Zandvlei Trust

Events at the West Coast Field Studies Centre in 2003.

 A sad loss to close friends – Jan 2003.

Frank relates – It is with great sadness that I have to report that mummy Cape Dwarf Chameleon (Emmanuel) and her tank companion the red sided Skink (Slim) were carried off by one of the 4 juvenile Rock Kestrels, which roost on the pipes projecting from the outside wall of the Centre.
As often happens when one looks after a variety of creatures, stupid mistakes are made. It was a very hot night and for the comfort of the animals I left a window open and the cover off their tank. Never dreaming that a Kestrel would enter the room at 05h30 in the morning and carry them off.
Emmanuel was very pregnant and would shortly have given birth to 16 or more babies. In September 2002 she gave birth to 9 live and 2 still born babies in front of the crowds at the Hobbies Expo at the Bellville Velodrome. She loved people and was handled by thousands of children and adults.
Slim was very tame with me and would let me stroke him. Having been born and raised in a remote part of the mountains near Sir Lowrys Pass he would cock his head to one side to look a strangers. He would run for cover if anyone else tried to hold him.
I loved them both and still grieve for them and have terrible recriminations over my stupidity.

The Rock Kestrels are interesting this year because they hunt sometimes together, sometimes singly on the ground catching insects, mainly grasshoppers. My observations are that there are 4 each year. they are hatched in the Paarden Eiland Industrial Site on high buildings and one year on a very high lighting cluster in the Container Depot. Shortly after learning to fly their parents drive them off and they come here. The Centre faces North by East, so roosting on the previously mentioned pipes gives them shelter from the buffeting of the summer South Easter.