Africa Wild

I'm not so sure if EVERYONE on these apps is a youngster....but Kruger is becoming a bit of a mismanaged zoo in many other more important respects....but there are other threads for that discussion!

(I sound like a mod! )

Perhaps more study of this increasing phenomenon is required!?

Richprins wrote:Perhaps more study of this increasing phenomenon is required!?

Agreed, I encourage all to follow updates and then visit the south

I once had an amazing sighting of a an Armoured Ground Cricket ruined by the idiot that sped past me, because there was a percieved Lion up ahead, and killed it. It's at times like these that I don't agree with what the information highway is working. Why is a Lion worth more than an interesting insect to these people? I reiterate, it's not the information that's the problem, it's some of the people that use it that are the problem. They need educating.

Going way back to the reporting of misbehavior at sightings ... perhaps I was lucky that action was taken My point is that to just say something along the lines of 'Well nothing will ever happen so why bother' is a poor attitude and clearly not true. At least try to improve the situation rather than just being sour

And to answer your question Bushcraft, ja I did report my special sightings on that trip Mostly, the leopards were gone after some minutes so people would not find it easily. But that is not a problem for the updates user who primarily is just interested and wants information. my leopard in the tree update might well have added to the traffic on that road on that day, and that is fine in my opinion. I want to share the information so that others can come join the great sighting if they wish Is there something wrong with that? to be tipped off where to find a sighting does not make it a zoo. It might, or might not be there.

Let me ask this ...
someone stops on the side of the road and waves you down. They ask you what you have seen, and in return tell you about the special sighting they saw on whichever road. Do you prefer to follow the sightings tip from this individual over a BBM group member? Those that are lion chasers, will be lion chasers. With, or without updates on their phones. I can long recall the phenomenon of cars speeding around looking for traffic jams.


Flutterby and Lowveldboy to name a couple are members of my BBM group. I am very fond of the people in my BBM network :D I am the youngest in my group. The rest are adults. Just as most Krugerholics are adults, the demographic holds true for the updates members too

That still does not give the idiot speeding to the Lion sighting the right to kill other animals on his way there Cheetakie.

cheetah wrote:Going way back to the reporting of misbehavior at sightings ... perhaps I was lucky that action was taken My point is that to just say something along the lines of 'Well nothing will ever happen so why bother' is a poor attitude and clearly not true. At least try to improve the situation rather than just being sour

Cheetah, isn't it a bit naive to think that SanParks have situations of bad behavior by members of the public under control particularly when it comes to educating or punishing offenders. I urge you to read threads from hundreds if not thousands of visitors to Kruger, both on this forum and the SPF where people complain that reporting incidents, things that need fixing etc fall on deaf ears.
As I have said in previous posts, on the subject of the BBM sites, it is not the site that is at fault, after all they are merely reporting sightings - nothing wrong with that, it is what these reports create. I don't think even the most avid 'lion chaser' goes to a wilderness like Kruger and then finds traffic jams at a reported sighting, along with the normal misbehavior, an uplifting experience. How about the many people who are out there to enjoy the park and its creatures, minding their own business and suddenly are overtaken by speeding vehicles, only to come around a corner to be faced with 50 or 60 vehicles jamming up the road, and the people behaving like idiots. This may happen 4 or 5 times in a day in the south with the advent of the BBM sites. Then it takes them half an hour or more to extricate themselves from the chaos and continue on their way. Ask them if it is still fun to go to the park.
There is no doubt that the broadcasting of a sighting to thousands of people via electronic means has created traffic jams of unprecedented proportions. The first few cars that arrive are probably well behaved because they have a prime spot, but the other 50 cars that arrive in quick succession start climbing out of windows, getting out of cars, jockeying for better positions, disregarding all rules on behavior at a sighting because they are trying to get a glimpse of something that may or may not still be there.
Yes we had traffic jams at sightings in the past, but then 10 cars was considered to be a traffic jam, since the advent of these sites it is common to have 50 or more cars crowding the spot, but worst is the uncontrolled mad dash to get there. Speed limits are ignored, killing of wild creatures (as in Dewi's case) is the result. If people want to rush from sighting to sighting to satisfy their need to tick off the list, that's their prerogative, but don't turn the park into a three ringed circus by breaking laws, killing creatures and exhibiting the typical South African attitude of rules are for the other guy, not for me.
In my opinion, the BBM sites, for want of a better word, are exacerbating an already serious problem within the park that SanParks management have yet to find a solution to.

cheetah wrote:'Well nothing will ever happen so why bother' is a poor attitude and clearly not true. At least try to improve the situation rather than just being sour

Hundreds, so are you using technology to report this behaviour thereby improving the situation, if not, why not?

cheetah wrote:I want to share the information so that others can come join the great sighting if they wish Is there something wrong with that?

Hundreds again if all behave on their way to the sighting and once at the sighting, but one has to be naive if one believes that certain people don’t rush to the sighting

cheetah wrote:Let me ask this ...
someone stops on the side of the road and waves you down. They ask you what you have seen, and in return tell you about the special sighting they saw on whichever road. Do you prefer to follow the sightings tip from this individual over a BBM group member? Those that are lion chasers, will be lion chasers. With, or without updates on their phones. I can long recall the phenomenon of cars speeding around looking for traffic jams.

Agreed, but again it's naive to believe that the numbers rushing to these sightings hasn’t increased

. 13 cars in the North for a Roan ... the North become a zoo as well
happily it was for a Roan, people will learn another than the big five

why not attach animals and birds too.... like that no more speeding and update in direct... we can follow the arrows

I wonder why I ever have anything to say here just to be called typically naive.

You assume I have not heard the complaints of the people who have complained to no avail? Well my point remains ... if you do not try, you cannot say you are part of the solution.

And I am not as convinced as you two that the amount of speeding and misbehavior at sightings is due to the BBM/Whatsapp/twitter/iphone app sightings updates. But of coarse if I do not agree, I am simply naive.