A Bit of Bayete
October 2008

1. Win with Bayete Zulu
2. A wise man once said
3. Focus on Families
4. Bayete’s gone batty!
5. Ranger’s report
6. What’s hot in the master chef’s pot?

Dear Bayetezulu Guest,

A Halloween hellooooooo from the friendly folk at Bayete Zulu Boutique Game Lodge

In many Western cultures, the last night of October is celebrated as Halloween – an evening when the ancient pagans believed that the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living. Irrespective of religion, we celebrate the makings of Halloween here at Bayete Zulu every month as this is the place where special things are always happening...

In this month’s issue of A Bit of Bayete, we bring you some news about our tricky little bat friends and the treats that lie in store for the kids who come to visit them. So sit back with your favourite witches’ brew and enjoy your 5-minute mini-break to our haven for the whole family – including our families of bats!

Send us some of your interesting bat tales or Halloween tricks and we’ll treat you to a two night stay for you and a partner including dinner, bed, breakfast and a game drive. Get thinking, get creative and get your suggestions to us via email to sales@bayetezulu.co.za by the close of business on 7th November.

The winning entry will be published in next month’s issue of A Bit of Bayete.

The winning wildlife story from last month’s e-newsletter was Lisa Klie, Azure Designs, KZN.

“Family:  A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space”

When you’re away on holiday, you should be able to enjoy the freedom of doing your favourite things at leisure in a picturesque surrounding – and so should your children.

Here at Bayete Zulu we’ve created the Pumba Club where a team of skilled professionals caters for the needs of our younger clientele while their parents enjoy their holiday too without having to worry about the whereabouts of their little ones. When they’re not out being awestruck by our wild animals and beautiful bush scenery with their parents, we welcome children over the age of four to the activity centre, which is equipped with jungle gyms, slides, seesaws, a trampoline, swings, a tree house, a boma, kids' DVDs, TV and Playstations. We run a daily activity programme, including an early-morning DVD before breakfast and a mid-morning and mid-afternoon activity with professional supervision throughout the day.

In addition, each of our rooms is furnished with leather ottomans that fold out into a double bed to accommodate your little ones at a fraction of the adults’ room rate.  There is also a heated swimming pool for them to enjoy at any time of the year, and babysitters are available upon request at a nominal fee.

Bats have become synonymous with Halloween and superstition – and it’s easy to see why. Their strange appearance as an apparent cross between a bird and a rodent combined with their mysterious nocturnal habits reinforces the commonly-held perception that bats are something to be feared and avoided. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. These high tech mini-mammals of the night are extremely important with regard to the predation of night flying insects. Research has shown that certain species of insectivorous bats are capable of consuming in the region of 1000 mosquito sized insects per hour! Three species of bats, the Mauritian Tomb Bat, the Little Free-tailed Bat and the Egyptian Free-tailed Bat roost in the area at Bayete Zulu:

Mauritian Tomb Bat Appearance: one of the largest and most attractive of the insect-eating bats, with prominent eyes and a relatively long snout. They have a grayish-grizzled upper surface with a pure white undersurface. Their colour distinguishes them from the Egyptian tomb bat. Habitat: in the open savanna and forest edges in the wetter northern and eastern parts of the subcontinent. Habits: live in groups of two or more up to about 30, comprising one or more females and their young. Males occur solitarily in the vicinity of females, except during mating. Mating is brief, noisy and violent, with males biting the necks of females causing them to squeal loudly. Feeding: they are moth specialists, with termites and butterflies occurring in their diet at lower frequency. Day roost: they do not roost in tombs as implied by their name, roosting instead on the outer bark of trees, under covering vegetation. They can also be found in built-up areas where they favour tall trees.

Little Free-tailed Bat Appearance: along with the Pale Free-tailed, at they are the smallest of the free-tailed bats at approximately 35 – 40mm. They are blackish-brown to brown or grayish-brown on top and are slightly paler below, although dark-winged and light-winged forms are found. Habitat: they occupy a wide range of habitats, including savanna, mountainous and arid areas, and are also found in dwellings in built-up areas. They are distributed broadly distributed across KwaZulu Natal, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, which highlights their preference for lowveld and coastal areas. Little Free-tailed bats rarely occur at altitudes in excess of 1000m. Habits: gregarious, a colony ranges in size from around 20 up to an estimated 2500 bats. Feeding: in order of priority, their diet comprises bugs, beetles, moths, Hymenoptera and to a lesser extent nocturnal flies. They are fast, high-flying, aerial feeders. Day roost: in crevices in trees, rocks or very commonly in the roofs of houses. In roofs, their preferred roosting sites include the horizontal surfaces of rafters, between the rafters and brickwork, the corrugations of corrugated iron roofs, between the roof tiles and the plastic lining underneath, between the thatch and timber in thatched roofs as well as in broken air vents.

Egyptian Free-tailed Bat Appearance: dark sooty brown on top and slightly paler below. The wing and inner-femoral membrane is a translucent light brown. The species can be distinguished from others in this genus by its smaller size (they are under 55mm, as apposed to those who are all bigger than 55mm) and its wrinkled lips. Habitat: they are found in all vegetation associations, except forests, as they favour open country. Habits: gregarious, but unlike more colonial species such as the Little Free-tailed Bat, colonies seldom number more than a few dozen. Egyptian Free-tailed bat colonies have a very pungent odour. Feeding: beetles and moths have been recorded and they are high aerial feeders. Day roost: in crevices in rocks and trees, behind the bark of dead trees and commonly in suitable crevices in the roofs of buildings.

Sighting from Bayete Zulu’s Reserve Manager, Ivor van Rooyen

“I had just passed the water holes and was travelling along our guest entrance road on my way to the main gate, when a young male hyena ran across the road in front of me. I noticed that he was limping on his back leg so I radioed in for Matt, one of our field guides, to come and assist me with tracking it. As I turned the vehicle around to park, a second hyena darted across the road to follow the first! Matt arrived within minutes and the search began. After a short walk, we came across the injured hyena in an old stream bed, but unfortunately he was startled and moved off before we could see what the problem was – and that was the last we saw of our wily male hyena.

He has since been seen another three times by other rangers, and is reported to be doing well. Hyenas are very strong, resilient animals, so we have no doubt that he’ll make a full recovery soon. As a whole, Hyena activity in the Zululand Rhino Reserve is on the increase – with this being confirmed by numerous calls from people who have made sightings weekly! Some of the locals report having seen a hyena with three legs and only one eye in Hluhluwe/Umflozi Reserve. I haven’t quite decided if this would be a trick or a treat! Either way, I look forward to the time in the near future when hyenas become a regular feature on our game drives.”

Moreish Campfire Crusty Bread

Ingredients:

250ml white bread flour
10ml instant yeast
5 ml salt
1 ½ cups Luke warm water

Method:

Mix together white bread flour, salt, yeast and water (add a little bit of water at a time)
Mix until dough is smooth and elastic, but not sticky
Leave to rise for about 2 hours
Once risen, knead and put into a greased bread tin and bake at 180 degrees until golden brown

So why not put on a Halloween mask after tucking into your favourite Halloween meal accompanied by our Crusty Bread and eat, drink and be scary!!

Next month’s recipe: Rambo’s Rapture – Orange Sorbet

By Jacques Fourie (Senior Field Guide, Bayete Zulu)

As the sun starts to rise
And lights up the land
She lets us know she has a surprise

As birds start to call
And animals emerge
To come forth to make the darkness fall

Come and see Bateleur flapping
Where elephants room with man
Because they know Bayete Zulu is
Where special things happen...