I planned my adventure day out, a route that I had done before and was ready to return to. A drive from home on a circular route that would allow me to walk and discover and explore. Little did I know what sadness the first part of the day would reveal… I was driving along a dirt road isolated on each side by a game fence when I came upon death. Death of beautiful and precious animals. The necessary diversification of land use because of the prolonged drought in the region with farmers turning to game farming. The effect of this is that all the local wild animals of the area can no longer migrate in their normal patterns and are either trapped in a fenced off area or in no man’s land – the road.

Animal instinct is strong, and burrowers manage somehow to dig under the fences and make a path to where they need to go. The gap in the fencing, over time becomes known and a well-worn path is created. As the game farms are in some cases are hundreds of hectares square, small escape routes can go unnoticed and unattended to for some time. It was at one of these gaps that I came upon death. I slowed when i saw a dead creature lying just inside the game fence and I stopped to take a look. There were two animals’ side by side. A fully grown Bat- eared Fox and possibly, a fully grown mongoose, not as large as the bat-eared fox with reddish fur. It was facing away from me so I could not identify it. Both were clearly dead, but recently so, their fur and bodies were from what I could see fully intact. While I was looking at the wondering how they died, I heard a metallic sound and turned toward it. A beautiful adult scrub hare was pulling a gin trap, attached to the fence about 2 m from me. I could not believe I had not seen it as I first arrived and clearly it has stayed dead still albeit with the gin trap affixed to its obviously broken dangling leg. My horror turned to action and without having ever seen a gin trap I bent down and released the hare from the brutal metal grip. The Hare ran off dragging a useless leg behind it. I wonder if it survived. I looked at the area and it was clearly one of those gaps under the fence. But how could anyone be so cruel as to release the obviously previously trapped Bat-eared fox and mongoose leave their bodies there and reset the trap for the next harmless creature!!

Any weight placed on the flat piece of metal between the toothed jaws would trigger the trap and the jaws would snap shut. It is believed that gin comes from the word engine, meaning a device that did not require human intervention to make it work.

Gin traps are banned in more than 90 countries the world, but not in South Africa, they are legal here for predator control, a part of me gets that and the economics of preserving sheep from jackals – BUT these traps are indiscriminate. These beautiful creatures were murdered, maimed, and left to die a slow painful death in the heat of the Karoo from thirst and starvation. This suffering is incomprehensible, and this practice should not be allowed, especially in these circumstances. On a game farm fence whose mandate is to preserve and protect wild animals……. I am beyond anger at this malicious barbaric practice!

I drove away feeling saddened but pleased that perhaps I saved a life.

I am an avid amateur photographer and always looking for the shot…especially windmills. I saw one and went forth on this extremely hot day in a very dry place. The reservoir was full and leaking slightly, around the base were 4 tortoises lying in the small shallow muddy pools in the shade of the cracked cement, something for them to drink, but there was not a blade of anything to eat, nothing! I remembered that I had seen a tortoise eating prickly pear leaves a little earlier on my drive and the huge prickly pear (nopal opuntia) cactus plant, where I had just parked my car …I went back. Armed with a broken piece of fence post I slashed and sweated and slashed some more and eventually broke off some spiny cactus which I carried back to the tortoises. Usually timid, once they had the scent, they started devouring the plants…. I went back for more and spread them around a bit. I felt sad that I could not do more, but again, perhaps I saved a life or two. I took no windmill photos, just these