PUTTING OUT SALT LICK AND MINERAL BLOCKS (WILDSBLOKKE)

14 AUGUST 2010:
SALT LICK AND MINERAL BLOCKS:

SATURDAY:

Today we put out salt licks and mineral blocks. The reason why we do this is, because its winter and these blocks have a lot of minerals inside them that the animals need to stay healthy. The mineral blocks get placed in dipping barrels. The dipping barrels work like this, you place the block inside and when the animal comes to eat, he scratches himself on the pole. This releases the dip while they scratch on the pole. The dip goes onto their skin, this helps get rid of the ticks and possible they might have.

We have a lot of game on Sondela, so the dip applicators help us to control the ticks and flees. We can unfortunately not dip the game. It would take really long i we had tried, the animals would stress out and we will not be able to catch each and every animal. The cattle also gets send into the bush, this also helps to get rid of the ticks. The ticks will climb onto the cattle, we will then dip the cattle. The are use to it and it is much easier.

Another reason for putting out the lick and mineral blocks are to attract the animals to specific areas. This makes them easier to spot while on game drives and it also brings them closer to the chalets. The people love it when the animals are so close to where they stay. It is a big attraction, the most common animals that are found near the chalets are the nyala's. hey are very tame animals and you can feed them with your hand.

When we put out the mineral blocks, we always take amipor with us. Amipor is the liquid that goes into the applicators, the ones that helps get rid of the ticks. So it is safe to say that it is a pesticide. We have to refill the applicators with more amipor if needed. The 2nd Years also have to Calculate the amount that was used each time we had to refill the applicators. The 2nd years had to draw up a budget that is why they needed these figures.

and that is that for the day....