Christmas in the bush

I have had another quiet week in terms of research, as it was Christmas. Jennifer went across and stayed at Dog Camp so that she could go out with the researchers there and see carnivores.

I did some office work and had a bit of a break. On Christmas Eve the HQ posse drove across to Dog Camp to sing Christmas carols. Unfortunately they were mostly asleep by the time we made it across, although we did see a civet on the way. We woke some of them up and spread Christmas cheer.

On Christmas day I chatted to my parents for a while and had a lovely brunch with Keren and Duncan. I then headed out to the Gomoti, where Dog Camp were having a braai. I spent a couple of hours with them by the river, before coming back to camp around sunset to help prepare a beautiful roast dinner. It was a lovely Christmas altogether, and I can only hope that those of you who celebrate it enjoyed it as much as I did.

Wet season sampling

I went out with Jennifer for 2 nights last week to collect samples from three of my collared buffalo. We went across to the eastern side of NG34 to find Chanel, who was in a small herd (fewer than 100) in relatively thick vegetation. We followed them for a little while and managed to get a bit of population dynamics data from the herd, as well as faecal samples. We then left them and collected vegetation samples from sites used by that and other herds. We camped the first night in some lovely tall open mopane woodland, a bit close to the main Sankuyo road, but far enough that we could only just hear the cars on it. I thought it was going to rain, but only a few drops fell, so we escaped unscathed.

The next morning we started sampling again. After the first sample we were sitting in the car working out which to do next when two duiker ran in front of us, completely ignoring my car, and headed straight for the main road, narrowly avoiding an oncoming truck. It was the best sighting of duiker that I have had here, although I see them so rarely that at first I was not sure what they were!

We went across into NG43 and continued to sample vegetation sites. We bumped into a buffalo herd on the road, which turned out to be Nokya's herd. That herd was fairly large, and again we had to follow them for a while until they stopped in a relatively open area so that I could count them.

NG43 is almost a magical concession, since most points used by the buffalo are close to a road, even though I have not mapped all of the roads yet. Some points that I decided to leave because the vegetation was too dense, I found roads running straight to not long after. Only twice did I have to drive around 1 km off the road to reach points.

I found two more buffalo herds, one without a collared animal in it, the other with both Lasanya and Vice in it. The last was a big herd, although of course the dense vegetation makes it very difficult to estimate herd size. Following them for a while and looking at the density of tracks and faeces helps with the process, but I cannot be anywhere near as sure as I was during the flooding seasons.

We finished on Saturday morning and since we were going back past the area in which Guy and I found Barros last week, I thought that we would have a look for him. We found him about 200m from the previous location, relaxing by himself.

Lion tracking

I have not had a very eventful week in terms of research. I have been making a gap between the seasons to make sure that the buffalo have been feeding for a while on the new growth before I sample from them. I am planning to go out this week. We have had a good deal of rain over the last few days, with 75 mls on Friday night. We did spot a lovely African wild cat that posed nicely for some photos.

Last week I went out with Guy as he was going to track lions in an area that I knew some of my collared buffalo were in and I wanted to see if I could pick up any of the non-satellite collars. I got signals for the 2 satellite collars in the area, as well as for Vice, which is one that I had not heard from in a while. I did not see Vice, but had a very strong signal when we saw a fairly big herd next to the road, very close to where we found Barros the lion with another male, a female and two 4-6 month old cubs, which was quite exciting. They were all looking rather fat, so I hope that they do not decide to pick on any collared buffalo!

Post-migration sampling

I came into camp on Wednesday with Jennifer (my new assistant) and we went out to do some fieldwork that afternoon, so her first night in the bush was spent fly-camping. We did hear lions, hyaena and jackal, but she reacted very well and managed to sleep fine. We stopped off on the way back from sampling to see Binti, one of the collared cheetahs who was just off the road we were taking. Jennifer has wanted to see a cheetah for a long time, so she was very happy! We later saw Krystal with her cubs feeding on a zebra carcass.

We were collecting samples from some of the migration points and then the post-migration points. We did some sampling near Kazakini hunting camp, then headed across into NG43, into the mopane and grasslands there. We saw lots of evidence that buffalo were around, with tracks and faeces everywhere. I got a signal from the satellite collared animal that I knew was there, but not from any of the others. We did not go to find her, as I am trying to leave a gap of a couple of weeks between the end of last season and the beginning of this season. I want to be sure that the buff have been in the wet season area for a couple of weeks before I record population dynamics data, as any changes between seasons will not happen overnight. We did see a herd, which was nice to show Jennifer, but I left them to wander off through the lovely dense vegetation that I had started to forget about during the past few months that I spent in floodplains.

Albino lechwe

Last week I said goodbye to Shavaughn, who was with me for six months. She got off fine, though she was quite sad to leave.

I borrowed a friend to come and help me collect data last weekend from the area used by two of my collared animals before they migrated. It was a good couple of days and we managed to get all the samples that I wanted. The area we were in was very easy to drive around, and although there were some nasty wet patches, these were clearly visible by the bright green grasses growing in them, so we managed to avoid them.

We had a couple of encounters with elephants, with a breeding herd at our first sample point that came to investigate us, but they were just curious and soon went on their way. A few lone bulls came past our tents both nights, but again showed no aggression. We had lions roaring and hyaenas calling both nights and saw several jackal pairs. We also saw the albino lechwe that I saw several months ago, which seems to be doing well.

I took my friend back to town and waited to pick up my new assistant, Jennifer, who arrived on Air Botswana yesterday. We are planning on going out this afternoon for a couple of nights to finish off the migration data collection, which is a bit of a sudden immersion for her, but I need to get to those sample sites as soon as possible.