. That is no way to die. After finding the poor female Michael tried another door and this time pulled out a male spider. The girls held him, I didn't obviously, but I do wish I had taken my camera with me from the car.
Towards the end of the morning we came across some of the Giraffe herd. For the first time we saw the new baby. It's only about six weeks old and is very cute. There is another female that is pregnant and due to drop any minute. Liam has said we will try and catch up with her as she is no longer with the group. A sign that she may have wondered off to give birth.
After lunch we did some more alien plant control work (cutting down bramble bushes), however, this time we were with Michael. We did about two and a half hours of that which was enough as it was so hot. The girls had already struck up a deal with Liam that we could go down to one of the rock pools on the other part of the reserve for a swim in the late afternoon. So after a quick change we headed down. Michael got the job of taking pictures of us while we were swimming. Funnily enough, he seemed quite happy with that job!
Mummy chewing on a bone apparently!
Baby, Mum and Dad.
Look at it's fluffy tufts. Awww!
All the family, including junior and baby.
Junior is two years old and baby is six weeks.
Swim time!
It was a bit cold to start with.
But it was good to cool off after the heat of the day.
Me, obviously!
Christina.
Nicole.
Leanne.
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