Often one gets a little blasé about the wildlife close to where you live as you get to see it so regularly, but once one sits down and works out when last you have seen certain things, you can actually be quite surprised by just how long ago it was...

To this end, we have set ourselves a little challenge to try and catch up with as many of the birds, mammals, reptiles and frogs within a reasonable distance from where we live, so that we can reacquaint ourselves with all of them again. We started using a radius of about 250km from where we live, but have subsequently increased the area to include the whole Western Cape province, the province in which we live. It was quite surprising when we sat down to work out the list of possible species just how many species are available (including introduced species and vagrants) in this area. The table below will show our progress on how many species we have seen and photographed within the province and the percentage of the overall total that we have achieved. If you click on one of the group names linked in red below (Birds, Mammals, Reptiles or Frogs), that will link you through to the group page which will show our progress within that group out of the full list of species available in the province.