Last week, Roz and I went out to sample from three collared animals. I was considering going for the one up on Chief's Island, but after reviewing her movements for the previous two weeks, I did not think that I would get enough samples to justify the trip.
We went across to Daunara gate first, to sample from Pandora. I went that way a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed by how much higher the water level was this time. The area was fairly dry, and it did not seem like there had been much rain recently. However, one of the roads that I had hoped to take was completely flooded, with water flowing through mopane shrubs, which was rather surprising. Unfortunately Pandora herself was across this flooded area, and by the time we had negotiated it she had begun walking in what appeared to be a determined manner. Therefore we turned around and headed back out, stopping for the night close to the fence. There were two big elephant bulls in the grassland next to our campsite, but they seemed relaxed and did not bother us. In the middle of the night I was woken up by something rummaging in our vehicle. I sprang out of bed and shouted at what I can only assume was a hyaena, since I only heard the creature running away and did not get a visual.
The next day we left the campsite and found the whole world shrouded in mist, which is unusual and made for some quite surreal scenery. We drove across to the Kazikini area to sample from Jezebel. We were driving through some open mopane when Roz said she could see elephants, at the exact time that the one she hadn't seen trumpeted from 50 m to our right, as it was running towards us. Luckily it changed its mind and settled for a head shake then relaxed completely, so that we ended up sampling two points that were close together whilst watching the elephants for adverse reactions to the noise generated by our sampling techniques. We found Jezebel resting on the edge of dense mopane, and tried to get a good visual, but of course the herd kept running away into thicker vegetation. After chasing them for a suitable amount of time, I moved on to the next point, only to drive into another group. This happened several times, so the herd must have been huge, but just spread out into little pockets. At that point I was dreaming of a small personal helicopter that would allow me to fly over the herd and count them properly. One day....
We camped in some beautiful open mopane, going to sleep to the sound of hyaena calling and elephants shouting, but no one disturbed us. We drove up to Mababe and got the last few samples from Valkyrie. The vegetation up there is too dense to see anything unless it is at a pan, so we did not find her. As we were heading out, we did disturb a rather large breeding herd of elephants that were bathing in a pan. They ran off along the road, which was not particularly useful, since they then slowed and just milled all over the road. After about half an hour of waiting for them to move off, I decided to take a chance and try to drive through. We made it into the middle of the herd, then saw 4 animals walking down the road in front of us. The vegetation was elephant height, so I slowly eased myself out of the car to try and see where we were in the herd. I saw grey backs pretty much all around us, but there was nothing for it but to keep following the ones on the herd and hope that they were in a good mood. It all turned out fine and they left the road, allowing us to pass through with only one trumpet.
We are off to Maun tomorrow to extend Roz' visa and for me to organise my next fundraiser, which is to be a human foosball tournament (obviously!), taking place on the 6th March.
We went across to Daunara gate first, to sample from Pandora. I went that way a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed by how much higher the water level was this time. The area was fairly dry, and it did not seem like there had been much rain recently. However, one of the roads that I had hoped to take was completely flooded, with water flowing through mopane shrubs, which was rather surprising. Unfortunately Pandora herself was across this flooded area, and by the time we had negotiated it she had begun walking in what appeared to be a determined manner. Therefore we turned around and headed back out, stopping for the night close to the fence. There were two big elephant bulls in the grassland next to our campsite, but they seemed relaxed and did not bother us. In the middle of the night I was woken up by something rummaging in our vehicle. I sprang out of bed and shouted at what I can only assume was a hyaena, since I only heard the creature running away and did not get a visual.
The next day we left the campsite and found the whole world shrouded in mist, which is unusual and made for some quite surreal scenery. We drove across to the Kazikini area to sample from Jezebel. We were driving through some open mopane when Roz said she could see elephants, at the exact time that the one she hadn't seen trumpeted from 50 m to our right, as it was running towards us. Luckily it changed its mind and settled for a head shake then relaxed completely, so that we ended up sampling two points that were close together whilst watching the elephants for adverse reactions to the noise generated by our sampling techniques. We found Jezebel resting on the edge of dense mopane, and tried to get a good visual, but of course the herd kept running away into thicker vegetation. After chasing them for a suitable amount of time, I moved on to the next point, only to drive into another group. This happened several times, so the herd must have been huge, but just spread out into little pockets. At that point I was dreaming of a small personal helicopter that would allow me to fly over the herd and count them properly. One day....
We camped in some beautiful open mopane, going to sleep to the sound of hyaena calling and elephants shouting, but no one disturbed us. We drove up to Mababe and got the last few samples from Valkyrie. The vegetation up there is too dense to see anything unless it is at a pan, so we did not find her. As we were heading out, we did disturb a rather large breeding herd of elephants that were bathing in a pan. They ran off along the road, which was not particularly useful, since they then slowed and just milled all over the road. After about half an hour of waiting for them to move off, I decided to take a chance and try to drive through. We made it into the middle of the herd, then saw 4 animals walking down the road in front of us. The vegetation was elephant height, so I slowly eased myself out of the car to try and see where we were in the herd. I saw grey backs pretty much all around us, but there was nothing for it but to keep following the ones on the herd and hope that they were in a good mood. It all turned out fine and they left the road, allowing us to pass through with only one trumpet.
We are off to Maun tomorrow to extend Roz' visa and for me to organise my next fundraiser, which is to be a human foosball tournament (obviously!), taking place on the 6th March.
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