Our favourite live feeds and links to keep life WILD during lockdown

Looking for ways to keep it wild during lock-down? Don’t let the lockdown lockout nature – let’s use this an opportunity to shift our mindset to one where nature, not people, become the centre of our universe. From joining a live safari, monitoring a waterhole webcam in South Africa’s Kruger National Park to tuning into some educational talks about wildlife, we’ve got you covered!

Here are our 10 favourite channels and links that can help you stay connected to the wilderness while you are at home:

1. Wild Earth’s SafariLIVE

Twice daily LIVE and INTERACTIVE game drives

WildEarth’s safariLIVE is an award winning, expert hosted LIVE safari, broadcast directly from the African wilderness into your home. They operate twice daily safaris – sunrise and sunset – from Djuma in the Sabi Sand and more recently, from &Beyond Ngala in the Timbavati. Both Grant and I have guided (and still do, from time to time) for SafariLIVE – they have an awesome set up, cool gear, talented team and are fascinating to follow! As you watch, you can ask questions live via their Youtube chat or on Twitter, which get relayed to the guide, then and there. The first hour of every sunset drive is an educational drive dedicated to kids, so get your kids involved too!

SUNRISE SAFARI

Monday to Sunday

Central African Time (CAT): 06:00am – 09:00am

East African Time (EAT): 07:00am – 10:00am

Eastern Standard Time (EDT): 00:00pm – 03:00am

SUNSET SAFARI

Monday to Sunday

Central African Time (CAT): 15:30pm – 18:30pm

East African Time (EAT): 16:30pm – 19:30pm

Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT): 09:30am – 12:30pm

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2. South African National Park’s Live WebCams

Waterhole webcam live streams, 24/7

Head over to the SanPark’s website where they have 3 live feeds, 24hrs a day. Two of the cameras are set up overlooking water holes in the Kruger National Park and the third is in Addo Elephant Park. An awesome opportunity to watch animals interacting with one another and to learn more about the daily movement of different species.

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3. Endangered Wildlife Trust’s nature conservation webinars

Wild Chat Talks, Weekdays 11am CAT

We are excited to share that the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is launching a new series of “wild chats”, aimed at offering entertainment and education during these difficult times, and allowing you to discover the outdoors, indoors. Each week, different EWT experts will take you behind the scenes of their work, giving you a sneak peak into the exciting, wild world of conservation. Each chat will be approximately 20 minutes long, with time afterwards for questions and answers. Many of the talks will be appropriate for the junior conservationists among us too! EWT will share a Zoom link for each Wild Chat the day before, so make sure you keep an eye on their social platforms, and be sure to join early, as space is limited to 100 participants per chat.

EWT's Upcoming Wild Chats

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4. Planet Care for Wild

New video’s every Thursday

Welcome to Planet Care for Wild! This amazing team is inviting you to join them as they travel behind the scenes and bring you never before seen footage of the daily care and running of the world’s largest rhino sanctuary.

In their first video, they weigh the nursery babies and health check some of the free roaming rhinos.

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5. Tanda Tula’s Sofa Safari’s

While most of the world is self isolating Tanda Tula, a safari lodge based in the Timbavati, Greater Kruger National Park, brings you a virtual safari which you can enjoy from the comfort of your sofa!

Better still – Tanda Tula have pledged a donation to Hlokomela of R1 for every new subscriber on our Youtube channel since the launch of their Sofa Safaris and until they reach a target of 10,000 subscribers. Hlokomela is a local NGO committed to community, who have not only been involved with providing nutritional support to local communities with a food parcel program, but they have been working to help train and implement sanitizing measures on public transport for the essential workers on farms. So subscribe to Tanda Tula’s Sofa Safari’s today, and let you subscription also make a difference to local communities!

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6. Singita’s Virtual Game Drives

This week, Singita launched their Virtual Game Drives – live wildlife sightings broadcast on Instagram by their Resident Photographer, and good friend of ours, Ross Couper. In just a couple of videos from Singita Sabi Sand in South Africa, we’ve seen a leopard and her cubs, rhinos and buffalos sharing a waterhole, a bull elephant paddling in the Sand River, a pod of hippos, a herd of zebra and, just this morning, a pack of endangered wild dogs finishing off a kill.⁠

Singita also post daily Instagram Stories from the wilderness in an effort to transport you to Africa through your phone and immerse you in the incredible landscapes under their care. We hope that they bring you a few moments of joyful distraction.!

Tune in to Singita’s Virtual Game Drives on Instagram Live (which are available for 24 hours after the Live stream) or access their “This Week” highlight to see the other wildlife Stories they have posted.

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7. Mala Mala Rangers in Isolation

Join the MalaMala rangers and skeleton staff, who have chosen remain at MalaMala to take care of the reserve during this national lock down due to Covid-19. This is a rare glimpse into one of the oldest luxury photographic safari destinations in the world. Follow them as we bring you day to day life and sightings from arguably the best “Big 5” and predator viewing destination on the planet and get to know the leopards and lions as well as we do.

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8. Lewa Wilderness Live Safaris

Join Lewa Wilderness for twice daily live safaris! Based in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, you can join them on a morning or afternoon game drive – for a virtual Lewa Wilderness experience! Bringing the Lewa landscape and wildlife to you wherever you are in the world. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/lewawilderness/?utm_source=ig_embed

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9. Painted Dog.TV

Wildlife documentaries, game drives and Live stream BushCams

A fun combination of safari drives, wildlife interviews and nature documentaries, hosted by Brent and Wium. Follow the stories and lives of African wildlife including a cheetah and her cubs, a pride of lions and the Melita pack of wild dogs (this is the pack at Wild Wonderful World sponsored the GPS tracking collar for).

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10. Wild Wonderful World!

Grant and I continue to share our daily nature discoveries and short stories on our Wild Wonderful World social media (Facebook and Instagram), and in case you missed it, be sure to check our YouTube channel too for our latest videos! We recently discovered loads of never before seen footage from our last expedition, so if are in need of some adventure inspiration, stay tuned as we upload new videos weekly!

For those of you who have itchy feet to get back to Africa, you may not be able to travel now, but we can certainly start planning! There has never been a more important time to support game reserves and wilderness areas across Africa, so email us on info@wildwonderfulworld.com and let us help you travel to Africa with purpose.