Wildlife Encounters: Puff Adders, Emperor Moths and More at Walker Bay

Reserve Manager, Mike, enlisted the help of 2 of the Foundation's newest  volunteers earlier this week as he worked on the reserve to check motion sensor cameras. They were treated to this experience with a puff adder under the safe supervision and control of Mike. What an impressive sighting which goes a long way towards changing fear into wonderment! Each creature plays a role in a healthy ecosystem, even puff adders.

Volunteer Lara found this incredible pine emperor caterpillar. It is hard to believe it will get any bigger before coming out as a big Emperor moth, the biggest moth in our area.

Who's been in the cave? We hold our collective breath to see what a camera trap might reveal when prints like this occur close to camera trap sites. It takes time to work through all the digital photographs on the SD card when retrieving footage after a few weeks of motion sensor photography but we remain hopeful of capturing footage of the resident wildlife in the Walker Bay Region. Our fingers are crossed that the cameras snapped photos of a Cape leopard...

This beautiful masked vlei spider is a completely harmless spider that loves wetlands and makes webs above water to catch unsuspecting mayflies and other water-loving insects.