STOEP CHAT

at Action Ads

9 February 2023

Secrets of the Noetzie Forest

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – as much worth as simply messing about in boats.”

I was thinking about this quote from the Wind in the Willows as three of us paddled up the beauful Noetzie River, snaking through indigenous forest.

I loved it. The air was full of birdsong and the wind whispered through the reeds. We heard the kok-kok-kok of a Knysna loerie, which swept out of the trees in a flash of green and crimson.

The forested banks were every colour of green, with the occasional yellow of wild hibiscus and pale blue of wild agapanthus.

But although messing about in boats is fun, we were actually on a mission to collect memory cards from hidden cameras set up to catch images of forest wildlife.

The forest was so thick it was easier to go by river and then bundu-bash from the bank through the forest to the GPS-marked spots.

Back at the house the cards were downloaded onto a computer We watched excitedly as the images appeared.

There was a video of a porcupine strolling through the forest at night, eang here and there. It then heard something and spun around so we had a view of its backside with its quills erect. Would cause serious pain if it backed into you.

False alarm, just another porcupine joining the first.

There were delighul shots of three water mongoose, also at night, running through the forest nose to tail.

There was a dayme video of two honey badgers walking through the trees. Although they love to eat honey and bee larvae, they also eat insects, frogs, snakes, birds, small mammals as well as roots, bulbs and fruits. I like to think they were off to feast on some forest honey

I have always liked bushbuck. So elegant. There were many shots of a male bushbuck that parked off in a clearing almost all aernoon. Every me he moved it triggered the camera. We saw him lying down, geng up, grazing, scratching behind his ear, lying down again. When he eventually walked away, he passed close to the camera and we saw his neck was covered in cks.

There were also shots of genets at night, their wonderful white bodies with black dots, and long white tails with black rings. Beauful creatures.

There are of course many small creatures the cameras would probably never pick up: insects, snakes, frogs and small mammals like moles and mice.

One creature I would love to see is the Knysna banana frog. It is ny, creamy yellow, and endangered. Its habitat has been destroyed by urban development, alien invasive vegetaon and chemical polluon. Researchers don’t know how many are le, but know the populaon is declining.

So sad the impact we have on the world.

How great it would be if we find them on the cameras. The Tsitsikamma could be their last refuge – and that of so many other creatures.

I like this quote by Turkish writer Mehmet Murat lldan: “If you go to a desert, you will hear this mysterious voice: Be wise, protect your forests!”

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