Last week I went out to sample from four of my collared animals. One of them, Fury, had shown an unusual fix on the collar, which had subsequently stopped working. We started by tracking for that collar and going to the most recent fix. We did not find the collar anywhere, despite searching the ground and tracking almost constantly. We sampled from recent fixes, and ended up spending the night there, going to sleep after hearing elephants trumpeting and fighting not too far away.
The next day, we went across to the Stanley's area to sample from Pandora. We were able to get a count of almost 200 animals as they were relaxed and in open mopane with good visibility. There were several very small calves in the herd. We camped out that night as well, after being pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of areas despite significant rain. The next morning, we headed out and I caught a glimpse of the tail of a lion as it ran across the road. It turned out to be a mother and two youngsters, but they were skittish so we were unable to get photos or get close to them. We continued and found two hyaena as well.
We drove around to the area used by Jezebel, close to the Kazikini hunting camp, and picked up a signal almost straight away. The herd bolted soon after I got to them, and kept walking through dense vegetation, so I decided to cut my losses and continue grass sampling instead. We sampled several vegetation points and headed back to the road through fairly heavy rain. The next day we went up to Mababe to sample the last few points from Valkyrie, which all went smoothly. We passed several termite mounds covered in lovely butterflies.
I will try to fly this week to see if the VHF is working on either Fury or Medusa, the two collars that have stopped sending fixes, then try and find the funds to remove these defective collars.
The next day, we went across to the Stanley's area to sample from Pandora. We were able to get a count of almost 200 animals as they were relaxed and in open mopane with good visibility. There were several very small calves in the herd. We camped out that night as well, after being pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of areas despite significant rain. The next morning, we headed out and I caught a glimpse of the tail of a lion as it ran across the road. It turned out to be a mother and two youngsters, but they were skittish so we were unable to get photos or get close to them. We continued and found two hyaena as well.
We drove around to the area used by Jezebel, close to the Kazikini hunting camp, and picked up a signal almost straight away. The herd bolted soon after I got to them, and kept walking through dense vegetation, so I decided to cut my losses and continue grass sampling instead. We sampled several vegetation points and headed back to the road through fairly heavy rain. The next day we went up to Mababe to sample the last few points from Valkyrie, which all went smoothly. We passed several termite mounds covered in lovely butterflies.
I will try to fly this week to see if the VHF is working on either Fury or Medusa, the two collars that have stopped sending fixes, then try and find the funds to remove these defective collars.
Hi Em,
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog - amazing stuff! I will have to read a lot in the next days.
Cheers,
Grrr