It all started off as an innocent idea to see which of the WEpresenters could spot the most mammals in a single 3 hour afternoon drive … now it is a no holds barred fight to the death. :) WElcome to the WildEarth Ranger Race.
Well after the first two drives, Pieter and Marc, WE have a dead heat. Both Marc and Pieter have 18 mammals. Although there was some debate about Marc’s dead Nyala and a UFM (Unidentified Flying Mammal) … a bat that was not ID’ed to the species. Anyway, it has become necessary to ‘evolve’ our rules a little … so here WE go:

  1. The highest number of positively identified living mammal species wins.
  2. Each ranger gets one afternoon safari of 3 hours. (If the safari starts late, time is to be added on at the end to make it exactly 3 hours.)
  3. A mammal only counts if it is positively identified by a viewer who mails the species (not latin name) identification to (e.g. Grey Duiker not just Duiker.)
  4. If the ranger verbally identifies the mammal before a viewer then that sighting (not mammal) is disqualified from the race.
  5. All mammals must be alive at the time of viewing.
  6. The director may ‘cut in’ mammals from other cams like the Gowrie waterhole and the dog den cam, and these mammals will count if correctly identified by a viewer.
  7. … otherwise it’s the Queensbury rules with no holds barred!!
Here are Pieter’s official mammals for his race:
1. Human
2. Steenbok
3. Leopard
4. Dwarf Mongoose
5. Hippo
6. Tree Squirrel
7. Wild Dog
8. Impala
9. Waterbuck
10. Zebra
11. Elephant
12. Giraffe
13. Nyala
14. Vervet Monkey
15. Grey Duiker
16. Greater Kudu
17. Scrub Hare
18. Lesser Bushbaby


… and Marc’s:

1. Zebra
2. Elephant
3. Leopard
4. Dwarf Mongoose.
5. Giraffe 
6.Spotted Hyena 
7. Human 
8. Hippo 
9. Vervet Monkey 
10. Tree Squirrel 
11. Steenbok 
12.Cape Buffalo 
13. Grey Duiker
14. Greater Kudu 
15. Impala  
16. Wild Dog  
17. Scrub Hare  
18:African wildcat

Good luck Rex (this afternoon) and Patrick (tomorrow afternoon)