Our new resident is showing plenty of fighting spirt so far.

The Mogalakwena Research Centre staff are currently nursing a young male Nyala that was found abandoned by the roadside on Tuesday evening. The Nyala is thought to be less than a week old as the umbilical cord is still attached. He's looking rather skinny at the moment but we're hopeful he's going to make it. He's gradually getting used to being fed milk from the bottle and is becoming more relaxed around his new adopted parents so the signs are positive so far.

We're yet to give the little man a name so any suggestions would be welcome!

It was all systems go at Mogalakwena River Lodge on the evening of the 21st February 2012 when news reached the lodge that a crocodile attack had taken place on the reserve. Reserve worker Norman was attacked by a resident Nile Crocodile in the Mogalakwena River whilst in process of aiding a colleague, Knowledge, who had also been attacked by a crocodile. RC staff members Ludi Kern and John Withington were rushed to the scene by reserve manager Christiaan Coetsee to assist with the rescue and first aid effort. Norman had suffered particularly bad leg injuries and had lost a lot of blood. Ludi and John, with assistance from other staff members, provided Norman with emergency first aid for over three hours whilst Norman was driven to Louis Trichardt by Christiaan for emergency treatment. We are pleased to report that both Norman and Knowledge are recovering well and, after over a month of treatment in hospital, Norman is expected back home soon.

In light of what happened here at Mogalakwena we'd like to encourage all of our readers to remain vigilant to the dangers that crocodiles pose. It's always a good idea to leave at least a few metres of space between you and the water when there are crocodiles around!

In December 2010, a leopard was caught on camera trap at the Mountain Ranch. Leopards, including a mother with two cubs, were sighted 5 times on the Mountain Ranch during the month of December, as well as a fresh leopard kill. A leopard baiting project utilising the camera traps has been initiated to help improve the identification of different leopard individuals on the reserve.

In November 2009 the Mogalakwena Research Centre received a very generous gift of three camera traps from Chris and Gila Marshall. We immediately got to work charging, discovering the mechanics of and setting the camera traps across the River Reserve! On their first deployment, the camera traps returned some amazing and very exciting photographs! We were able to get incredibly close and good quality photographs and videos of a range of animals and their activities. Most thrilling thus far has been the discovery of an active Aardwolf den on the River Reserve. We hope to use the camera traps to identify, map and record the activities of the different animals inhabiting Mogalakwena Reserves. Our next camera trap project will focus on identifying leopard on Mogalakwena Mountain Ranch.

The beginning of 2010 was marked by good rains and a brimming Mogalakwena River, which is still in flood in July! Over the past year, I have been collecting a number of aquatic samples from the Mogalakwena River on a monthly basis, as part of my Masters work. To determine the effect of flow variability on river ecosystem structure and function, I have been collecting samples of macroinvertebrate communities across different states of flow and habitat connectivity. My results thus far have indicated a significant difference in assemblage species richness and abundance across time, in conjunction with changes to flow states and habitat connectivity. The local hydrological variability experienced in the Mogalakwena River generates low macroinvertebrate assemblage persistence but high assemblage diversity over time. I have found that flow variability is principally influential in structuring macroinvertebrate communities, which highlights the importance of maintaining variability in hydrological connection and sustaining aquatic habitat heterogeneity in a regulated river such as the Mogalakwena. By Nina Woods