Valkyrie, one of my collared buffalo, decided a couple of weeks ago to migrate, which turned out to be a little early. She spent a few days in the wet season home range, then returned to the Gomoti. A couple of days later, after a storm, she left again, this time taking a much longer, more circuitous route before eventually returning to the Gomoti, not far from HQ. I wanted to sample the entire route that she had taken, to see where she had decided to stop as well as the areas that she walked through. Roz and I started this endeavour on the 6th November, following the first back and forth mission. However, we were unable to complete it because my vehicle was giving me problems, refusing to idle and consuming a lot of fuel. I decided to take it to Maun, where I hoped (in vain as it turns out!) that it would be fixed quickly. While we were in Maun, I was monitoring the movements of the buffalo, and saw that Valkyrie had set out on her second mission.
We eventually got the vehicle back on the 20th November, with a new carb, new manifold, a refurbished cylinder head and a variety of other repairs, and headed straight out to finish sampling. We spent the next four days retracing Valkyrie's route, coming out of it with close to a hundred sample sites and a decent level of exhaustion.
We were sampling along the main Moremi road when we bumped into Goose, one of the collared leopards. We followed him for a little while, as it was the first time that Roz saw a wild leopard, and she was very excited. He was checking around, but seemed more interested in marking than hunting, but when we saw him suddenly stop and look interested, we approached cautiously to see what he was checking out, and saw a herd of about 50 buffalo in front of him. He lay down and watched them, and they eventually just moved past him without worrying him at all. It was an interesting interaction, but we then left him and continued with sampling.
I have just checked the website for the latest fixes from my collars, and I see that while we were sampling, Valkyrie has gone again, this time taking Jezebel with her! I believe that I have managed to collar the most indecisive buffalo in the Delta, although it is very interesting. She (and her herd) responds almost immediately to rainfall, whereas all the other buffalo that I have collared have waited for several weeks after the first rains. I am now hoping that the rains come, so that she stays that side and I will go to sample from her latest meanderings.
We eventually got the vehicle back on the 20th November, with a new carb, new manifold, a refurbished cylinder head and a variety of other repairs, and headed straight out to finish sampling. We spent the next four days retracing Valkyrie's route, coming out of it with close to a hundred sample sites and a decent level of exhaustion.
We were sampling along the main Moremi road when we bumped into Goose, one of the collared leopards. We followed him for a little while, as it was the first time that Roz saw a wild leopard, and she was very excited. He was checking around, but seemed more interested in marking than hunting, but when we saw him suddenly stop and look interested, we approached cautiously to see what he was checking out, and saw a herd of about 50 buffalo in front of him. He lay down and watched them, and they eventually just moved past him without worrying him at all. It was an interesting interaction, but we then left him and continued with sampling.
I have just checked the website for the latest fixes from my collars, and I see that while we were sampling, Valkyrie has gone again, this time taking Jezebel with her! I believe that I have managed to collar the most indecisive buffalo in the Delta, although it is very interesting. She (and her herd) responds almost immediately to rainfall, whereas all the other buffalo that I have collared have waited for several weeks after the first rains. I am now hoping that the rains come, so that she stays that side and I will go to sample from her latest meanderings.
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