We only spent three days in Tiger Canyon private game reserve. It felt like much more because we saw and experienced so many different aspects. This is a unique private game reserve. Unique because of its raison d’être, its location, its wildlife and its diversity.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Tiger Canyon exists because a few far-sighted people believed they could create a separate Tiger gene pool outside Asia. They also participated in the Endangered Wildife Trust’s metapopulation breeding pool project to bring cheetahs back from the brink of existence. It has taken and will continue to take bravery, dedication, diligence and investment to create and sustain this environmental project.

This reserve’s actions are having a keystone effect. A keystone species is a species which has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, a concept introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. New species have been introduced and some species have been reintroduced after having been absent for 100 years. Interest in the idea and the place is growing.

“There is a love of wild nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love showing itself whether recognised or not, and however covered by cares and duties” ~ John Muir

Tiger Canyon is in the southern edge of the Free State in South Africa, just above the Vanderkloof dam, which is in fact a lake that extends for some 50 kilometres to the west. It is the second largest dam in South Africa. The reserve is in the Karoo ecosystem. The Great Karoo is a natural wonder of endless plains and fascinating rock layers. It is one of the world’s most unique arid zones.

The Tiger project is thriving. There are currently 17 tigers resident in the reserve and there are now three generations of tigers that have been raised in the reserve in the wild.

There is abundant natural fauna. While looking for tigers we caught the attention of this magnificent kudu bull.

As an avid avian enthusiast I was keen to see what birdlife was present in the reserve. One unique bird is the Blue Korhaan. It is medium sized with a large head, long neck and long legs. Both sexes have a striking bluish-grey neck and underparts, while their upper are dull chestnut in colour. The legs and feet of both sexes are yellow in colour.

Despite many similarities the sexes of the Blue Korhaan are dimorphic. The male Blue Korhaan usually has a black and white face and chestnut ear coverts. The adult female Blue Korhaan has similar colours but her neck and underparts are dull grey, and the ear coverts are buff.

Coursers prefer the warm and dry areas of Southern Africa. We found numerous Double-banded coursers in the main enclosure which is essentially open grassland. These desert dwellers have a range of physiological and behavioural adaptations that enable them to thrive in such harsh areas, especially in relation to the lack of water. They are cryptically coloured and superbly camouflaged in its arid surroundings.

“The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.” ~ Nancy Newhall

We followed a tiger wandering through the grass plain in one of the primary enclosures. These enclosures are large – greater than 1000 hectares.

This was a first for me, I had never seen a Golden wildebeest before. The Golden wildebeest is a rare variation/mutation in colour from the Blue wildebeest. Golden Wildebeest naturally occurred along the Limpopo River basin, adjacent to the Tuli-Block of Botswana. Early farmers in the 1920’s, called them “Vos Wildebeest”.

A Bokmakierie happily calling from a bush covered in spider’s web.

The Cape Ground squirrel is found in the drier parts of southern Africa. Ground squirrels eat bulbs, fruits, grasses, herbs, insects and shrubs. They forage daily but unlike other squirrel species do not hoard food. The Cape Ground squirrel usually does not need to drink as it gets sufficient moisture from its food.

Tiger Canyon Private Game Reserve is a member of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Metapopulation Project. Here the cheetah offspring are relocated to other reserves within the Metapopulation in a bid to help increase the cheetah numbers and keep the genetics clean.

These open grasslands are ideal for a variety of species of lark. This Red-capped lark is a medium-sized, slender, pipit-like lark. It has a distinctive white eyebrow, a diagnostic brick-red crown that can be raised like a small crest, and reddish sides to the chest.

An Ant-eating chat is a stout dark brown chat with an upright posture. It flies fast on short round wings, exposing bold white patches in the outer webs of the primary feathers which are diagnostic. These chats prefer open grassy country, especially near dense collections of termite mounds. It can be found sitting on fences, rocks, or low bushes looking for ants, termites, and other invertebrates to feed on.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”~Henry David Thoreau

Rufous-cheeked warbler sitting and singing from the top of a leafless sickle bush. This is a long-tailed, pale prinia-like warbler with a rufous facial patch on the side of the head and a neat black band across the throat on otherwise white underparts. These warblers avoid trees, preferring arid open shrubland on sparsely vegetated plains, where they can forage on and among low shrubs.

A pair of Blue cranes in the main tiger enclosure where there are large open grasslands. We found this pair in the long grass early in the morning where the male was displaying for his mate. The Blue crane is also known as the Stanley or Paradise crane. The national bird of South Africa, the Blue Crane, is endemic to southern Africa with most of its range falling in South Africa. It is the world’s most range-restricted crane. This crane’s plumage is pale grey colour, with the lightest tones on head and darkest on the tertial plumes. Their long tertial plumes are diagnostic, which almost trail on the ground, as are their rounded heads and differently shaped bill; and in flight by the outstretched neck. 

A late afternoon scene with two young tigers walking through the grassland to drink at Shellduck dam.

We were also fortunate to go out one evening for a night drive. There was a whole other world active in the Karoo at night. We saw the tigers patrolling. The guineafowl were roosting the few decent sized trees. We saw numerous springhares but they are relatively small and difficult to photograph in the long grass at night. We came across two aardvarks both of which were very skittish. I was amazed to see how fast one of the large adult aardvark could run. Aardvarks are known to reach speeds of just over 40 kms per hour and are surprisingly agile, being able to zigzag at speed. We also saw several aardwolves foraging in the long grass but they too were skittish.

A young tiger enjoying the cool water in Shellduck dam in the late afternoon.

A female Grassveld pipit feeding its youngster. Like all members of the family they are slender, short necked birds with long tails, long slender legs with elongated (in some cases very elongated) hind claws. The length of the hindclaw varies with the habits of the species, more arboreal species have shorter, more curved hindclaws than the more terrestrial species. The bills are generally long, slender and pointed. In both size and plumage there is little differences between the sexes.

A female cheetah savouring her springbok kill in the open grasslands of the large cheetah enclosure.

On our last morning game drive we found a pair of young tigers in one of the eastern enclosures. The female was trying very hard to encourage the male to mate with her but he was too laid-back to take much notice. They were lying near a stream which was surrounded by lush vegetation and it was lovely and cool.

This post has illustrated a small selection of the remarkable diversity that can be found at Tiger Canyon Private Game Reserve. We visited this fascinating private game reserve in summer. I am interested to go back again see how different the vegetation and wildlife behaviour will be in winter. This place has a surprising diversity of flora, fauna, ancient geology, and is steeped in history.

“… there’s a silent voice in the wilderness that we hear only when no one else is around. When you go far, far beyond, out across the netherlands of the Known, the din of human static slowly fades away.” ~ Rob Schultheis

The Karoo is a land of extremes. Winter days are crisp and cold with blue skies and bright sunshine while nights are clear with wonderful starlit skies. In summer, temperatures can reach over 35℃ with hot sunny days, occasionally interrupted by spectacular thunderstorms which bring the majority of area’s annual rainfall. During winter in the Karoo (June to August) the afternoons are mild and sunny, with an average temperature of 17°C/63°F. Nights and early mornings, however, are very cold and average just 3°C/37°F.

“One who will not accept solitude, stillness and quiet recurring moments…is caught up in the wilderness of addictions; far removed from an original state of being and awareness.” ~ T.F. Hodge,

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike

Tiger Canyon Private Game Reserve’s objective is to conserve and create a separate gene pool for two endangered big cats, the tiger and the cheetah. This game park also boasts a diverse range of mammals such as aardwolf, aardvarks, serval, caracal, Bat-eared fox, Cape fox, Grey mongoose, springbok, zebra, blesbok, kudu, wildebeest and wild horses. There is also an impressive range of birds in the reserve.

“The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those have not viewed the world.” ~ Alexander von Humboldt

Tiger Canyon’s cheetahs are the first to return to this indigenous habitat in over 100 years. Due to the encroachment of sheep farming, there have been no free-roaming cheetahs in the Free State since the early 1900’s.

“The beauty of Africa is not man made, it is natures gift to humanity.” ~ Paul Oxton

Tiger Canyon Private Game Reserve is a member of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Metapopulation Project. As part of this project, cheetah offspring are relocated to other reserves within the Metapopulation in a bid to help increase the cheetah numbers and keep the genetics clean (Source: https://tigercanyon.com/wildlife/).

We watched an adult cheetah chase down, catch and kill an adult springbok. The chase was unusually long so the cheetah did not start to eat immediately but lay next to its kill until it had caught its breath.

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

These close up images of an adult cheetah were possible because the cheetah in the reserve are habituated.

We were in the cheetah enclosure around mid-morning on our second day of our stay in Tiger Canyon when we saw this cheetah walking towards a small herd of springbok a few hundred metres away in the long grass with its head down showing intent. The enclosure is massive, probably over 1 000 hectares. The terrain is open and reasonably flat but the grass was relatively long after the good summer rains at the start of the year.

Cheetahs are visual hunters and hunt predominately in diurnal hours when most of the competing big cats are resting.

Once the cheetah had got its breath back, it started to drag its kill a few metres away from where it killed the springbok. There was no shade for the cheetah to pull its prey into to get some relief from the heat of the direct sun.

A cheetah is capable of reaching speeds over 110 kms per hour in just over three seconds. The cheetah’s unique body structure: flexible spine, semi-retractable claws, long legs and tail enable it reach speeds over 100km per hour. The cheetah’s tail is long and flattened in the central section and acts like a rudder at high speeds.

Cheetah are naturally wary predators especially when they have just made a kill. This cheetah fed for a short period then sat up and carefully looked around to ensure there was no encroaching threat.

A blood soaked muzzle. Cheetahs have relative a small head, small ears and high set eyes. The shape of the head and the position of its large eyes facilitate maximum binocular vision. The large nostrils and lungs provide quick air intake necessary for their rapid acceleration and high speed run – which lasts for around 30 seconds. This facial structure also allows this cat to breathe while suffocating their prey.

Cheetah have distinctive black “tear marks” that run from inside the corner of the eyes along the nose down to their mouths. The “tear marks” help in reducing the sun’s glare during daytime hunting. These lines are also thought to act like sights on a rifle which help the cheetah aim when they are running at top speeds after their prey.

Although this cheetah was habituated when anyone got too close to it – and particularly its kill – it snarled and hissed a warning to back off.

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN red data list. Cheetahs face extinction pressure from climate change, hunting by humans, and habitat destruction, which is reducing the size of their populations. Cheetahs’ genes also pose a challenge to their continued survival. Cheetahs have a low rate of reproductive success. With fewer offspring, the population struggles to grow and adapt to changes in the environment. (Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/cheetahs-brink-extinction-again/)

The Cheetah Metapopulation Project was initiated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust in 2011. The project supports cheetah populations in several small reserves, most of them private. While relatively safe in these small reserves, the likelihood of inbreeding remains high. In the wild, cheetahs are wide-ranging carnivores that exist in low densities. By swapping animals between participating reserves, the project helps private and state wildlife custodians to manage overpopulation and underpopulation on their land and identifies new areas of suitable cheetah habitat.

South Africa is home to around 1 300 of the world’s roughly 7 100 remaining cheetahs. It is also the only country in the world with significant cheetah population growth, thanks largely to the Cheetah Metapopulation Project, a conservation project that depends on careful and intensive human management of small, fenced-in cheetah populations. In 2020, there were 419 cheetahs across 60 reserves. (Source: theexpeditionproject.com). Most of the reserves that take part in the Cheetah Metapopulation Project are privately funded. The majority of them rely heavily on tourism revenue to fund conservation.

“Right or Wrong Don’t know

But those things don’t give me Money,
But gives Satisfaction

It consumes my time,
But gives me happiness

Those things can’t give me Future,
But I can’t live without them

These things can’t give me fame,
But adds value to my life

So Conservation is life”
~ Kedar dhepe

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike

After spending three days in Mokala National Park, we continued our journey down to Tiger Canyon Game Reserve. This reserve is located 25 km west of the town of Philippolis positioned on the Free State side of the Van der Kloof dam in the Karoo of South Africa.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Tiger Canyon is a conservation project to preserve the remaining Bengal tiger species. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) there are about 4 500 tigers left in the wild. This reserve has the only wild population of tigers outside of Asia.

The reserve was established by conservationist John Varty (JV). It is an ex-situ experiment which began in 2000 with the rewilding of two captive-born cubs, Ron and Julie, which JV acquired from a zoo in Canada. The first step was to see if these cubs could be rewilded in Africa, and learn to successfully hunt indigenous game in the long grass and rocky outcrops of the Karoo. This rewilding process worked with JV teaching the cubs to survive and hunt in the Upper Karoo region of South Africa. The two founder cubs thrived encouraging the later introduction of two more captive-born cubs, Shadow and Seatao. Once adult, these four tigers went on to establish a breeding population which over last twenty years resulted in 11 wild tigers and 11 wild-born cubs at Tiger Canyon. The first wild cubs were born at Tiger Canyon in 2008. In 2014, two new tigers were introduced to diversify the genetic line.

“The world is waiting for a new direction. One based on Nature.” ~ John Varty

Varty’s partner in the project, Rodney Drew, first visited Tiger Canyon in 2009. Inspired by the project, Rodney and Lorna Drew purchased adjoining land in order to expand the reserve. Tiger Canyon now comprises 6 100 hectares. The Drew’s are now major shareholders in Tiger Canyon and Rodney is the managing director.

Since 2017, IUCN has recognised two tiger subspecies, commonly referred to as the Continental tiger and the Sunda Island tiger. All remaining Island tigers are found only in Sumatra, with tigers in Java and Bali now extinct. These are popularly known as Sumatran tigers. The continental tigers currently include the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese and Amur (Siberian) tiger populations, while the Caspian tiger is extinct in the wild. The South China tiger is believed to be functionally extinct. (Source:https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger).

I have tried to name the tigers shown in the images by matching their facial striped pattern of the tigers presented in https://tigercanyon.com/our-tigers/. Apologies to our Tiger Canyon guides, Adi Stander and Daniella Kueck, if I have got the names wrong.

Father Kumba and daughter Ziyanda. I wanted to show the relative size of a fully grown adult male tiger – massive. The adult male tiger is much larger than a fully grown male lion. Tigers are the largest felines in the world and can reach up to 12.5 feet in length (including the tail) and up to 650 pounds. By contrast, lions tend to weigh between 330 and 550 kilos and measure between 6.5 and 11 feet. Interestingly, lions have longer tails than tigers.

The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting approximately 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Nepal. The tiger, Panthera tigris, is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The largest of all cats, the tiger once occurred throughout central, eastern and southern Asia. In the past 100 years, the tiger has lost more than 93% of its historic range and now only survives in scattered populations in 13 countries, from India to Southeast Asia, and in Sumatra, China and the Russian Far East. (Source: https://www.iucn.org/news/species/).

The next image is of young tigress, Ziyanda, walking through the long grass in the one of the large enclosures in the late afternoon. There are several enclosures which are in some cases over 1000 hectares and designed to separate groups of tigers and the cheetahs from the tigers.

According to Tiger Canyon, the number of resident tigers varies with time and expanded to 26 at one point and reduced to a low of 10 at another point. The size of this private game reserve will have to be expanded if its tiger population is to be increased sustainably.

Early in the morning, we found the young male Indra and his sister Ziyanda in the main enclosure. Tiger Canyon Game Reserve comprises 6 100ha of prime Karoo landscape divided into separate territories for the wild tigers and cheetahs to thrive in and survive. The main enclosures are at least 1 000 hectares and stocked with herbivores ranging from zebra, and wildebeest to impala, springbok, blesbok and warthog.

Oria, an adult female tigress backlit in a rocky outcrop. She was on her own and appeared to be deliberately separating herself from her adolescent youngsters.

Oria walking across a rock outcrop in the early morning. She was watching her two youngsters lying in the long grass about a hundred metres away.

Oria, a full grown tigress. She was in her prime and looked to be in superb condition and thriving in the grasslands and rock outcrops of the Karoo.

Indra, a young male tiger watching his sister walking towards him through the long grass. The light changes dramatically in the Karoo depending on the time of day offering many photographic opportunities. Tigers generally gain independence at around two years of age and attain sexual maturity at age three or four for females and four or five years for males.

Kumba is a full grown male tiger. When he was not patrolling the fence line protecting his territory from the males in the adjacent enclosure he was patrolling his enclosure. I was struck by how big he was the first time I saw him.

Adolescent male Indra, drinking from Shellduck dam in the late afternoon. He was watching his sister approaching.

Adolescent cubs, Ziyanda and Indra, drinking from Shellduck dam in the late afternoon.

Tigers love water and are inquisitive so any movement in the water attracted Indra’s attention.

After drinking at Shellduck dam, Indra walked off to climb on a small rock outcrop to gain a vantage point from which to lookout over the grassland and keep an eye on us.

It is surprising how well camouflaged the tigers were in the Karoo’s long grass. This young male tiger was hiding in the “middelmannetjie”, the grass ridge in the middle of the vehicle track. He was waiting to ambush his approaching sister.

A young male tiger looking south east across one of the large enclosures in the late afternoon. These tigers roam entirely wild in these large enclosures, hunting, mating and fighting.

The elderly tigress, TiBo, lying on an outcrop of large rocks early in the morning. TiBo was in her own enclosure for her own protection.

TiBo could watch all the activity outside her enclosure from a high outlook point. White tigers carry a regressive gene which yield a white pelage and fawn to pale blue eyes.

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is most recognised for its dark stripes against an orange background. Less well known are three other pelage color variants: white, golden and stripeless snow white. The white tiger is a polymorphism that was first seen among wild Bengal tigers (P. t. tigris) in India, with white fur and sepia brown stripes. The golden tiger, also first sighted in the jungle in India, has a blonde color tone with pale golden fur and red-brown rather than black stripes. The snow white tiger is almost completely white, with faint to nearly nonexistent narrow stripes on the trunk and diluted sepia brown rings on the tail. (Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/cr201732)

Lions and tigers are two different species. They look different, they have different lifestyles, they vocalize differently, and they generally live on different continents. Yet when they are brought together artificially, they can interbreed. Such hybrids are called tigons and ligers. The offspring of a male lion and a female tiger is called a liger. The offspring of a male tiger and a female lion is a tigon. Tigons and ligers generally are sterile and short-lived — an evolutionary dead end. 

“At first encounter, the Karoo may seem arid, desolate and unforgiving. But to those who know it, it is a land of secret beauty and infinite variety” ~ Eve Palmer

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike