Last week I flew to check on the two collars that have not been working. We picked up a signal from Medusa, double beeping, about 3/4 of the way up Chief's Island. The signal was coming from a similar location to the last fix that I got from the collar, and we did not manage to see any animals, but there was only one working antenna, so getting a precise fix for the signal was difficult. That collar sent one more fix through a few days later from a different location, so it is definitely still on a buffalo. Fury, who has the other collar, has been on the other side of the Gomoti for the wet season to date, but we flew the area fairly extensively and failed to pick up any signal. That collar also managed to send a fix through a few days later, but nothing since.
On Thursday, Roz and I set out for some baseline sampling to the east of HQ. A few hundred metres along the main Moremi road, we bumped into the Matthew's pack of wild dogs, 13 individuals lying all over the road. We stopped for a little while, but they showed no sign of moving, so we drove through them slowly, causing a couple of them to actually move out of the way of the vehicle! A kilometre further down the road, we found Goose, a collared leopard, walking along and scent marking, in his usual relaxed way. We took a few pictures and kept on going, until we found a large herd of buffalo close to Pecan Pan. In typical buffalo fashion, they allowed us to get into the perfect position to view several of them walking past, then all decided to run in the opposite direction. We tried to get a decent count, but had to give up eventually.
We managed to sample 7 out of 10 sites before the rain caught us. Roz spent the last few minutes on the 8th site shouting numbers representing biomass so that I could hear them above the sound of the rain. We raced on to the next site, but the storm caught up to us. I foolishly decided that I was already slightly wet, so continuing the sampling would be fine. I was quickly drenched, and the cardboard disc that is a highly scientific tool for measuring sward roughness turned into a cardboard flop. I managed to finish the site while Roz stayed relatively dry inside the car, recording the numbers that I shouted onto a mostly dry sheet of paper. We drove on to the final site and tried to wait for the rain to stop. At one point it eased, and we got out to sample very quickly, but I realised that I could hear chewing sounds that could only be coming from an elephant, which popped out of the bushes 50m away after a few seconds. So we let him move off, by which time the rain had started again. I just wanted to get it over with by then, and it was already 17.30, so I donned Roz' waterproof (which she had neglected to mention until then!) and did the sampling as quickly as possible. By the time I was done, the rain had eased slightly, so we put on some dry clothes and headed for home. Mission accomplished!
On Thursday, Roz and I set out for some baseline sampling to the east of HQ. A few hundred metres along the main Moremi road, we bumped into the Matthew's pack of wild dogs, 13 individuals lying all over the road. We stopped for a little while, but they showed no sign of moving, so we drove through them slowly, causing a couple of them to actually move out of the way of the vehicle! A kilometre further down the road, we found Goose, a collared leopard, walking along and scent marking, in his usual relaxed way. We took a few pictures and kept on going, until we found a large herd of buffalo close to Pecan Pan. In typical buffalo fashion, they allowed us to get into the perfect position to view several of them walking past, then all decided to run in the opposite direction. We tried to get a decent count, but had to give up eventually.
We managed to sample 7 out of 10 sites before the rain caught us. Roz spent the last few minutes on the 8th site shouting numbers representing biomass so that I could hear them above the sound of the rain. We raced on to the next site, but the storm caught up to us. I foolishly decided that I was already slightly wet, so continuing the sampling would be fine. I was quickly drenched, and the cardboard disc that is a highly scientific tool for measuring sward roughness turned into a cardboard flop. I managed to finish the site while Roz stayed relatively dry inside the car, recording the numbers that I shouted onto a mostly dry sheet of paper. We drove on to the final site and tried to wait for the rain to stop. At one point it eased, and we got out to sample very quickly, but I realised that I could hear chewing sounds that could only be coming from an elephant, which popped out of the bushes 50m away after a few seconds. So we let him move off, by which time the rain had started again. I just wanted to get it over with by then, and it was already 17.30, so I donned Roz' waterproof (which she had neglected to mention until then!) and did the sampling as quickly as possible. By the time I was done, the rain had eased slightly, so we put on some dry clothes and headed for home. Mission accomplished!
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