On Sunday the 8th of January, the rangers saw flames coming over the mountains and everyone prepared to fight the flames. Sadly, by Monday it had burnt almost half the reserve and, while the fire appeared to be under control, changing winds fanned the flames. Once again, the fire ran through the veld with incredible speed and was only brought under control by Tuesday the 10th of January. By then, another quarter of the reserve had been burnt down.
On Wednesday, with the fire now under control, the focus shifted to saving the geometric tortoises. This area has one of the largest populations of geometric tortoises, listed as one of the top 25 most endangered tortoises and turtles in the world.
After a fire, geometric tortoises are very vulnerable to skin infections, dehydration and starvation, as well as predation. These extremely rare tortoises need all the help they can get at a time like this.
Early on Saturday morning, 14 January a number of volunteers were briefed at Bartholomeus Klip Farmhouse. The plan was to walk through the veld and find as many tortoises as possible. By Monday morning, they were able to confirm that over 120 tortoises had been found. Rangers are still picking up tortoises as they come across them.
Half of the tortoises will now be placed in a suitable habitat, while the others will be held back until the veld has recovered sufficiently for them to be released back into their environment.
More about the geometric tortoise
The geometric tortoise occurs only in the low-lying renosterveld shrublands of the Swartland,
Follow this link to download a document from Cape Nature on the geometric tortoise
You can also refer to Wikipedia for more information on the geometric tortoise
Other items of interest – Bid to Rescue Tortoises caught in fire – article in the Cape Argus
More about Bartholomeus Klip Farmhouse
A romantic Victorian farmstead on a large wheat and sheep farm, with its own 10 000 acre private nature reserve, Bartholomeus Klip Farmhouse is near to
Highlights of a stay at Bartholomeus Klip are the morning and evening game drives through the nature reserve. There are many animals to be seen in the low fynbos or on the grassy plains, but the most important inhabitant of the reserve is a far smaller creature: the endangered geometric tortoise, one of the world’s rarest reptiles, safe here in its last remaining viable habitat.
The reserve is teeming with herds of eland, springbuck, black wildebeest, zebra and bontebok. Many other animals, such as baboons, bat-eared foxes, lynxes, and smaller species of antelope, live here too, and it is known that leopards still occur in the mountains. A male leopard was recently spotted on the reserve.
Among the birdlife at Bartholomeus Klip is the world’s largest bird, the ostrich, once farmed here in large flocks at the height of the ostrich feather boom in the 1870s and today one of the leopard’s favourite foods. The magnificent black eagle (correctly known as Verreaux’s eagle) nests in the mountains, and the enormous dam near to the farmhouse has a spectacular array of water birds, some resident like the fish eagles and the kingfishers, and others such as the pelicans and the spoonbills less regular visitors.
Flamingos have also been seen in some of Bartholomeus Klip’s smaller dams and there are a host of interesting large and small birds out in the reserve and on the wheatlands, including large flocks of the blue crane, Day or overnight conference packages are based on small numbers and have been designed to give groups exclusive use of the facilities, allowing for tailor-made conferences, sales incentives, corporate getaways or product launches. Bartholomeus Klip can take up to 30 people for a day conference, or 16 overnight in shared accommodation. There is an air-conditioned conference room and an upstairs breakaway room, as well as an outside boma and all the normal conference aids such as whiteboards, flip charts and a digital projector. Food from the Bartholomeus Klip kitchen is an added plus, with the lavish brunches particularly popular with conference delegates.
Useful links
Bartholomeus Klip Farmhouse on conven.co.za
