Ikoro Natural History

Ruwenzori Side-striped Chameleon (Male left and Female below)

On a lighter note, I thought I'll introduce you to some of the wildife we've been spotted out at the Ikoro site and their environment. As we work and walk around the site there's always something new about to catch your attention. Keeping a record of the animals (no Big Five - Sorry!) and plants is quite important as we want to retain them. Large parts of the site will remain "wild" where clients can see all these things for themselves.

Above, the couple of Chameleons who usually stick to the hedges we've planted. The hedges are Euphorbia family and these are known as "Finger" Euphorbia due to the thin stick like qualities.

The camera shy Spotted Eagle Owl I put a pic of on the blog the other day, is also one of a pair (did I mention that?) but you can imagine how hard it is to get a picture of both together when one on its own will hardly stick around.

In general there are quite a few bird species around with many of them nesting too. The one thing we really want to record is the variety of butterflies with some interesting species I haven't seen before and the Wildlife authorities are quite keen to get records. Its not the easiest thing to get pics of butterflies though but we're working on it.

The plant variety is also quite diverse considering that they're growing between 20,000 Eucalyptus trees! I've already got a massive amount of pics and someone has already spotted a little orchid - luckily far away from where anything on the site will be happening. We're talking to one of the guys doing the EIA about helping us do a plant survey in some of the areas as we start the setting out process.

Every now and then I'll dedicate a blog to the latest new and interesting finds we've made at the site and add a pic or two.