Last week, my assistant and I went out to sample some more wet season sites used by buffalo. We sampled from two collared animals, Jezebel and Valkyrie. Jezebel has been close to the Kazikini hunting camp lately, and we were eventually able to get the herd of about 200 animals to relax sufficiently to get close to them, but they were in fairly dense vegetation and spooked suddenly, so my count was not as detailed as I would have liked, although I did get a good visual of the collared cow, looking nice and fat, possibly pregnant.
We sampled a few sites from Jezebel's herd, then moved on to find Valkyrie. Her collar had shown some irregularities, and the only fix that I had was from the previous day, when she was in the Mababe depression, an area that I had not visited. I tried to head towards the last fix that I had, but found my way consistently blocked by the Khwai river, and areas that had been flooded by it. After several attempts to find a way around, I had to resign myself to the fact that she was inaccessible. We headed back around to the area that the collared cow had been using in the few days before, NG41. We started sampling points, and after a couple I managed to pick up a double beeping signal, which we tracked and got very close to along a road. She was in very dense bush, and for 45 minutes we tried to get a visual without success, failing to spot even one animal, let alone the collared one. I was about to give up when I decided to follow the road for a bit, and luckily it opened out on a small pan. Next to it were Valkyrie and about 27 other buffalo, quite a small herd. They were fairly relaxed, and I was able to see that the collar looked in good condition, with no obvious damages. I checked the signal, and the VHF turned off on the hour (which happens when the collar takes a GPS fix) and then came back on with a single beep. I hoped that was the end of the problem and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, the collar has since taken one fix and then stopped altogether. I have been in touch with the company and will try to arrange a darting. This is the same pattern as happened with Harpy, when the VHF stopped as well, so I am hoping that this is not the case, as finding one collared animal in dense bush will be close to impossible!
Since then, I have been helping Dog Camp with dartings, as they did not have a closed vehicle from which to dart. In three days, they have managed to change the collars on two cheetah (Lia and Franky) and one lioness (Chloe), all of which went smoothly. Lia's was slightly unconventional, in that she started to wake up a bit too soon and the collars had not been swapped. The vet got another little dose for her, but in the meantime we had to physically restrain her so that she could not get up too soon, which would have rendered the entire darting pointless.
The other animals that they are looking for have collars that are not working, so they now have to hope to bump into them. I, on the other hand, have to tow my vehicle into town, as it has developed a worrying knocking sound in the engine. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon and I will once more be driving around in the buff-mobile!
We sampled a few sites from Jezebel's herd, then moved on to find Valkyrie. Her collar had shown some irregularities, and the only fix that I had was from the previous day, when she was in the Mababe depression, an area that I had not visited. I tried to head towards the last fix that I had, but found my way consistently blocked by the Khwai river, and areas that had been flooded by it. After several attempts to find a way around, I had to resign myself to the fact that she was inaccessible. We headed back around to the area that the collared cow had been using in the few days before, NG41. We started sampling points, and after a couple I managed to pick up a double beeping signal, which we tracked and got very close to along a road. She was in very dense bush, and for 45 minutes we tried to get a visual without success, failing to spot even one animal, let alone the collared one. I was about to give up when I decided to follow the road for a bit, and luckily it opened out on a small pan. Next to it were Valkyrie and about 27 other buffalo, quite a small herd. They were fairly relaxed, and I was able to see that the collar looked in good condition, with no obvious damages. I checked the signal, and the VHF turned off on the hour (which happens when the collar takes a GPS fix) and then came back on with a single beep. I hoped that was the end of the problem and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, the collar has since taken one fix and then stopped altogether. I have been in touch with the company and will try to arrange a darting. This is the same pattern as happened with Harpy, when the VHF stopped as well, so I am hoping that this is not the case, as finding one collared animal in dense bush will be close to impossible!
Since then, I have been helping Dog Camp with dartings, as they did not have a closed vehicle from which to dart. In three days, they have managed to change the collars on two cheetah (Lia and Franky) and one lioness (Chloe), all of which went smoothly. Lia's was slightly unconventional, in that she started to wake up a bit too soon and the collars had not been swapped. The vet got another little dose for her, but in the meantime we had to physically restrain her so that she could not get up too soon, which would have rendered the entire darting pointless.
The other animals that they are looking for have collars that are not working, so they now have to hope to bump into them. I, on the other hand, have to tow my vehicle into town, as it has developed a worrying knocking sound in the engine. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon and I will once more be driving around in the buff-mobile!
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